Best Percale Sheets – Top 8 Picks for 2024

Updated on July 1, 2022

At the end of a long day, one of the best feelings is to slide between cool sheets to get ready for a good night’s rest. Percale sheets are great for that! They’re cool and also crisp, kind of like the sheets your grandma used to have.

Percale actually refers to a specific type of weave pattern. Some people think percale is a fabric, like cotton or linen. But that’s not the case. Percale is actually a specific type of weave pattern. It refers to how the threads are woven together.

In this guide, we’ll explain what to keep an eye on when you’re looking to buy percale sheets. And you’ll also find the best percale sheets that are available on Amazon. Here is a sneak peak to our top list of percale sheets :


In This Article

Best Percale Sheets of 2022 | What Is Percale | What to Look for in Percale Sheets


Best Percale Sheets of 2022

Best overall: Peru Pima sheets

There’s a lot to consider when buying a great percale sheet set and Peru Pima is our best overall pick for a number of reasons. They use extra-long staple cotton fibers, which makes the set high quality and durable. In fact, many 5- and 4-star hotels buy their bedding from Peru Pima. For example Marriott, Sheraton, Hilton by Doubletree. These Peru Pima sheets are OEKO TEX certified, which means they are not treated with harmful chemicals. The sheets are great for you and also for the planet, we love that!

The thread count of this sheet set is 415, which gives the sheets a touch of crispiness that adds character. But they’re not lacking in softness or comfort. The thread count also allows the sheets to breathe well and are perfect for sweaty sleepers. They also have other good qualities. Like the great moisture wicking ability. If you need an extra pair of pillowcases, you can get them from Peru Pima. You’ll also get a nice surprise when you see the packaging. It’s a truly good combination of a high quality sheet, reasonable price, and great delivery.

Sizes: Twin, Twin XL, Full, Queen, King, Cal King

Colors: Ash Gray, Burgundy, White, Latte, and more

Price: From $99.99

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Best value: Sleep Mantra sheets

Sleep Matra sheets are produced with a lot of care. The cotton is organic, GMO free and they use low impact natural dyes. Percale sheets are lighter than sateen sheets. And they’re also crispier and cooler. As all cotton sheets, they are prone to wrinkling, but that’s just the nature of the cotton fabric. You can always iron the sheets, or even put them on the bed right away after drying. This helps the wrinkles to naturally even out.

These Sleep Mantra sheets deserve our best value prize, because they’re a wonderful balance of comfort, sustainability and price.

Sizes: Twin, Twin XL, Full, Queen, King, Cal King

Colors: Blue, Blush Pink, Dark Gray, and more

Price: From $49.99

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Most comfortable: Tommy Hilfiger sheets

Tommy Hilfiger is a brand that doesn’t need much introduction for many of us. They’re known for their great quality clothes, footwear and accessories. But did you know that they also sell amazing sheet sets? Like this 200 thread count percale sheets. The sheets are light, crisp, comfortable, great quality and come in a range of colors. With their OKEO TEX certification, you can be sure that they’re tested for harmful substances.

Sizes: Twin, Twin XL, Full, Queen, King

Colors: Pink, Light Blue, Red, Dark Blue, and more

Price: From $41.99

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Best color selection: Lacoste sheets

If you like your sheets crispy, natural and colorful, Lacoste is the way to go! The sheet set is more on the thin side and breathes very well. Lacoste’s color selection includes a range of warm and cold rainbow colors, so there’s a lot to choose from. At first, the sheets may feel a bit rough, but that’s normal with cotton. You just need to wash them and you’ll see that they will become softer after every wash.

Sizes: Twin, Twin XL, Full, Queen, King, Cal King

Colors: Allure Blue, Cameo Green, Chili Pepper, Dark Gray, and more

Price: From $46.99

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Best pattern selection: Trident sheets

These Trident sheets have so many things going for them. We picked them out as the percale sheets with the best pattern. And they absolutely deliver on that front! But not only do they have beautiful prints, they’re also very soft. This is thanks to the peach finish that Trident uses. These sheets are also OEKO-TEX certified, which means the manufacturing process does not include harmful chemicals.

Sizes: Twin, Full, Queen, King

Colors: Agatha, Amabella Blue, Amabella Pink, Blume, and more

Price: From $36.99

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Best Egyptian cotton: Sweave sheets

Many consider Egyptian cotton as the pinnacle of luxury. But there are many manufacturers that misuse this label – they say they’re selling Egyptian cotton sheets, while the cotton doesn’t actually come from Egypt. Lucky for us, Sweave has the real deal. The source their cotton from Egypt and their sheets are great quality ones. We absolutely love that like many other products in our best percale sheets selection, these Sweave sheets are also OEKO-TEX certified. The sheets are cool, crisp, and soft – a perfect combo!

Sizes: Twin, Full, Queen, King, Cal King, Split King

Colors: Blush Pink, Light Gray, Navy, Sage, and more

Price: From $59.99

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Best organic: Fabdreams sheets

Percale sheets are known for their crispiness and coolness, which allows hot sleepers to have a better rest. These Fabdreams sheets give you another reason to have a restful night’s sleep – they’re GOTS certified. GOTS stands for the Global Organic Textile Standard. A GOTS certification gives you the confidence that the fibers are organically sourced, harmful chemicals are not used, the workers are treated ethically, and the whole processing cycle is sustainable. The packaging is a great example! The sheets come in a reusable and totelly adorable tote bag. As for the sheets, they’re amazing soft, cool and crisp.

Sizes: Twin, Twin XL, Full, Queen, King, Cal King

Colors: Dark Blue, Dark Gray, Ivory, Light Gray, and more

Price: From $78.99

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Best luxury: Thomas Lee sheets

This Thomas Lee’s bedding set is pure luxury. The percale sheets are made from Pima cotton that is fully grown in the US and the sheets are manufactured in India. With a 500 thread count, they are more on the heavy side. There are a few things that really make Thomas Lee’s sheets stand out. The thread count and percale weave give them a nice crispiness. It’s this special type of crispiness that is hard to come by. The one that takes you back to your childhood. The sheets are generously over-sized in the old fashioned way, so they’re sure to fit your mattress. Even if it’s a thick one, like 18”. The whole sheet set is a truly good quality one and the price reflects that.

Sizes: Full, Queen, Cal King

Colors: White, Ivory

Price: From $268

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What Is Percale

Percale sheets are sheets that have a specific type of weave called percale. The percale weave is quite simple. It’s a criss-cross pattern where one thread is woven over, one thread under. This pattern is actually the same as plain weave but percale has a more tight weave. This gives the sheet a fine texture and a more matte finish.

Percale wave is lightweight, durable, breathes well, and has a crisp feel to it. It’s the most common weave for bed sheets and the best fit for most people. This type of weave is mostly characteristic of cotton sheets. But you can also find different blends. Such as cotton and bamboo, or cotton and microfiber sheets with a percale weave.

Image of Percale Thread - Best Percale Sheets

The word percale likely originates from the Persian word pargālah, which means rag. This is not something that is actually characteristic of percale sheets. Percale weave has a cool and crisp feel to it. The tighter the weave, the smoother the sheets are to the touch. Percale sheets are durable and get softer with every wash. Many people have had percale sheets in their childhood. And when they’re older, they start looking for that same crispiness. Just like the sheets at their Grandma’s. If you’re one of those people, we have good news for you.

Percale vs Sateen

Percale and sateen are both a type of weave. As we saw above, in a percale weave the threads are woven in a one-under-one-over pattern. In a sateen weave, the pattern is three-over-one-under. This small difference in the style of weaving results in a very different feel.

Percale sheets are crisp and breathable. In fact, they are so crisp that in the beginning thy can make a noise when you move on them. But they generally get softer as you wash them. The good thing is that they still keep their breathability.

Sateen sheets on the other hand have a looser feel to them. They’re smoother and silkier. But also tend to be warmer and heavier, due to the higher thread count and style of weave.

Which Is Better : Cotton Percale or Cotton Sateen

To be honest, it’s not possible to say that one is better than the other. It ultimately depends on your own preference. If you like crispier and cooler sheets, cotton percale is the better choice for you. However, if you prefer a soft and silky feel, you should go with cotton sateen.

What to Look for in Percale Sheets

There are three main things that you should look for before buying a percale sheet. These are the type of cotton, the thread count, and certification. Let’s unpack all of them.

Type of Cotton

Cotton is considered a good, natural, breathable fabric. But not all cotton is the same. As a rule of thumb, long and extra-long staple cotton produces higher quality bedding. Longer staples make the sheet more durable and softer compared to short staples. But naturally, they are a bit more expensive.

There are also different types of cotton. Egyptian cotton and Pima cotton (including the trademarked Supima cotton) are usually higher quality ones, because their fibers are long or extra-long. Upland cotton is generally cheaper because it has shorter fibers, which leads to more pilling and the sheets breaking.

Thread Count

Thread count is a number that shows how many threads there are in one square inch of fabric. It includes both the horizontal and vertical threads that have been woven together.

The mistake that many of us make is thinking that a high thread count means better quality. That’s not how it works though. There are a lot of manufacturers who artificially inflate the thread count, hoping that people will think it’s a better quality product. While in reality they use low quality threads in the fabric. We unpack this more in our article about High Thread Count Sheets.

For a percale sheet, don’t go lower than a 180 thread count – those sheets will tear more easily. The perfect range is somewhere around 200 and 500. We recommend keeping away from percale sheets that have a really high thread count, because they don’t breathe very well. So a 1000 thread count percale sheet is probably not worth your money.

Certification

For percale sheets, keep an eye out for 2 main certifications: OEKO-TEX and GOTS

  • OEKO-TEX has many different certifications actually. The one that applies most to percale sheets is the OEKO-TEX Standard 100. It guarantees that all components of the product have been tested for harmful chemicals and they’re harmless for human health. Pretty wonderful, right?
  • GOTS stands for Global Organic Textile Standard and it is the worldwide leading textile processing standard for organic fibers. A GOTS certified percale sheet guarantees many things : that the fibers are fully organic, that harmful chemicals were not used in the process, that workers receive ethical treatment, and that the whole processing cycle is sustainable.