Think of any high-class hotel and your mind is likely to conjure up images of casinos, champagne, limos and luxury bedding. And while it’s hard to bring the limos or casinos home with you, luxury bedding is something that is affordable and actually a worthwhile purchase. The initial cost might be slightly but like many things of quality, your bedding sets will end up lasting a lot longer. The problem with luxury bedding though is there are a myriad of terms that can confuse any shopper and so today, I’d like to sort some of those terms as well as throw out some pointers on what to look for when your buying luxury bedding.
Materials:
First let’s talk about materials. Some of the buzz words surrounding materials used for luxury bed sets are things like satin, egyptian cotton, silk, linen, flannel, jersey etc. All this makes for a lot of confusion so here’s the breakdown:
Satin: Sating is a fabric woven from silk, nylon or polyester that produces a shiny-sided fabric (one side is shiny the other dull). There are generally two kinds of people when it comes to satin sheets—those that love them and those that don’t. People that love satin sheets say they stay cooler during the summer, feel totally smooth, offer a fantastic richness in color, and are totally romantic. Those that hate them, say that they can show stains (remember totally romantic **wink**) and are a little creepy, think Boomhauer from King of the Hill. Whatever side of the fence you’re on, stay away from knitted satin which is really acetate and not satin. It may be shiny but you’ll also find it to be rough to the touch. This may be fine for a comforter but not so great for bed sheets. If you need a clue, look at the price, if the bedding set in question is under $130 it’s most likely knitted. Also another thing to be careful of is for people with pillow top mattresses. You’ll want to make sure to get a fitted sheet that has big pockets because woven satin doesn’t really stretch and so fit is very important. Quality set can run up over the $300 range but you’ll find good quality north of that $130 line.
Egyptian Cotton: Ok any cotton grown in Egypt could be called Egyptian cotton so what does this designation really tell us? Well interestingly, Egyptian cotton should really be called American cotton because it was one particular species of American cotton that was introduced to Egypt that became the cotton Egypt is so famous for. “Huh?” You ask. Egyptian cotton is a long-staple cotton meaning that it has long fibers that can be spun to create fabrics that are very soft. Most of the sheets sold today as Egyptian cotton aren’t actually Egyptian cotton but rather just long-stapled American cotton. Now if you’re wondering what to look for when buying Egyptian cotton sheets, there are a couple of things to consider. First is the thread count which I’ll get to in minute but secondly, you’ll want to make sure that the sheets you are buying are 100% cotton. Those long fibers of the cotton plant that allow for such thin and luxurious threads don’t require any fillers and so if you see blended fabrics, there’s a good chance that the cotton will be of a lower grade. You can expect prices to start in the low hundreds and go up from there.
Silk: If Egyptian cotton is the king of luxury bedding, then silk sheets have to be the queen. Unlike a lot of threads which combine many shorter fibers twisted together to create a long thread, silk, which comes from a type of caterpillar cocoon is one long fiber and thus that single fiber has an extremely delicate feel but at the same time is really strong. Silk like satin has a nice luster but lacks the slippery feel of sating. Needless to say it’s very expensive but hey, this is luxury bedding. You’ll be able to find blends of silk starting around $120 but 100% silk bedding set can go well of $500.
The Thread Count Myth
Do even just a little bit of shopping for sheets, especially Egyptian cotton, and you’re bound to run into the term thread count. What’s more is that as the thread count goes up so does the price. So what is thread count and is it worth it to pay more for higher thread count bed linens? Well like a lot of things in life, higher numbers aren’t necessarily a good thing but often just a marketing thing and we know marketers can sometimes outright lie.
Thread count is simply the sum of the number of threads counted in one square inch of fabric. The number that’s added are the number of threads counted going up plus the number of threads counted going across. A pretty standard sheet will have a thread count around 150 and what is claimed to be a luxury bed sheet will often have advertised thread counts of 1000 or greater. The problem here is that the there is some pretty creative counting going on here to get to that number. Lets say you have a thread that’s made up of two thinner threads twisted together and you use this thread to create a piece of fabric and in one square inch of that fabric, there are 250 threads going up and 250 threads going across. You could call that a thread count of 500 or if you want to embellish, each thread is made up of two thinner threads then that would be a 1000 thread count and in fact, this is how must of the thread counts over 500 are figured.
Before everyone started hyping thread count, a lot of luxury hotels simply had 200 thread count sheets. Now you’ll find all kinds of fabrics touting thread counts, including towels, bath robes and even silk which traditionally is measured by weight in pounds. If you’re looking for luxurious bedding without getting suckered or having to drink cool-aide, I’d think most people would be happy with a good quality 200-300 thread count sheet.
Conclusion:
Luxury bedding is one of those “finer things in life,” kinda things that unfortunately has it’s own language to which marketers are happy to exploit to lighten your wallet or purse. Hopefully this article has helped you out in a way that you can feel confident walking into any big box store or surfing into your favorite e-commerce site and picking out bed sheets in confidence. And while we haven’t touched on other luxury bedding items like goose down pillows and the like at least for sheets, you’ll be able to avoid the pitfalls and get exactly what you want for a great nights sleep.
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