Linda Hirst
Linda Hirst, interior stylist in Boynton Beach, Florida, and former style director at Coastal Living and Modern Bride magazines.
Whether you like crisp, cool sheets or sleep with your beloved pet and need bedding that doesn’t hold on to fur, there are more options than ever to meet your desires. Best sheets for all types of sleepers…
If you like crisp sheets: The fine, tight weave of cotton percale sheets will help you get that crisp feeling. Percale is a plain-weave fabric, meaning that the warp and weft threads cross over and under each other one at a time and are tightly woven, which results in a fine texture and finish. Thread count refers to how many threads (horizontal plus vertical) compose one square inch of sheet fabric. This number ranges from 150-count to up to 1,000 or more for the most expensive luxury sheets. High-thread-count sheets are soft and smooth. Low-count sheets give a crispy feel.
Top pick: Serena & Lily Beach Club Sheet Set ($238*). Serena & Lily uses eco-friendly Portuguese cotton to create its comfortable, yet crisp, sheets. Thread count: 310.
If you sleep hot and your mate sleeps cold: Natural fibers are breathable and give you better temperature control than synthetic sheets.
Top pick: Brooklinen Linen Core Sheet Set ($259). These linen sheets are made from Belgian and French flax and will regulate your temperature, whether you have night sweats or always feel chilly. If you don’t like the wrinkles of linen, sheets made from bamboo or eucalyptus fibers are also both cooling and warming. If you are a fan of cotton sheets, find a low-thread-count percale weave (lower than 400), which will be thinner and feel crisp and cool.
If you sleep with your pets: Choose a sheeting material that is silky, such as a microfiber, or a tightly woven fabric with a high thread count, such as an Egyptian cotton. Hair and fur won’t cling to the surface and will slide off when washing. Camouflage the hair by choosing sheets that match your pet’s color. And have a lint roller on hand for last-minute touch-ups.
Top pick: Royal Egyptian Bedding 1500-thread-count Egyptian cotton sheet set ($135).
If you hate wrinkled sheets: Microfiber sheets are easy to care for and less likely to crinkle and wrinkle, and they have a brushed, silky feel against the skin, although they do sleep “hot.” They are also very easy on the budget.
Top pick: Mellanni 1800 Collection Microfiber Sheet Set ($36).
If you prefer natural fibers,here’s how to still have a smooth look without ironing. Gently spray Downy Wrinkle Releaser after making your bed, and fold down the flat sheet. Smooth the sheet with your hands, holding the fabric taut.
If you like silky sheets: You can’t do much better than the real thing.
Top pick: Real Silk Life 19 Momme Silk Sheets Set ($499). These are light and incredibly silky on the skin.
If silk is out of your price range: Consider organic cotton with a sateen finish, which has a similarly soft feeling.
To get the best prices: January is the best time for bargain hunting, during stores’ white sales. You also may have luck finding high-end bedding brands such as Frette and Sferra at HomeGoods, Wayfair and Overstock.com.
Bottom Line Personal interviewed Linda Hirst, interior stylist in Boynton Beach, Florida, and former style director at Coastal Living and Modern Bride magazines.
*Prices are for a queen-size set of sheets and reflect recent prices from major online sellers.
