Fou Furnishings & its organic bedding for kids #SafeSleep

When I decorated my kids’ bedrooms, I took great care to create décor that would last well beyond the baby years.

It’s not that I don’t love Winnie the Pooh (and I also think there are very beautiful ways to use Pooh pieces in a nursery), it’s just that I’m kind of lazy. I like to change up accent pieces here and there, but I don’t want to re-paint or have to buy pieces of replacement furniture every three years as my kids outgrow their last stages of childhood.

So imagine my surprise when I went looking for organic duvet covers for The K Man’s big boy bed. If your kid has a single-sized bed frame then you’ll have no trouble finding a really cool duvet cover. But bust out into a double or queen, and the pickings are slim. Really slim.

I searched high and low. I was shocked that Dwell Studio no longer makes organic, double-sized duvet covers. Dream Designs, who makes the great bamboo/rayon duvet that I reviewed last week, has the right size but only solid colours – no cool patterns or interesting design details. There’s Pottery Barn Kids, but there are only two choices in organic boys’ prints and I really didn’t want a bunch of stars or Curious George usurping my kid’s décor.

I have to admit: I’m still looking for an appropriate organic duvet cover for The K Man’s room. In the meantime, I bought a non-organic quilt from HomeSense that’s got some nice trains on it – not exactly the longevity I was hoping for, but at $50 (including the shams!) it’s a good interim solution and the colour scheme was right.

However, my organic duvet cover quest took me all the way to Glasgow, Scotland, where I found Fou Furnishings. The company’s “little fou” Flowers are Wonderful and Love to Learn duvet covers caught my eye for Miss Q’s future big girl bed. But, sadly, these were only available in a single size.

What the what? What is going on, Duvet Makers? I can’t be the only parent on the planet looking for kids’ organic duvet covers for something bigger than a hospital bed. Can I? (There is a serious gap in the market. If I had even the remotest skill as a seamstress, I would start a kids’ organic duvet cover bedding line that is NOT available in twin – only other sizes. So there.)

The lovely Stephanie McIntosh from Fou Furnishings let me in on a little secret a few months ago: she was launching a new organic bedding line that would be available in a double size – even if it would only be appropriate for little girls. And as soon as I saw a picture of it, and the price points, I knew it was a product I wanted to introduce you to! I’m grateful to Fou Furnishings for sending its new kids’ organic lace duvet cover and pillow shams to me to test.

fou kids’ organic cotton & linen lace duvet set.

THE GOOD

The delivery time was incredible. Three days – door to door – from Scotland to Ontario. When I asked Stephanie if she shipped to Canada, she quickly told me that one of her best customers is in Ontario. And now I know why…

The price is remarkably good: just £49 for a single and £69 for a double duvet cover. With today’s current exchange rate, that amounts to about CDN$110 for the double. Compare that to about US$140 (plus shipping and duty charges) if you order from Pottery Barn Kids online, or $179 (plus HST) from Dream Designs. Tack on an extra £15 for each matching pillow sham, and it’s really just a good deal for a certified organic bedding set.

The organic cotton that Fou Furnishings uses to create the kids’ lace duvet cover and shams is GOTS-certified, which you know from my recent review of OM home’s organic crib sheet means that both the fabric and fair labour are taken into account. And the quality of this cotton is really nice – it’s delicate, but it has that chic hotel look to it.

I love the lace accents. It’s tasteful, beautiful linen lace that reminds me of the lace my Granny had in her home from Nottingham (arguably the lace capital of Great Britain). It just makes this duvet cover – and the matching shams – so very pretty. Fou Furnishings uses lace from the oldest lace mill in Europe, in fact. I especially love the placement of the lace – it’s about a third of the way down on the duvet cover, which I find more interesting than where you might expect it, closer to the top.

All of Fou’s bedding is made in Europe – your kid will feel suitably (and authentically) Euro-style. No “made in China” business happening here.

Overall, this set is classic and beautiful – completely appropriate for a little girl’s first bed and it could easily take her into her adult years. It “doesn’t scream kid” (said Stephanie when I first inquired); and I like that.

THE GAFFE

Only two colours, white and cream. A soft pink – just a hint of a blush – would be amazing for all the little princesses out there.

It’s so not a big deal, but Fou Furnishings uses a button closure versus a zipper on its duvet cover. I personally prefer the ease of a zipper (we’ve established that I’m lazy, remember?).

This bedding needs to be ironed to look crisp out of the dryer. I’m personally never going to iron them – I find they have a kitschy kind of muslin or linen-y look about them after they’ve been washed. Plus, my kids are crazy sleepers who toss and turn like nobody’s business throughout the night; even if I did iron them, they’d be wrinkled by morning.

THE GEARS

4.5/5

So…where can you buy it?

• Directly from Fou Furnishings – no matter where you are in the world