Here’s how to make your bed a hotel bed

For my work, I often sleep in hotels that tick all the stars. I look forward to many things in advance, but especially to the beds. Sheets with a thread count of at least 500, a pillow menu (seriously!) and of course that crisply folded sheet. But you can also create a luxury hotel bed feeling at home. Every day. And for a lot less money than those hotels I'm talking about.

1. Ensure delicious sheets
Egyptian cotton is among the best, and you can indeed look at the thread count. Anything above 500 gives you those wonderfully soft sheets. Adele and Oprah always pamper themselves with the finest Egyptian cotton sheets with a thread count of 1000, but I'm very happy with 500 plus as well.

2. Place a sheet under your duvet
In an ideal world, it goes as follows: place a fitted sheet on your mattress that goes with elastic around the corners. Make sure you have everything tightly folded around your mattress, as the bottom wrinkles will affect everything you place on top of it afterwards. Then place a square sheet on your mattress. Golden tip: you don't necessarily have to iron this sheet. If you lay it on your mattress damp-dry – that is, when it's 95% dry – and smooth it out with your hands, it will be just as smooth as if you had ironed it. And that saves a lot of work.

3. Place another sheet on your bed
Fold the top back and also make sure to smooth the sheet extra with your arms. Tuck the corners tightly around the mattress, as if you are wrapping a gift.

4. Place your duvet on top
Spray your duvet a little damp with a plant sprayer, so that any wrinkles can be easily smoothed out. Then fold the turned-over edge of the sheet around the duvet and pull it tight again.

5. Pillow galore
Then place four pillows (preferably two sets in two sizes) upright against the back of the bed. If you “massage” the pillow from the inside out with your forearms, they will have an optimal shape.

6. The bedspread
Lay a nice bedspread over the bottom of the duvet and pull it tight again.

7. Drape a few decorative pillows over the bed and you're almost done.

8. The golden tip that makes you happy every day
Make sure that when you wash your sheets and duvet cover, you add a splash of laundry perfume. For several reasons (it's Italian, there's a choice of scents, the bottles look beautiful, and especially: the scents are wonderfully pleasant and last a long time), I'm a fan of Le Essenze di Elda. I order that from wasparfum.nl and I always have it at home within a few days. My current favorites are Marsiglia and Thé Verde. What is also wonderful: order a spray with it, like Lavender, which stands in my bedroom. A little spray and your bed smells hotel-fresh again.

Also for your clothes and towels (is there anything nicer than a fluffy towel that smells of roses when you come out of the shower?) the laundry perfumes are ideal. I always drop a few drops on a special dryer ball (you can order that there too) and put it with my laundry in the dryer. The ball makes the laundry dry faster and the scent is even better infused, perfect right? And did I mention that the bottles are very beautiful? By the way, I also order cleaning products with names like New York or Stockholm. Believe me, it makes cleaning a lot more fun than with the bottles from the supermarket.

As the Italians say: Sogni d’oro, or: golden dreams.