I need a new comforter, and have been looking for some BIFL types. I found a duvet and comforter on Cuddledown that I like, found some upvotes on this sub about them.

The catch - they are super expensive, and the reviews on outside websites are TERRIBLE (sitejabber, BBB, and trustpilot). Not a 3/5 star, but actually 1 star.

What are your opinions on your Cuddledown products? These reviews have spooked me.

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!

I'm looking at their 400TC Sateen Duvet. Would you say this is better or worse than Brooklinen? Does anyone have a duvet by Cuddledown?

On recommendation from here a D based on good reviews in Good Housekeeping I ordered a queen size deep pocket set. They arrived today. Wrong. I got a flat sheet and pillowcases in the correct color and another flat sheet in a different one. No fitted sheet at all. It's labeled as if it were, but it's not. I'm beyond annoyed especially given the price of these sheets. I've contacted them via their website. I'll see what happens. But no new sheets for me this weekend.

Looking at a full new sheet set plus euro pillows and duvet cover + insert. I had been looking at Cuddledown based on the recommendation in wirecutter for their 400 TC Sateen sheets and duvet cover.

I was a little turned off by how they do shipping as a percentage of the order total. And while the products seem to be decently reviewed, their customer service seemed to have abysmal reviews which had me worried in case anything goes wrong.

So. I’m here looking for alternatives in a similar price range which is about $2k total for a sateen king sheet set, euro shams/covers, and a king or oversized king duvet insert & cover.

I want to replace my down comforter.

In the past I have been reasonably satisfied with the ones I got from The Company Store.

I live in a relatively warm climate but use air conditioning and so I don't need a really warm fill - basic fill has been fine but I have never used the "summer" type of fills.

I have been thinking of purchasing a Cuddledown comforter. How is the actual quality because the reviews seem to focus on customer service and I am assuming that there is always going to be some percentage of issues with shipping or whatever.

For reasons which are important to me, I use a colored down comforter as it is more comfortable for me and simplifies my life immensely - any advice to use a white comforter is irrelevant to my me 🤷🏼‍♀️

Price is not that relevant to my decision although I don't want to spend $3000 but I am willing to spend a reasonable amount for what I need.

Thanks

Hello! I am sorry about the format, I am on mobile!

Today I took my girlfriend and I’s bedsheets to the laundry mat and I lost our pillow sheets! These are her favorite because her grandmother gave them to her in 2019! I was looking for the exact pair for hours and haven’t stopped crying because I know they meant a lot to her!

I figured out where they are from, but can’t find any for purchase! Please help me find them she is devastated.

TL; DR

Cuddledown doesn’t actually mark their items down correctly despite advertising them being on sale. Make sure you do the math yourself before buying.

Long version

Bought an entire suite of bedding last year from Cuddledown and was generally impressed with the quality. I especially liked the fact that they offer their sheets much longer than others (115 inches). I also bought the European fleece cotton blanket and was very happy. It held up to many washings and maintained its softness while being 100% cotton.

Despite being annoyed by their Macy’s pricing model (basically variable pricing, always one sale or another such that only people paying full price are uninitiated), I went back to purchase more this season.

I waited for the Black Friday sale (25% off site-wide) and went to order another European cotton blanket reg $219 Black Friday sale $183. I put it in my cart and waited. For those new to Cuddledown, if you wait a day or so, you will get an email about forgetting your cart and they will offer free shipping.

For various reason, I didn’t order right away which wasn’t a big deal because Cuddledown always extends the sale (which they did here). Well, to my surprise, yesterday they changed the discount to 30% site-wide.

Ok, went to order and the price was still $183. I removed the item from my cart and re-added. Same price. Had a friend so it. Same price. Now I’m intrigued so I did the math and 30% off $219 should be $153.30.

So either their e-commerce system is broken or they are just hoping people (like myself) don’t check.

Pretty much turns me off to Cuddledown at this point.

TL;DR: I’m looking for a king sized top sheet 400 thread count sateen (any color) that I would be willing to buy if you aren’t using it

Basically, my friend bought me “sheets” but only bought me the fitted because she doesn’t use the top sheet. I don’t really want to spend $90 on a top sheet only but having that really helps me stay cool at night. Anyone have a king sized flat sheet 400 thread count sateen that they aren’t using that I can buy from you? I don’t even care what color it is!

So I just bought a new bed and I’m finally able to make my floofy dream cloud come true.

However, all the comforter/quilt/duvet inserts I’ve looked at look like sad, pathetic, gangly slices of depression and I would really love to be able to jump onto cotton candy and fucking sunshine!!

Does anyone know how I can achieve this? I don’t care about it being warm or what it’s made of I would just like it to be crazy fluffy and soft.

Thanks!

Hey all,

I recently got a new memory foam mattress and the sheets I've been using for years just refuse to stay on, they were definitely designed for a thinner mattress.

I've gotten a couple sets over the last few months but they're way too scratchy for me. One was target jersey cotton and the other was from ugg, I know they were cotton but i'm not exactly sure otherwise.

The main issue is I have a lot of issues with dry skin, and the feeling of dry skin on sheets really bothers me to the point that I can't sleep. The one's i've had for years feel great, all I know is they're cotton from walmart, so it's nothing fancy. I'm assuming the number of times they've been washed is why they feel so good on my skin.

Does anyone have any suggestions for the smoothest sheets you know? I tend to not have any problems with hotel sheets, but I wouldn't even know where to start there.

Thanks in advance!

Just recently upgraded my bed from a full size to a queen. Looking for a good place to buy new sheets and a good duvet or comforter! I am located in the USA. I run hot while I sleep and am trying to find good cooling sheets and bedding as well if anyone has tips:)

I’ve searched tons of threads and was looking at Costco’s Downlite hotel & resort Hungarian white goose comforter, but it seems too light for her. She’s perpetually cold and I want super fluffy and less flat. Then I found Feathered Friends’ Bavarian 700, but it’s out of stock 😭 I don’t feel like Ikea or Amazon brands would be top-tier quality? I’d prefer not to spend more than $500 for a king but will spend up to $1k if it’s worth it.

Is it better to stuff two duvets in one cover, and if so, anyone have good experience with this method with specific brands? I just want her to be comfy for the winter and years beyond. She just had several uncomfortable surgeries.

Last question, are down alternatives as comfy as down comforters themselves? She won’t care what’s in it if it’s gloriously comfortable.

Please help me out if you can, any suggestions and firsthand experiences are greatly appreciated 🙏🏼 I’m definitely not a bedding aficionado

Does anyone have sheets or duvet in Cuddledown's color sapphire? It looks like it's almost a teal color on the website, but I'd love to hear from someone who has seen it in person. Thanks!

I am desperately trying to find a new set of white sheets that are soft. In the past I have bought the charisma sateen 600 thread count sheets from Costco and loved them. The quality isn’t great and they have ripped in the corners and need a replacement. I have also tried all of the Kirkland brand sheets from Costco and loved them in the past but they have also worn out. I have recently bought and had to return them because they aren’t aren’t soft enough for me, the last set that I bought were 800 thread count and were a little to thick, scratchy and loud if that makes sense 😂. My husband thinks I’m nuts but I feel like quality has gone down everywhere and cost has gone up. I’ve bought multiple other sheets and returned after pulling out a pillowcase and realizing they just aren’t soft. I’ve purchased charter club at Macys and had to return those. My friend had a set that is slept on in her vacation home and they seemed much softer. I was thinking of purchasing the west elm 600tc sateens sheets but I can’t find any reviews on them. I was also going to buy the macys hotel collection sheets but the recent reviews don’t seem great. I would love to spend $1,200 on sheets but that’s just not feasible. I would like to stay under $300 if possible. I don’t think I would like a percale, the whole crisp sheet thing doesn’t interest me, I want buttery soft. Please help! I would also like to add I purchased my daughter the organic cotton sheets from pottery barn kids and in my opinion are not soft at all if that gives anyone a better idea of what I consider soft. I am currently sleeping wrapped in a soft blanket in bed because it’s cold so it’s working for now because I can’t stand the new sheets on the bed though my husband thinks they’re fine.

Wow. Total bait and switch with this company.

I thought I was creating a password, but apparently I signed up for "VIP service" for a monthly recurring charge. I realized the mistake and immediately called to cancel, but they told me I would have to call back in three days! WTF? Aren't there consumer protection laws against companies like this?

They have lost my business forever. Buyer BEWARE.