Hi all! I’m getting super confused and maybe I don’t need to be, hoping someone here can help me out.

So I know percale best, and sferra for example has 4 different “levels” with different names. Ex) I have the Celeste duvet and Giza pillowcases and sheets. But I’m too afraid to use the Giza sheets bc of how expensive they were and how I’m not a fastidious person who wants to panic everytime I use a pen in bed or when my dogs skin tags burst.

I’ve been looking to add to my bedding and want to keep it more reasonable going forward bc that expensive bedding life anxiety isn’t for me at this moment in my priorities. I see many on eBay listed without the group names, no where visible on the packaging. The listings get as confusing as sferra’s and frette’s websites… Some are 600TC extra long staple cotton, some are 300tc long staple cotton percale. I don’t know how to compare any of them, or what the prices originally are because there’s no group/name to look up beyond the manufacturer. Is there a buying guide somewhere? Or a rule of thumb? Is it normal to have this many variations? Are they even real?

I already know to only buy the ones from Italy and that “at home” and casa Luna aren’t the same thing. I’d like a basic set of sateen and a basic set of percale.

I'm interested in purchasing the Frette Hotel Classic set.

I have a percale set that I sleep on currently and while I enjoy them, they lack that hotel crispness that I crave. I'm a big fan of the cool, almost crunchy yet still smooth texture.

I'm looking for my "one and done" adult sheet set, so I don't mind the splurge.. as long as it's justified. Any insight is appreciated :)

Hi bedding people! I recently bought Sferra Celeste percale sheets, they arrived last week. I bought them from Bloomingdale’s, so I know they are authentic. I washed them according to the instructions, put them on my bed, and well… they don’t feel any better than my Brooklinen percale sheets. In fact I think they feel less smooth. Am I judging them too soon? Do they need a few washes to feel better?

Hello!

I had Pratesi Tre Righe sheets on my queen bed before moving in with my now-husband and getting a king. The Pratesi lasted another decade on our guest bed but just tore in half with the last washing.

I’m looking for a slightly more affordable replacement and trying to figure out the options in current brands. Sferra is straightforward but Frette seems to have a bunch of poorly disambiguated lines and it’s not clear if some cost more due to embroidery details or overall cotton quality. Does anyone have a stack rank handy?

My rough guess is:

1.) Hotel collection (cheapest) 2.) Lux percale (almost same price as hotel when you consider sale, but is also 50% off right now so maybe it’s higher up in the list in actual quality?) 3.) One Bourdon 4.) Classic 5.) Contemporary percale 6.) and then it looks like all the super high end ones are sateen, not percale?

Basically, I’m looking for something similar to this description of all the myriad Ralph Lauren lines, though it doesn’t need to be that wordy; even correcting my list above would be amazing.

Thank you!!

So our family recently went on a 3 week bucket list trip, and we stayed in a variety of places as we travelled around; from 5 star hotels to cheap air bnbs. My wife and kids both commented on the sheets/bedding at the luxury hotels and it made me think for the first time- why don’t we just recreate that experience at home? How hard can it be? The amount of time I spend in bed isn’t nearly the amount of time I aspire to spend in bed- but it’s still quite a bit. This is something probably worth a little splurge.

And down the rabbit hole I went.

About me- I tend to do this. I get fixated on something, and then I’ll spend an inordinate amount of time trying to learn everything I can, scouring reviews, and blogs, and Reddit forums. Learning about the products, and the science, and all the different factions, etc.

And then I’ll buy the best value I can afford. Or save up to buy what I’ve determined is the best and worth spending more on vs the cheaper/budget options available. It’s usually always more than I planned going in (and 100% always more than I tell my wife it was- which even still is more than what she’d be “comfortable” spending on anything, lol).

I do this with suits, shoes, furniture, electronics, appliances- you name it. It’s how I’m wired.

Fair warning- this post is long. It started as a response on another post, but as I started pouring it out I thought “this probably needs to be its own post...”.

It also doesn’t necessarily provide an “answer”. I haven’t finished my journey yet. But I’m getting closer. Ive put in the time on the online research end (way too many), but haven’t gotten all the hands on done yet (the most important part).

I don’t have a fine linen store near me to feel them all (it apparently closed and that fact hasn’t updated online yet, that was fun); but have spent more hours than is healthy combing through posts like these, reading opinions and reviews and responses on multiple platforms, to have compiled enough info to narrow down where I’ll bother spending my time trying to feel. (I’m good at this kind of thing, so I feel pretty confident in my list. It’s a blessing and a curse :) ).

Some conclusions Ive drawn:

1. In general, it’s best to stay away from internet fad/social media hyped brands. You are paying for marketing, not quality. It’s why you keep seeing it everywhere.

And all those “independent” bloggers giving top ten lists when you google- yeah. They get paid for that. By those brands that are in all of their top 3. (Hello Brooklinen, parachute, etc).

2. At the top of the food chain, there’s definitely some “you get what you pay for”. The cream of the crop brand names (Sferra, Frette, Matouk, etc) have some really really nice stuff at their top end. But their entry level is more about paying for the name. It’s likely going to be on par with “good/decent” department store stuff, but still a little more expensive.

Mid-tier maybe a little better, but probably disappointing if bought at full price. And for just a little more (the words that always get me in trouble) you can bump in to the territory where there is a marked difference in quality/feel. These brands all have many lines to choose from, which makes it difficult to sort through and get a grasp on what’s better quality vs just a different aesthetic- but it seems to be that three or so from “the top” is where you start to really feel the separation from the pack.

Which brings in…

3. The Law of Diminishing Returns.

I always have to reel myself back in a bit when I go down these rabbit holes. While you get what you pay for, what is it you are really paying for?

There are brands even MORE expensive out there than the “cream of the crop” I’ve mentioned, but I didn’t even bother with those beyond a preliminary curiosity look up. That was more than enough to know I don’t need it, and it’s not really going to be worth it anyway. Money is still an object, and even I can’t make enough justification to bother beyond what I’ve already identified.

So, what truly matters to you? What are you really looking for? And how much more is it worth paying for to get it?

Soft? Smooth? If that’s your only qualifier- cheap Jersey knit sheets are soft. Target sheets that have been washed a million times are going to wear in soft. And polyester satin sheets are super slick/smooth.

If long lasting is your only qualifier- I don’t think I’ve ripped but one or two sheets in my life. I’ve got Amazon sheets that are easily 7-10 yrs old at this point. If I hadn’t upgraded bed sizes when I got married (or if I’d stayed a single man for that matter), I’d probably have sheets old enough to legally drink. And I can promise you that young adult me put zero money or thought into bed sheet purchases.

It’s when you start looking for the combo factor that the price starts to rise.

You want crisp, smooth, cool-sleeping sheets that won’t take a years of wear to stop feeling scratchy and won’t fall apart? That’s going to cost.

You want them to feel soft, not because of some chemical finisher that will wash off after a few wears, but soft because of the natural inherent properties of the quality material the sheet was made with so it will stay that way/get better over time?

Yeah, that’s going to be more than $49.99.

If you don’t sleep hot at all, the fact one sheet offers all these things while also being breathable isn’t likely to be worth paying outrageous money for to you. A cheap polyester satin like sheet will feel just as smooth as that $1000 Egyptian cotton sateen at first, and you’ll be left feeling disappointed.

Understanding your priorities will help you make the next key decision.

4. Material

• Quality linen will get worn in and soft with time and sleeps very cool. But it’s going to feel quite “textured” off the bat, and take quite some time to get there. But it’s durable, and once worn in does feel amazing. My wife doesn’t like the texture/feel of linen so this was out for me, but McCaw Irish linen bedding would’ve been what I would’ve wanted to explore in this arena.

-Cotton. Lots of different weaves, but percale or sateen is pretty much what you’ll be looking at here. Im a cotton guy.

A good percale will give you crisp and cool, and it will smooth and soften over time. This weave holds up well, and seems to be the choice for quality hotel linens- feels nice, sleeps well, holds up well.

The expensive stuff will be made with better quality cotton, which is going to feel softer and smoother and just continue to get better over time.

The cheap stuff tends to be coated to feel smooth at first, but that will wash off and you’ll be left with a rougher in texture reality in short order (shorter fibers, lesser quality, more scratchy).

Sateen- silky smooth cotton. Slick and soft with a little sheen. Personally, I’m more of a percale guy. I like that crisp, cool, substantial quality pressed dress shirt type feel. But my wife likes sateen. So guess what I’m sleeping on?

If you guessed percale, you’re likely a young single man. Or maybe an old single man. Or potentially a married man on their way to being single. Either way, you’re wrong.

Sateen is nice in that it gives you that smooth silky feel but keeps the moisture wicking properties of cotton so you don’t get all sticky like you can with silk if you’re a hot sleeper. It’s soft and smooth, but still durable.

Silk is smooooth, but slippery (too slippery for me). And while it’s good as a temperature regulator, it doesn’t wick moisture like cotton so if you sweat a lot at night already- probably not the best choice. Also going to be much more delicate than cotton. For me, silk is not my thing. Sounds fancy, but the reality is it’s not what I look forward to laying on at night.

-Threadcount

A lot of marketing behind this. More of a gimmick than a quality indicator. Read Sferra’s founder’s thoughts/regrets on thread count.

The higher the thread count, the tighter the weave, the less breathable the sheet. Also, a lot of dubious practices in the name of inflating the advertised thread count that absolutely does not translate to quality.

Higher does not mean better. A lower single ply high quality cotton weave is going to be better than your 9000 thread count Multi-ply internet find.

5. Quality/Durability

The quality of offerings from respected brands and past recommended options seems to have universally and markedly gone down. LL Bean and the company store being two that come up a lot that long time purchasers have made enough comments on of being disappointed with recent (last few years) repurchases that I struck them off the list. Targets budget sheets that people swore by also seem to have fallen in to this category now, so I’m not even bothering to try them.

So what’s my short list of things I DO want to get my hands on? There’s a lot out there. And if I could walk in a store and just feel all the brands I’ve heard about and read about, this list would be longer. But since I can’t, and I don’t have the patience to buy and return everything out there, I’ve narrowed it down to the following high end offerings I want to compare first:

Matouk Gatsby (sateen) Matouk Bergamo (percale)

Peacock Alley Soprano (sateen)

Hudson Park/Hotel Collection - want to be able to compare the “luxury/specialty brand” high end to the “dept store brand” high end. Is it worth it?

Frette- It was hard for me to decipher the various Frette lines offered in terms of quality. Navigating their site vs what I found online often conflicted, or were missing. So unless I can get in store to feel them or get some free swatches (which I will try and do so) I’m focusing on Sferra over them for the time being.

SFERRA

Sferra Giza45 Percale and Sateen Sferra Sereno (percale) Sferra Finna (percale)

Finna seems to be the consensus on, if you want the best high quality percale, but don’t want to get OUTRAGEOUS, but are still willing to spend more than anyone should find reasonable- wait for a sale and you can get these for a stomachable price as compared to other non-sale price offerings. Still probably 2x the price on sale, but you’re getting 5x the sheet.

I almost pulled the trigger on these- would’ve been around $500 for a king fitted and pair of king pillow cases. No top sheet (I don’t ever use them, hate making the bed with them, so I’m not going to spend the money on buying one).

You’re looking at $250+ for a set of Maceys or Dillards “high end” dept store branded sheets not on sale, so while they come with a top sheet that these wouldn’t have too- the leap in price for the (alleged) leap in quality seems worth it.

I didn’t get it, because I learned Sateen is what my wife prefers, but I think that if percale is what you crave, this is what I’d be hunting.

The Sereno is hard to find, and doesn’t appear to ever be on sale. And costs an arm and a leg. Also Percale, and more “substantial” than the most expensive offering (the Giza45), which some prefer. I would like to feel the difference between the three simply out of curiosity.

Which leads to the Giza45. The top of the food chain, and costs accordingly. OUTRAGEOUSLY priced. Offered in both Sateen and Percale.

But from all the reviews, those that are in to this kind of thing all seem to agree it’s head and shoulders above the rest. There’s a couple that say they didn’t find it worth paying for- they didn’t see the value in paying for the quality difference. I think this likely comes down to my points on “what are you really looking for?”

The consensus seems to widely agree that comparing Sferra’s Giza45 Egyptian cotton to all the other high end Egyptian cotton sheets, when comparing best to best across the brands, Sferra wins.

I ended up, through coupon stacking and redemption site use, getting a set of these for about half off. I have a feeling they will be very nice, but not necessarily “worth it”. I don’t think it’s reasonably possible for there to be a 10x difference, and I think it will take a couple years of use to come to a real final opinion. I think that I will like sleeping in them, that after years of nightly use the cost factor will be mitigated and I won’t be bothered by how much I spent. I also think that many years down the road, when it comes time to buy more sheets- I probably won’t splurge on them again.

But who knows? I’m hoping I’m proved wrong, but rational thought tells me that’s not likely to be the case. But- I’ve got to try them. And for half off, I took the plunge. I can afford it (to the point that this won’t affect my groceries, but I won’t be splurging on anything else anytime soon). And I sleep on them every night. Go big or go home, right?

The sheet arrived last night, and my first impression is that my initial assumptions are going to prove correct. They feel nice, but it’s still a sheet. We will see how they sleep.

The pillowcases came too- but were used Hudson Park collection pillowcases someone swapped out and returned to Bloomingdale’s. So, that was disappointing. I will sleep on these sheets next week when the replacements arrive, and give an update on my thoughts once I’ve spent some real time in them.

These listed options are all very expensive (to me anyway), and likely more expensive than most people are looking to spend, so I’ll reiterate:

6. Look for sales and coupon stack! Use Rakuten app + holiday sale + store promo text/email welcome offer to get expensive items for much much cheaper! If you have the patience to search a little each day, and can wait for that next holiday sale opportunity- you can pay entry to mid tier prices for the top end stuff.

Look on eBay (but know how to do your due diligence to avoid crap).

People worry about getting fakes, and you should. You need to know how to have some common sense around these things. But buying from the retail shop you need to also make sure you get what you paid for- ie someone didn’t swap out there cheaper stuff with the good stuff and return it (I just dealt with this- was no hassle from the store to replace, but what a let down when I was excited to get my hands on “the goods” to have to now wait another week on top). However, they can be found with diligent searching, on discount at eBay and at retailers on sale.

Hope this was helpful! Good luck!