House & Garden: The latest buzz in linens - Bed bugs

They're crawling on coverlets, skittering across sheets and buzzing around the bedroom. Insect designs seem to be taking linens departments by swarm.<br><br>"Bugs are big this year," says Carol Nunnally,

Friday, April 7th 2000, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

They're crawling on coverlets, skittering across sheets and buzzing around the bedroom. Insect designs seem to be taking linens departments by swarm.

"Bugs are big this year," says Carol Nunnally, interior designer for Kayan's in Richardson, which specializes in custom bedding and window treatments. She says the trend toward entomological themes in bedding stems from the popularity of animal designs in recent years.

Butterflies outnumber other insects in bedding designs, but they're sharing the sheets with a surprising array of other six-legged creatures including bees, ladybugs, ants, grasshoppers - even houseflies and the occasional artfully-rendered cockroach.

Ms. Nunnally says different insect motifs lend themselves to different applications. The dragonfly, for example, works well in an Oriental setting. And many consumers prefer to confine the less-than-friendly bug species to garden-room decor and adorn the bedroom with nonthreatening varieties, such as butterflies.

The cover of the National Wildlife Federation's spring catalog features the Butterfly Splendor collection, whose scallop-edged quilt of ivory cotton is bedecked with bright butterfly vignettes. A plus for nature lovers is the organization's use of catalog profits to fund conservation and education programs.

In some bedding designs, such as Aubergine's Bugs, the insects are large and eye-catching, but in many other patterns, the swarm is more subtle. For instance, a close inspection of Dan River's Garden Grows comforter reveals bees, ladybugs and dragonflies darting among the pattern's large, colorful flowers.

Regardless of their size, bugs in bedding designs seem to inspire smiles.

"It's a life motif; it certainly brings some fun," says Celia Tejada, vice president of product development for Pottery Barn, whose Summer Bug bedding is featured in the early spring catalog. She says that type of cheery nature theme is a better choice for a child's room than a pattern based on the latest toy or movie craze.

"You can pull it out again in 10 years," she says. "The motif itself is familiar and part of our lives. We can all relate to ladybugs and dragonflies."

Samantha Yanofsky, computer-aided design director for Duralee Fabrics, says that, although insect prints coordinate well with simple patterns such as checks or stripes, she likes to pair such fabrics with florals. "It creates the whole nature theme," she says.

That idea of bringing the natural world indoors is the reason catalogs and stores are abuzz with insect designs, Ms. Tejada says. To carry the theme throughout the room, she suggests accents such as a framed nature photograph or a live bird in a decorative cage.

"It's fun, when you wake up, to have something alive in the room," Ms. Tejada says. "Add a little vase with flowers, and suddenly you're in a whole new world."