Best Duvet Covers: Percale, Sateen and Linen Compared

Linen duvet covers from the well known bedding companies usually cost $300 and up. Bare Home's set is 100% European linen, OEKO-TEX Standard 100 certified, and comes with two standard shams for about half that. The cover measures 90 by 92 inches, with interior corner ties and faux coconut buttons at the foot.

Linen is the right fabric for a bed that should look slept in. It creases, it breathes, and the maker notes it softens and takes on a slight sheen as it is washed. For a guest room or a summer bed it is hard to beat at the price.

Skip it if you want a smooth, pressed look, or if you are sensitive to texture. New linen can feel dry for the first few washes, and it will never feel like sateen.

The catch. Buttons are slower to do up than a zipper, and linen wrinkles by nature.

Brooklinen's percale cover is 100% cotton at 270 thread count, OEKO-TEX certified, with long corner ties to hold the insert. It matches the brand's Classic percale sheets, so it is the simple way to make a bed that looks like one set rather than a collection of parts.

Percale this way is matte, cool and a little stiff when new. It softens with washing, which the maker recommends on a low tumble. Brooklinen offers 30 days to return or replace, and the brand runs promotions often enough that the list price is a ceiling rather than a rule.

Skip it if you want shams included; this is the cover alone. And if you run cold, the sateen version from the same company or the Boll & Branch below will feel warmer.

The catch. Cover only, no shams, and the fabric is crisp rather than soft for the first few washes.

Frette has supplied bed linen to grand hotels since the nineteenth century, and H by Frette is the line it makes for hotels and sells direct. The Percale Duvet Cover is 100% long staple cotton in all white, with the cool, crisp hand the maker recommends for people who sleep hot.

The appeal is how little there is to it. No piping, no embroidery, no color to fade. It looks like a hotel bed because it is the same product, and it goes with any white sheet you already own.

Skip it if you want the embroidered Frette look; that is the brand's own retail collection, at several times the price. This is the cover alone, without shams.

The catch. All white only, and plain enough that some buyers expect more for the name.

Boll & Branch's Signature fabric is long staple organic cotton woven four over one under, which gives it a soft sheen and a heavy, buttery drape. The set is the duvet cover and two shams, with hidden zipper closures and interior corner ties. The brand is Fair Trade Certified and traces its cotton from farm to finish.

The zipper matters more than it sounds. Changing a duvet cover is a two person job with buttons and a one person job with a good zipper. The maker says to wash cold, expect a little shrinkage, shake out between wash and dry, and tumble on medium.

Skip it if you sleep hot; sateen is the warmer weave. It also tends to pill and show wear sooner than percale, because the long surface floats catch.

The catch. The most expensive here, and sateen is the least durable of the three weaves.