When choosing new bed linen, you’ll probably spend plenty of time thinking about the colour, size and thread count. But there’s another detail that can make just as much difference to how your bedding feels: the weave.
Two terms you’ll often come across when shopping for cotton bed linen are percale and sateen. Both can be made using high-quality cotton, but the way the threads are woven gives each fabric a noticeably different feel.
Percale tends to feel crisp, light and cool, while sateen has a smoother, softer finish with a subtle sheen. Neither is necessarily better than the other. It really comes down to how you like your bed linen to feel.
What Is Percale Bedding?
Percale is made using a simple one-thread-over, one-thread-under weave. This creates a close, even fabric with the crisp finish that percale is known for.
Think of the feel of a freshly laundered cotton shirt or crisp hotel bed linen. Percale has a smooth but slightly structured feel, rather than the silky finish you get with sateen. It also tends to have a more matt appearance, making it a good choice if you prefer simple, fresh-looking white bed linen.
Our 200 thread count cotton bedding uses fine percale cotton, giving it that cool, crisp feel while remaining soft and comfortable. Percale can be particularly suited to:
- People who prefer bedding that feels fresh and crisp.
- Warmer bedrooms and summer months.
- Anyone who tends to get hot during the night.
- Those who prefer a matt rather than silky finish.
One thing to bear in mind is that the naturally crisp fabric can crease more readily than sateen. For many people, however, those slight creases are simply part of the relaxed look and feel of pure cotton bedding.
What Is Sateen Bedding?
Sateen is woven differently. Instead of every thread passing over and under the next, threads pass over several others before going underneath. That small change in the weave creates quite a different fabric.
Cotton sateen sheets feel smoother and softer against the skin, with a gentle sheen that catches the light. The fabric also tends to drape more closely around the bed, giving it a softer and slightly more luxurious appearance.
Our 800 thread count bedding uses a cotton sateen fabric with a smooth finish and a more substantial feel.
Sateen could be the better choice if you:
- Prefer particularly smooth and soft bed linen.
- Like bedding with a subtle sheen.
- Want a slightly heavier, more substantial fabric.
- Prefer bed linen that has a softer, more flowing appearance.
Sateen also tends to resist creasing a little better than crisp percale, although we would never recommend choosing your sheets purely on the amount of ironing involved!
Percale vs Sateen: What’s the Main Difference?
The easiest way to understand percale vs sateen is simply to compare how they feel. Percale is crisp, light and fresh. Sateen is smooth, soft and more silky to the touch.
Their appearance is slightly different too. Percale normally has a clean, matt finish, while sateen has a subtle lustre.
Despite these differences, both can be made from excellent quality cotton. The words percale and sateen describe how the fabric is woven rather than the quality of the cotton itself.
That’s an important distinction when buying new sheets. A high thread count on its own doesn’t automatically tell you how the bedding will feel. The quality of the cotton, the weave and how the fabric is finished all play a part. We explain this in more detail in our guide to bedding thread counts.