A Bedding Expert on All Things Sleepy

by Natasha Wolff | February 12, 2016 11:20 am

Energetic entrepreneur Nell Diamond developed the concept for Hill House Home[1] while in business school at Yale. The born-and-bred Londoner (who now calls New York home) previously worked as a fixed income analyst[2] at Deutsche Bank and was part of the Start-Up Founder Practicum, an incubator, when she got the idea for a luxury-yet-affordable bedding collection.

“I created Hill House Home because I couldn’t find beautifully designed, practical, high quality bedding at a reasonable price point,” Diamond explains. “There’s nothing that makes me happier that a beautifully made bed.” After school, when Diamond set out to purchase her first set of bed linens, she found the process overwhelming and frustrating.“I was faced with a lot of questionable jargon like ‘thread count’ and salespeople trying to up-sell me on poorly-designed bedding that simply didn’t fit into my budget,” she says. So she decided to launch an e-commerce (for now) outfit “which allows us to keep our prices low and avoid crazy wholesale bedding markups while still using the highest quality raw materials.”

The fabric HHH uses in its all-white (to start) bedding collection is made from U.S.-grown Supima cotton, which is woven at one of the world’s best fabric mills, located just outside of Milan. Then it’s cut and sewn at a family-owned and operated factory in France. What offerings have been runaway hits so far? “The Vale has been really popular,” she says. “It’s the perfect mix of delicate and practical, and traditionally Percale is the most popular weave in the U.S.” Does she see any new categories for the lifestyle brand down the road? “In a few years, I’d love our customers who have bought HHH bedding to be so happy with their sheets that they come back to us for all their home goods—everything from towels to pajamas to great blankets,” she says. 

Nell Diamond, creator of Hill House Home

With sleep in mind, we spoke to the jet-setting entrepreneur about her own bedtime routine[3] and nocturnal favorites.

Where is your favorite bed?
My favorite bed is at my house in Amagansett. It’s a four poster, and it’s a dream!

What’s your favorite hotel bed?
Hotel Du Cap Eden Roc in the South of France, the hotel where I got married in 2014 [to financier Teddy Wasserman]! My favorite place; it’s pure magic. 

What Hill House Home sheets are on your bed at home?
I have a mix right now: Waverly pillowcases, fitted sheet and duvet and Ivy shams.

What’s the best night of sleep you ever got?
The night after I turned in my thesis my senior year at Princeton. I’d spent nine months writing 150 pages on Milton’s Paradise Lost and pre-Raphaelite Art and hadn’t slept a full night for most of that time. When I woke up the next morning after 15 hours of sleep, I literally was in bed with 30 books surrounding me, and crumpled paper everywhere—but so, so happy.

What’s your pre-bedtime ritual?
I’ll finish up any emails or (or more likely, any Pinterest-ing) 30 minutes before bed. I put my phone and computer away to give my eyes a break. Then I brush my teeth, wash my face, put on about 42 different moisturizers[4] and get in my pajamas. Depending on what time it is, I’ll either read a book when I get in bed or go right to sleep with a big glass of water next to me.

What’s on your nightstand?
I like to keep my nightstand relatively clean and clutter-free—it’s the first and last thing you see before/after sleep. I always keep a huge bottle of water and moisturizer just in case—plus whatever book I’m reading. 

What time do you go to sleep/wake up?
I try to stick to an 11 p.m. bedtime and a 6:30/7 a.m. wakeup. If I have to get to bed later, I’ll try to wake up at the same time and just take a nap later in the day to make up for lost sleep. Our bodies respond really well to routines, so I like to keep my wake-up time consistent. But we all need days where we stay in bed for hours, so I definitely allow myself to cheat on my wakeups if I really need to. I woke up at 10 this Sunday!

What side of the bed do you generally sleep on?
Closer to the bathroom, the right side of the bed!

Best thing to eat in bed?
My bed is a strictly food-free zone—I just can’t deal with the crumbs! My best girlfriends and former roommates used to hang out on my bed in our first NYC apartment whenever I was out of town, and I always knew they had been there because of the crumbs!

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