Cotton vs. Linen Bedding: Which Should You Choose?

Choosing the right bedding is one of the most important decisions for your home. It’s the first thing you feel when you slide into bed and the last thing you touch before you get up for the day, so finding the perfect fabric is a recipe for a blissful night's sleep.

But with so many lovely options, where do you begin? Two of the absolute most popular choices are cotton bedding and 100% linen bedding. So, which is better for your bed? 

It’s a debate as old as the hills, and one Molly could waffle on about for hours. Both are wonderful natural fibres and make great sheets, but they have very different qualities and, most importantly, they feel completely different.

Before you get your duvet in a twist, deliberating the yays and nays of each, let's take a deeper look at what makes both of these materials so brilliant. 

Made from flax fibres, linen has been grown for thousands of years and is one of the world’s oldest and most prized fabrics; it was even the textile of choice for Roman togas. Thought of as nature's wicking fibre, linen has unique filtering and moisture-absorbing qualities, making it resistant to bacteria and the perfect non-allergenic bedding.

Simply put, linen can absorb up to 20% of its weight in moisture before ever feeling damp. This makes our 100% linen bedding a fab choice for warm sleepers.

Bulldogs, Helen Mirren, and your much-loved sweater all prove that wrinkles are great. That's why, despite linen being notoriously prone to creasing, we think every crumple adds to its charm. Perfectly imperfect, it creates a relaxed look that’s both chic and wonderfully inviting.

Like all good things, linen gets better with time and softer with each wash. For maximum snuggability, we recommend washing at 40-degrees. Then, get the bunting out, because one of the best things about 100% linen is that there’s no need to iron. Throw it straight from the line onto your bed and try to resist jumping straight in.

You can find more tips in our linen bedding care guide.

If you’re a stickler for polished perfection and a crease-free bed, our cotton bedding collection is the one for you. The cotton plant yields fluffy clusters called bolls that, once woven, produce fibres significantly finer than linen. Unlike linen, which softens over time, cotton is at its cushiest right out of the packaging.

Depending on your preferred feel, you can take your pick from our choice of cotton finishes:

• Percale Cotton: For a crisp, cool hotel-style finish that's light and breathable.

• Sateen Cotton: For a silky-smooth feel with a subtle, luxurious sheen.

• Washed Cotton: For that relaxed, easy-going feel from the very first night.

Caring for cotton requires a little more effort, especially if you want to achieve percale’s crisp finish. It’s best not to wash your sheets with non-textile items (no trainers or zips please) and to avoid overloading your machine. Dry flat or on a washing line, then use a medium to hot iron to smooth your folded pillowcases, duvet covers, and sheets. To turn ironing into a treat rather than a chore, pour a glass of vino and turn up the speaker.

Read our cotton bedding care guide here.

Cotton sheets are the cheaper of the two because cotton is more widely produced and costs less to manufacture. Creating linen is certainly a lengthy, labour-intensive process. Our flax is grown in France, then finished and dyed in Portugal. First, it's harvested and dried, then the seeds are removed, and the longest fibres are extracted from the stalk. Finally, these are knitted together to form the textile.

We spend such a large portion of our lives in bed, with the average person sleeping for 229,961 hours in their lifetime (that’s a heck of a lot of ZZZs), so making the right bedding choice is certainly important.

But in the end, the choice between cotton and linen really does come down to personal preference and your unique sleep personality.

• Choose linen if... You love a relaxed, lived-in look, you tend to sleep warm, and you want to invest in bedding that will last a lifetime.

• Choose cotton if... You adore a classic, crisp hotel sheet feeling, and you want instant softness in a variety of textures.

Head to our guides for more information:

• Why choose linen bedding

• Why choose cotton bedding

And if you’re still unsure, why not try both? Dive into our full bedding collection or explore more top home style tips over on our blog.