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I love buying new sheets, so I've been on a mad hunt for the perfect sheet-set. This means, affordable, good quality, and good looking. All of the sheets I have now are solid (pink) or white with a pink embroidered stripe from the late Hold Everything. Tear. Anyway, I've had my eye on some cute blue flowered patterned sheets. I haven't had patterned sheets since I was a girl and they were flannel with little pink roses (I think) and it's time to bring them back. Here is a mini guide to some fun/luxurious bedding; some striped, some solid, and most patterned.
If you're going to go with a solid sheet, you had better go with something high end. Sheets of Egyptian cotton? YUP. These are 100% cotton sateen from Frette--the Doppio Ajour Bedset. And guess what? They're on sale starting for $450!
Or, if you have a soul or a conscience or something, you could go for eco friendly bedding at Cuddle Down. I think they have more affordable eco/organic bedding at Target or The Company Store.
A menswear inspired stripe for this Ralph Lauren bedding. Cole Brook Stripe and they're on sale too! These look quite comfortable; like those button down cotton menswear pj's!
Imagine yourself in these...OMG how soft and luxurious! Sferra Flores Jacquard bedding made in ...Italy. YUM.
These are fun yet delicate looking sheets from Schweitzer Linen. Schweitzer Linen is probably my ultimate goal in bedding. Their stores are so pretty with nice clean white lace sheets and pillows....These are Ascot in Sorbet color.
I like the trellis-y pattern on these from Gumps. Or maybe it was the huge pillows that caught my eye...whichever. Lulu DK Bedding HERE.
These caught my eye at Crate and Barrel and I believe they are on sale too! I love this pattern--super busy and fun and they're Marimekko! There are a few other variations, too.What sort of bedding are you drawn to? I'm sort of straying from the hotel style bedding. The clean and crisp feeling of it is wonderful but lately I'm drawn to a busier pattern. Something about it feels super cozy.
Alicia B.
Alicia B.
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9 comments:
Me too - I have patterned sheets in my guest bedroom and 1) that bed is much better for napping - maybe the sheets have something to do with it?! - and 2) something about cute friendly sheets may make people feel more at home in your home. Maybe?
I am also on the search for new sheets. I got into bed this weekend, and realized that my fitted sheet had a huge tear in it! They are (were) the softest sheets ever, washed many times. Since I got a new upholstered headboard in the fall, I might just go ahead and redo all of the bedding....you have put some inspirational pictures out there!
Holy pattern-vomit, Horchow! wow...
I love the cozy feeling of patterned sheets. They just feel... warmer? I don't know exactly what it is, but I likes it.
Alicia, I just learned something lately and cannot find where I read it. I thought it odd that the Ralph Lauren Estate sheets I bought were sort of draggy and stretchy....plus they put out lint! If you try to straighten the top sheet, it clings to the bottom sheet and almost stretches...it will not move. You have to lift it up and re-place it. Anyway, even though these sheets were from a department store, they were not cheap. I'm 4 hours from the sheets as I type this, but they had some kind of high thread count. Then I read somewhere lately that yes they could have a high thread count but be really several plys of lower thread count woven together to add up to the high number. The story said to always look for single ply sheets for the best quality. My problem is, how do I find that out?!! I haven't shopped for sheets lately but it's an interesting point. Of course I found this out AFTER I ordered my first custom sheets! They are Italian, by a company called DEA. They are truly beautiful, ecru color with three different colored pale green dots appliqueed along the top edge and along the edge of the pillow cases. As the clerk flipped thru the sample book I actually laughed out loud when I saw the pattern! I loved them and they were incredibly soft. They finally arrived and looked so pretty in our bedroom, matching everything in the room. I think they were around $500.00. Well, after about 5 days, I absently dragged my hand across the area where my husband sleeps (he had gone to work) and there was this roughly foot square area that was pilling up! I don't think there was anything on my husband's back or chest that caused it, since they have been washed and ironed a few times since, rotated around on the bed so that he would be sleeping on two different areas, etc. Plus....horror of horror....they, after one washing, have developed that stretchy draggy feeling and are sort of warm and nearly flannel-like (which I don't like). The sample piece (probably 6 inches square) was so smooth and cool but after laundering....what a sad difference.
So good luck with your sheets. I didn't take them back; we are still using them. But next time....I will insist on knowing whether something is single ply or not. I wrongly assumed that because they were expensive, they would be the best quality.
Hey Anon,
I'm so sorry to hear about your nice sheets! Frankly, I'd be outraged and take them back. If you paid over $500 for them, that's absurd. The only thing I could say is that perhaps they were not %100 percent cotton? But it sounds like you really did your research so it couldn't be that. Anyway, I found an article in today's NYTimes and perhaps it will explain something to you and other readers. http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/08/garden/08shop.html?ref=garden
Good luck and rest assured I will not be spending more that $200 on sheets.
Ohhh great post!!! I too have had my issues with sheets!! I've bought some expensive ones & had bad luck & have tried on the cheap & more bad luck.... I'm now a sheet snob!
I've always just loved the ones that my family's had for years but FINALLY I found Pottery Barn's sheets & I'll never go back to anything else. (Unless of course someone else has an awesome recommendation ;)
But really- they are awesome. I'm a "cold" sheet person & they are so smooth & never pill. Their organic line is just as good as the standard line. They're soft & they only get better with washing.
Good luck!!!
ps- I hope you find your blue flows Alicia!! )
Hi Alicia,
I would have taken them back except for the fact that I already had taken them back for a different reason! We have a Henredon bed that is 36 years old and a regular-sized mattress & springs. Believe it or not, when I got the sheets home and spread the top sheet out....I kid you not...it touched the floor on both sides! And this was a queen-sized bed and supposedly queen-sized sheets. I did some careful measuring and took them back and the girl at shop had something like a foot cut off each side and re-hemmed. I guess I chickened out on complaining about more than one thing! I consider myself "sadder but wiser" on the subject of sheets. Rest assured, I will find out whether anything is one ply now, now that I know about the concept. I will now read the New York Times article.
Great round up, Alicia. My sheets are boring but so comfy - white flannel from LL Bean. Like sleeping inside a marshmallow.
At three different shops along Madison Avenue in NYC, they told me that the coolest-feeling sheets are percale. I bought some at Beds Baths and Beyond and they are pretty good, but of all our sheets, the most comfy and the coolest are some Wamsutta Elite that say 100% combed cotton. They are the oldest ones we have, so that could also be part of it.
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