These Durable Cotton Sheets Feel More Expensive Than They Are. They've Been Our Budget Pick Since 2016.
Alexander Aciman is an editor on the discovery team. He has written about pasta-making, running gear, and Wirecutter picks he has spotted on TV shows.
As the grandson of someone who once operated one of the largest Egyptian-cotton factories, I’ve always found sleeping on scratchy cotton sheets to be a source of embarrassment.
It isn’t that I’ve developed an aversion to low thread counts—rather, after spending hundreds of hours pinching cloth between my fingers and identifying fabrics by touch, I’ve developed an almost instinctual dislike of anything that would make my grandfather disappointed in me.
It’s also why, one afternoon almost 10 years ago, while browsing the aisles of Target, I absentmindedly swiped my finger across a set of Threshold sheets and immediately sensed: This doesn’t feel like cheap fabric.
Since then, I’ve almost exclusively used Threshold 400 Thread Count Performance Sheets at home.
I’ve slept on them on four different mattresses in three different apartments. As a lifelong fabric nerd and someone who should be in Guinness World Records under “World’s Worst Sleep Habits” (my internal alarm clock goes off at 3:30 a.m. most days), my relationships to other pieces of bedding have been disappointingly brief.
Budget pick
Offering high quality at a fantastic price, these sheets wrinkle more and are less breathable than other sateen sheets we’ve tested, but they’re just as soft as some we’ve tested that cost triple.
Buying Options
Target’s Threshold 400 Thread Count Performance Sheets have been Wirecutter’s long-reigning budget pick among cotton sheets since 2016, especially for dorm mattresses and guest rooms. But I’ve found that these sheets are great for more than just the occasional visit from out-of-town relatives—and that I prefer them to countless sheet sets I’ve slept on over the years, from Kirkland Signature to department-store brands. These aren’t the high-end sheets you might find at a resort, but at $60 for a king set, they’re comparable to sets that cost three times more.
Thoughtfully designed
The fitted sheets in this set come with two design features that many high-end sheets don’t have. The first is that the sides and top of the sheets are clearly labeled with a small tag, which means I don’t have to guess which side is which while making the bed (and probably misaligning my sheets anyway). The second is that they have an additional band of elastic on each corner, which allows them to stay nicely secured around the edge of the mattress (even on a deep, 14-inch mattress). I’ve rarely found the need to tug the sheets back over the mattress after a few days, as I often had with other sheets. Senior staff writer Elissa Sanci, who has owned various sets of these sheets for the past five years, says that she likes that they’re available in many different patterns, including delicate modern florals and subtle blue dots.
Silky-smooth cotton for picky sleepers
The feel is what really sets these sheets apart. The Threshold 400-count sheets are made from a sateen-weave cotton—a fabric that tends to be much softer to the touch than percale and typically comes out of the dryer looking considerably less wrinkled. “I have really sensitive skin and some sensory issues, so it’s always hard for me to find affordable sheets that I find comfortable that don’t irritate my skin,” says Elissa. “The Target Threshold sheets are basically the only sheets I own.”
The downside to sateen, compared with percale, is that it can pill or snag more easily, which has been my experience with these sheets; after about a year of regular use, some of my Threshold sheets begin to wear thin where I sleep, like a sad chalk body outline. And with the gray colors, I’ve experienced some discoloration after a few wash cycles.
These sheets don’t compete with high-end cotton sheets, nor are they intended to. But if the goal of luxury sheets is to keep their decadent comfort front of mind, the aim of cheap sheets is instead to go largely unnoticed, to be inoffensive enough that you don’t think about them again. Almost anyone who has spent a night in a cheap motel knows how difficult that is to achieve. And yet, Target’s Threshold sheets succeed spectacularly in that regard. In the past 10 years, I have never felt like I’m sleeping on cheap sheets. If anything, I am still always just a little pleasantly surprised by them.
This article was edited by Catherine Kast and Daniela Gorny.
