You’re not quite ready to dive into your new bed for a luxuriant night of snoring until you’ve fully dressed your bed with the best bedding and linen that you can find and afford. While some are happy to settle for any pretty linen set from a cheap retailer, many discover that poor quality linen affects sleep quality, or can aggravate sensitive skin.
It helps to know what matters to you, and to understand what bedding and linen is available – let’s look at some guidelines to consider when shopping for your linen.
High Thread Count
Thread count refers to the number of threads woven into a fabric per square inch.
It’s generally accepted that for reasonable quality linen, thread count should never dip below 180 threads, but that for the best bedding and linen quality, this figure should be at least 300. Linen with higher thread count is stronger, more resilient to wear and tear, and washes well, whereas lower thread count fabrics tend to tear easier, gather tiny fuzzballs, or stretch out over time.
What it’s Made of
Contrary to popular belief, thread count isn’t the most important indicator of quality linen – what often goes overlooked by overeager bedroom decorators is what the fabric is made of! There are a number of considerations when shopping for the best bedding and linen within your budget:
- Poly-blends – these are a blend of polycotton and other fabrics. Usually quite affordable (a nice way of saying “cheap”), easy to wash and resistant to wrinkling, poly-blends do tend to be lower quality and susceptible to wear and tear.
- Pima / Supima cottons – Possessing a lovely softness and sheen, these kinds of cotton have medium length staple fibres. Pima cotton offers great quality but remains more affordable than pure cotton.
- 100% Cotton – Cotton is one of the highest quality fabrics, especially 100% Egyptian cotton. Although it’s far more expensive, it has extra-long staple fibres, for a lavish, yet durable, bedding solution.
- Silk – high quality, but delicate and finicky to wash, sleeping under silk really is just a special experience for kings and queens. It’s perhaps not recommended for every household, but if you’re after a luxuriantly-soft dreamland experience, silk may be what you need.
- Linen – For a crisp, cool and organically crinkly bedtime ritual, nothing beats genuine linen. Many love the natural nature of linen, and it’s a wonderful option for warm summertime sleeping, as it dispels excess heat. Also expensive, linen is popular, high-quality, and hardwearing.
There Is No Right or Wrong
When all is said and done, what you put on your bed is your final decision. You may be content – even excited – to reinvent your personal suite every 6 months with new cute, cheap poly-blends, or you might save up for that crisp five-star hotel set, with its tightly-woven Egyptian cotton and minimalist white sheen.
We don’t just love beds; we love linen too! And our stores are stocked with some gorgeous top-quality linen sets – get in touch with us if you have any questions about the best linen and bedding available to you.
