Good bed linen is one of the few household textiles that genuinely improves with age, provided it is laundered in a way that respects the weave. Long-staple cottons and linens used in fine bedding are woven more densely than an average sheet, and that density is exactly what a home wash can slowly undo.

At home, a normal warm wash with a standard detergent is perfectly fine for everyday cotton bedding, used weekly or fortnightly. The two things worth avoiding are high heat in the tumble dryer, which weakens the long fibres over time, and fabric softener, which coats the fibre and dulls the crispness that makes fine linen feel the way it does.

A hotel-standard finish is a different process entirely. It involves washing at a calibrated temperature specific to the fibre, pressing while the linen is still slightly damp on heated rollers, and finishing with a precise fold rather than a tumble-dry crease. That combination is what produces the flat, cool-to-the-touch feel associated with a well-run hotel bed, and it is very difficult to replicate with a domestic iron.

For everyday cotton sheets, a home wash is genuinely fine and there is no need to send them out. Where it is worth bringing linen to us is for pieces from brands like Frette or The White Company, for embroidered or monogrammed sets, and for anything that has started to look tired despite regular home washing – usually a sign of mineral build-up from hard water that a home machine cannot reverse.

We collect and finish bedding on the same schedule as everyday garments, so there is no need to treat it separately when booking – just let us know what is in the bag.