Is pure plain white bedlinen a silly idea?

[naturelover]

I love the idea of crisp white sheets and duvet cover. But would it become grubby with time? How would I wash it to keep it bright and white? What thread count is worth paying extra for?

Also, does anyone have actual linen, not cotton, sheets? I always assumed linen would be scratchy... what's it actually like to sleep in?

This is for me and DH of course, the kids can have something patterned and coloured as long as possible!

Thanks in advance

Have to confess I have a linen shirt and hate ironng it - even when its damp. Linen sheets might just drive me over the edge.

Out of interest, does anyone have a table iron? They look great for sheets. Looking for an excuse to get one when our hand held iron packs in.

I've never ironed bedlinen - is it really necessary? Just shake out flat and hang out to dry (or hang up in front of a heater in winter).

White is nice and 600-800 thread count if you can find it is very lovely to sleep under.

Wash at 60 on a longer wash once in a while is needed (especially when DW hair colour sort of leaks out a bit).

We used to have one of those roller iron things at home my mum used to use - now we have an ironing lady but she always leaves sheets / duvets to last and sometimes runs out of time - she is good value though so doing the odd sheet is Ok once in a while.

But re linen clothes, we got a super-fabby Bosch iron free with a washing machine last year and it's brilliant. I would never have splashed out on an expensive iron as I rarely iron - but now I see what you pay for! It jets loads of steam and zaps anything first time, even heavy linen.

High thread count White cotton is delicious especially in the summer!

I love white linen/cotton bed clothes. So much easier to buy everything white as then you don't have to bother matching things up when making the bed.

Not silly, but it's terribly dull. You could have one set of pure white for high summer.

And no, it doesn't get "grubby with time" if you wash it properly!

It is easier with household items if you go with a white theme. So I buy white sheets and pillowcases but add a bit of colour with the duvet cover (which, of course, means mainly white but with a splash of colour).
Ditto with crockery: my plates etc are white with a green rim so my motley collection of white serving dishes match with everything.

I want to know more about juneybean's melted black rubber.

Another white cotton sheets & duvet here. It must be 100% cotton though, cannot abide the feel of any of the polycotton stuff.

It can be quite hard to find pure cotton though, as lots seem to by easy iron, or something else which actually means that it has some polyester in it.

We have some from IKEA and it is lovely, I was suprised it was so good. Also M&S etc; sadly I can't afford The White Company, and we don't have a John Lewis here in N Ireland yet.

My white towels are all grey - especially hand towels- how do i keep them white??

Another fan (had the same initial reservations as you).

We got ours from this place (having stayed on their linen whilst on holiday):

www.thebestbedlinenintheworld.com/

All white high thread count cotton bed linen here. If washed only with other white stuff at 60 degrees and hung out in the sunshine to dry it stays beautifully white.

Prewash with a bit of Biotex does the trick if it gets stained (spaniel related mud in our house).

Another "white" fan here - and no, it doesn't get grubby.

The bottom sheet gets changed/washed every week and the duvet and pillow cases once a fortnight. It's the White Company pin tuck 200 count sutff (bought with 15% off as a Christmas present to myself), so it doesn't show the creases although I do like to iron the pillow cases. Bottom sheet is fitted so the creases get stretched out!

Agree with others that the white wash is easy to do - it's a full load when I am doing everything (especially as the bed is superking size)and on the alternate weeks I put in white towels.

Agree about the polycotton stuff: my second set is polycotton and I have a really threadbare (ie with holes) old White Company 100% cotton set and if for whatever reason I haven't managed to get the "good" set washed and dried within a day, I'll put the threadbare set on rather than the polycotton.

senua - another white crockery person here. A lot easier to replace the odd broken, cracked and chipped piece. We have a mix of three sets of white crockery on our shelf for every day use and it really is impossible to tell it comes from 3 partial sets. Gets slammed in and out of the dishwasher every day so no point in being precious. Restaurants have white crockery for the same reason.

Often white crockery is sold off cheap in places like Cargo at end of season. We have coloured mugs for coffee but that is our only sin.

I have this set in Ivory here. It is a lot of money but beautiful. Makes going to bed a treat. My Mum and sister have it too.

www.qvcuk.com/ukqic/qvcapp.aspx/view.2/app.detail/walk.yah.UKHG~UK97

We are also all white fans here, one of our duvet sets was bought by DH from Habitat when we first got together 13 years ago and is still lovely and white.

The trick is to forget white for dc's, mine love jersey bedding so they have a variety of colours - it's like sleeping in a t-shirt.

There's nothing like slipping into freshly cleaned and ironed sheets after a warm bath - hmm, I might just nip upstairs now.

We have all white but only a cheap set - wish I could afford White Company. It's kept it's whiteness really well. Our room is all white with white walls and white furniture - it's the most simply decorated room in the house and I love it the most! It's so restful.

Also a fan of white here. M&S 400 thread count stuff is lovely and very hard wearing. I wash mine of 60 too.

Love white bedclothes! I only wash whites with whites, at 60 degrees if obviously soiled, and dry them outside in the sun if possible; works amazingly well.

Not linen, but John Lewis usually do amazing deals on beautiful high-thread-count sheets, duvets and pillow cases in their sales; it's where we've got all our really nice and hard-wearing sheets from. I find White Company mega pricy for the quality, I'm afraid (though I do really love their things!)

I like white provided it has a bit of colour or decoration so it isn't completely boring.

But since DH came along I don't like to buy white any more, or at least not for the duvet cover etc where it shows, because he is too hairy! It is mostly his chest actually but when he moults curly hairs everywhere they do look just like pubes which looks a bit grim all over the bed! And I don't have time to spend ages making beds and brushing off hairs... so now I go for something with a bit more colour so you don't see them.

do it do it do it
get a really high thread counts

linen is fab but it needs imo to be worn in

tk maxx v good for cheap high thread count sheets

yy on tkmaxx. white here too on bedding and towels, bath mats. can't imagine coloured towels, esp dark. would feel like they're not clean

ooh er, , man has just walked past my house in shorts, no shirt?

I agree about TK Maxx - I've bought bottom sheets from there. The range of superking size duvet covers with matching large pillow cases is limited though (that's why I end up with White Company at sale time/using a discount voucher)

I have a few different sets of white cotton bed linen (wouldn't consider poly/cotton!) and definitely prefer the really soft lightweight ones. I don't think linen would be for me, just far too heavy, course and scratchy. My favourite at the moment (especially on warm summer nights) is this sateen bed linen I bought recently. It does actually have a much higher thread count than all the other stuff I have and the sateen weave just means it has a really soft and smooth feel without being all shiny and dodgy-looking!

I don't have a problem keeping the whites white as we don't have pets etc. It always helps to only wash whites with other white washing.

That said, I've always liked white towels too but have recently made the switch to a new set of coloured ones (natural colour) to match the bathroom tiles. They make the white ones look really grim!