Bed skirt

A bed skirt, sometimes spelled bedskirt, a bed ruffle, a dust ruffle in North America, a valance, or a valance sheet in the British Isles, is a piece of decorative fabric that is placed between the mattress and the box spring of a bed that extends to the floor around the sides. In addition to its aesthetics, a bed skirt is used to hide the ensemble fabric, wheels and other unsightly objects underneath the bed, or as protection against dust.

Popularized in the early 20th century, though dating back to the late 18th century in their earliest usage, valances were strictly utilitarian up until the 1930s and 1940s, when many women began to lavishly decorate their bedrooms. For about a century, bed skirts have been considered as intrinsic pieces of bedding and as crucial as the bedcover itself. Bed skirts generally measure between 14 inches (36 cm) and 16 inches (41 cm) in their drop.