Can we talk about bed linens? Next to dog beds, these might be the domestic bane of my existence. I can never seem to get it right. Due to some complications*, we have to stick to white, and we have to replace them more often than the usual family, so it is hard to spend to many bones on them. But damn, I still want something kind of nice. Whenever we go away I feel like the sheets are so much better. Smoother, crisper. Nicer. So what kind of linens to ya'll like? What brand do I buy? How much do I need to spend to make the perfect (okay not perfect, but close) bed?
image via brick house tumblr
*ben discolors sheets. Colored ones look as through they have been, bleached? IE steel grey fades to a sort of a, pink? And white goes easily dingy. Meaning lots of bleach + washing. Mind you he is not gross. In fact he is a before-bed-showerer, and gets in bed squaky clean. He just has oil rich (which happens to be very soft, smooth, not dry) skin. Despite the bed sheet problem, I decided to marry him anyways.
high thread count egyptian cotton = winner in my book. only buy a few sets since you'll only need a few (and because they're on the expensive side), but it'll be worth it.
ReplyDeleteand don't feel so bad, hotels starch theirs to high heaven because of how often they're used, so that's why they're crisp.
ben DOES have glowy skin.
ReplyDeletejoe refuses to do white, so we do taupe sheets. unfortunately, you get what you pay for when it comes to sheets. bed bath and beyond usually has some RAD sales on sheets. i buy one set at a time. it's more affordable than having back-ups. 2 hours of our bed being naked while they wash is no big deal.
i'm only telling you this because i love you... NO mattress on the floor. i think 25 is the age limit for that one.
We just sold our big-ass, lame bed frame and put ours on the floor and I LOVE IT! Check it out - http://bloggersabode.blogspot.com/2010/08/in-transition.html
ReplyDeleteI too have a white sheet issue. I love them but so does our black dog. I usually get our sheet sets at TJMaxx and Target. You can normally find good pricing on 100% cotton with good thread counts. Jersey sheets are super soft but they can get stretched out with lots of washing. Good luck!
I have the sorta the same issue. I don't want to spend a lot on sheets since our 70 lb dog tries to sleep with us and is constantly on our bed. I use white duvets so I can bleach the hell out of them once a week. I would like to get some decent bedding too, but I feel like they will just get ruined by Argos. It's sacrifice I am willing to make I guess.
ReplyDeleteOkay... I agree, no mattress on the floor. Even in the chicest place - it screams college. Try a simple platform that's low - I think IKEA has some. They're basically just slats.
ReplyDeleteAnd re: the sheets. High thread count. And (the secret) IRONING. It's the truth.
Hi, Im a long time reader-never commenter.
ReplyDeleteMy husband tends to leave a nice foggy brownish orb on his side of the sheets, and like yours, mine goes to bed clean.
I have always struggled deciding what kind of sheets I like anyways and have gone from cutsie anthropologie ones to pure irish linen, and back to plain old white cotton. BUT-a friend of my told me TJ MAXX had good sheets, so I thought I'd give it a try. I bought a set of sheets that are made of Lyocell for $15. I had never heard of Lyocell before but it is amaaaaazing. It runs like silk between your hands but still has a little bit more structure like cotton. They stay cool and feel so refreshing and silky, but they aren't slippery.
Ugh, Jeremy has the same weird bleaching problem. He won't let me get white sheets and he turns all the grays this weird yellow color. Our pillows are a mess from his oily night sweats.
ReplyDeleteI still can't figure out this bedding dilemma. I gave up and buy shitty jersey sheets that I turn into rags after they get destroyed.
Yeah, and Iggy threw up all over my bed this morning...so there is always that problem...
I have been looking for good sheets for about 10 years now! and I found em. I wish they had a real deal name to tell you but they are just a bed bath and beyond white sheet set .. that is a bamboo sheet, and has the faintest stripe pattern in them.
ReplyDeleteSeriously..the..best.. ever. 99 bones.
and a mattress on the floor can get moldy. Although maybe this is more of a northern california problem ;) Learned that lesson.
Our new sheets changed my life. I sleep better than I ever did before. They are from Twinkle Living but they are priiiicey. We never would have bought them for ourselves (they were a wedding gift) but now I'm not sure if I can ever go back.
ReplyDeletelady. good sheets are essential... but i don't recommend the bed directly on the floor. have you tried a low platform bed? that might be better.
ReplyDeletei suggest target. they are always having sales on linens and just buy the ones with higher thread count for better quality. i really like mine! they also come in slightly off white and tan too. and they wont break the bank!
ReplyDeleteMy husband "discolors" sheets too! I thought it might be some kind of PH thing, but I guess just oily might be the answer. We have cheap-o sheets and I buy new ones all the time. AND we have our bed on the floor, but with a box spring underneath. So it's low, but not on the ground. I think you're just going to have to try it out and see.
ReplyDeleteI say go with no frame, but keep the box spring. I can never afford the bed frames I want so this has been my solution for some time now. I feel like mattress directly on the floor=endless weird dirt in the bed. And I'm gonna be honest here, I buy all my sheets second hand (but only from a particular thrift store back home that I know and trust. I would never EVER buy second hand sheets in NYC good gawd.)
ReplyDeleteLow bed frame. I think mattress on the floor = tacky/trashy. Speaking of tacky/trashy, we have jersey cotton sheets (cheap) from Target, which is soft and good to snuggle into at night. In terms of good though...? Well, for me, it is just a bed.
ReplyDeleteI bought some 400 thread count Wamsutta cotton sateen sheets at Bed Bath & Beyond once (on sale & with one of their 20% off coupons), and they've gotten unbelievably soft with lots of washings. I don't see the same thread count on the website anymore, but maybe in store? I have bamboo sheets from there, as well (lower thread count, but still very soft), but I don't know how bamboo sheets would hold up to bleach.
ReplyDeleteTJMaxx can also be good for pretty good, cheap sheets.
I vote for either the box spring on the floor (though if you have wood floors, make sure no nails are poking through the box spring frame or bad things will happen - found this out the bad way) or a low platform bed.
- High thread count - the highest you can afford. I buy mine from an online discount retailer (here in Australia)
ReplyDelete- Cream, off-white, beige, taupe - any pale non-white colour.
- bed on low base, not on the floor.
happy sleeping.
for what it's worth, joe votes for the bed on the floor. i'm neutral; the storage is handy, as is the cat-hiding-spot, but other places can meet those needs. as for that so fresh feeling? we use BB&B's generic sheets, and right out of the wash they're fairly snappy. extrafrequent laundering might be your answer for that part.
ReplyDeleteDoesn't everyone have to wash their sheets often? Am I the only person having sex in there?
ReplyDeleteNo clue on where to recommend sheets in the US, but once I went high thread count cotton I never went back.
Me no likey bed on the floor. But I bet you'd make it work.
there's something crack-denny but sexy about bed-on-the-floor. i vote at least SOME sort of something between the floorboards and mattress, otherwise the edges of your linens will get super dirty, fast. a friend painted regular wood shipping palettes black and put her mattress on them and the whole setup looked SO fabulous; she stored magazines and books in the space.
ReplyDeletealso, sheets: L.L. Bean. unhip, i know, but man, their organic cotton sheets are so reasonable and so crisp and heavenly. LOVE them. have a feeling they'd even replace old stained ones, if ben oils them up;) they have such awesome customer service.
no bed on the floor.
ReplyDeletewe recently scored an ikea platform bed on craigslist that is pretty great actually. the drawers are made out of cardboard or whateverthefuck but the frame itself is super sturdy and not bad looking.
p.s. i kind of can't believe you wrote about ben's discoloring-the-sheets issue (again), but now that everyone else has joined in....
ReplyDeleteThe best sheets that we have came from Toast. Not sure if they do plain white ones though but I think they ship to the US.
ReplyDeleteAnother vote for no mattress on the floor. I read it was really bad for you and the mattress.
guuuuuys i already agreed to no bed on the floor.
ReplyDelete@eastsidebride why TMI? (and i already talked about it? oops.)
@agirl i didn't say we wash them extra. but we do probably bleach them more often, but even still they get discolored & need replacing more often. ;)
thanks for all the suggestions! now which one to try. (we are upgrading to a queen soon, ooooh)(yeah, we have a full. college?)
Uh, D has the same issue, but he would probably kill me if I actually blogged about it (luckily he doesn't read comments). Weird.
ReplyDeleteWe've had good luck with brown sheets, but I prefer white. We got some high thread count ones from Costco, but they are kind of silky for my tastes. I prefer crisp, so I'll be investigating Lily's LLBean suggestion. Even though it might bring back bad flashbacks of the purple MONOGRAMMED LL Bean backpack that I was forced to use for FOUR years because it was "sturdy" unlike the trendy Jansports I desperately wanted.
WHAT? my jansports lasted for yeaaaaars. i am sorry you were traumatized in such a way. my parents were not ones to induldge in my trend wanting but i *always* had a jansport.
ReplyDeleteIt was probably more of an aversion to actual shopping that motivated my mom to order from catalogs. But it was always justified because of the sturdiness. That backpack was a humiliation.
ReplyDeleteMight need Lily's help because LL Bean has approximately one million sheet choices and I can't focus that well. Why are there so many options out there?
Macy's sells these great sheets by Style&Co that are really soft, and they have sales on them often. Some are patterned, but not obnoxiously. Also duvet covers. I would try Borax instead of bleach, maybe? Bleach is icky.
ReplyDeleteI second Lindsay's suggestions above and Sara W above. I think we're all talking about the same sheets...made from eucalyptus fibers. I received mine as a wedding present, they're from B,B, & Beyond, and have that faint white stripe that Lindsay talks about. They are luxurious. I love them! They are pricier than I'm used to spending ($100 compared to my usual bargains at TJ Maxx), but since Sarah mentioned she found something similar at TJ Maxx, I'm going to keep my eye out. Because I don't think I can go back. The $100 is worth it. I actually get giddy when I'm rotating the bed linens back to that sheet set!
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ReplyDeleteBamboo linen mattress is really comfortable for a sound sleep. Taking in concern the comfort of my family members, I use to purchase bamboo linen mattress.
ReplyDeleteNice sheets, this is what I exactly Looking for, Keep sharing more information.
ReplyDeletetaupe sheets