Dust Ruffles or Bed Skirts help hide a beds box spring and the empty space under the bed. They can bring more color and texture your room. Bed Skirts come in tailored and ruffled styles and typically have finished split corners that work with and with out head boards and foot boards. 

Continuous color bed skirts may offer the most versatility for decorating. Your bed skirt is another fantastic way to contrast or tie together similar colors and textures of other fabrics in the room. Light colored and thin fabrics may allow your mattress/box spring to show through.  If you want a light colored bed skirt, then better quality fabrics such as Matelasse, chenille or even velvet will have a tight enough weave and a thick enough threads that "see through" will not be an issue.

Many manufacturers offer bed skirts in matching prints, textures and colors for their quilts, duvet comforter covers and sheets.