Summer linens

Bed, bath, and beyond.

04 Jul

Dirt contributors and friends on their favorite bedspreads, kitchen linens, towels, and more.

There’s a Joni Mitchell song for every season, and at the peak of summer, it’s hard to choose a better one than “Carey,” from her 1971 album Blue. The lyrics sheet is replete with perfect little details—the beach tar, the wind in from across the Mediterranean, and of course “my clean white linen and my fancy french cologne,” an image so irresistible she had to use it twice. 

And what a blessing clean white linens are in the summer, when we most often find ourselves sweaty, grimy, or just plain wet (intentionally or otherwise). In these hot-and-growing-hotter months, they’re the perfect intersection of comfort and luxury, not—as a wise person once said—an expensive thing that is worse. We rounded up some Dirt contributors and friends to share their favorite bedspreads, kitchen linens, towels, and more; read on for their recommendations. —Walden Green

This roundup was voted on by the Dirt Founder Pass holders.

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As someone who spends whatever iota of free time I have thrifting online, I have seen my fair share of cute, pre-loved summer linens. My favorite eBay acquisition is this set of hand-embroidered anthropomorphic kitchen towels and pot holders. These fruits and veggies that adorn these vintage pieces have cheery names with plenty of alliteration, ranging from Benny Banana to Tommy Tomato.

I think there’s something so charming about these silly little mascots, à la those old California Raisins or Fruit of the Loom commercials. I moved into my boyfriend Jason’s apartment in Greenpoint a couple weeks ago, and I’m sad to say that this produce-themed set is somewhere deep in my storage unit but I am dying to dig them out soon. The eBay seller no longer has the ones I bought available, but they do have kitchen towels with embroidered kittens for sale that are as (if not more) adorable. 



I also recently ordered this 100% cotton Miffy oven mitt and pot holder set from Just Peachy that just spoke to me. I can never have enough kitchen accessories and it makes me excited to bake more desserts. Will keep you posted when they arrive in my mailbox!

The family lore is that at some point, my mother-in-law's dining table, with its dark, intricately carved legs and heavy oak top, was hit by a German U bomber when her own mother was having it shipped over from England to Montreal. Despite being hit, the table survived and the only remaining evidence of its near-destruction is a slight warp in its centre. It's an interesting table, beautiful and heavy and according to my husband, a non-negotiable in our house, it being one of the few things he wanted to keep after his parents died a few years ago. In the winter, the darkness anchors the rest of our small, bright house, makes everything feel a little cozier but in the summer it can feel impossibly intrusive, like it takes up the whole open concept room.

So short of divorce, I've become a tablecloth person, I love crisp cottons and soft linens that help bring some lightness both emotional and physical to the table. For awhile I thrifted these but like with Shein's polyester dominance in the clothing racks, so too has the quality of linens declined at the secondhand stores. I finally found the perfect new version from HAY last year, cotton with some texture, cream-colored but with a surprising shock of color in the outline. Easy to wash, even with strawberry and cherry season at full tilt in my house (3 kids devour an insane amount of red fruit) and charming even when it's wrinkly because despite a love for tablecloths I'm not quite trad enough to iron them.

If I could live anywhere, it would be at Peddler's Village, an outdoor shopping and dining complex in Bucks County, Pennsylvania, where there's always a fruit festival happening (strawberries in May, Apples in October) and the shops traffic in scented candles made by the Amish, needlepoint pillows depicting rare dog breeds, and kitchen towels that look straight out of Grandma's House central casting.

Since Peddler's Village isn't the kind of mixed-use development that has apartments over the Irish imports store (free idea, developers!), I make due by shopping for linens and other assorted housewares at April Cornell, a retailer I discovered via catalogs that started coming to my house after I ordered a set of floral sheets from the Vermont Country Store (which I'd also recommend, btw). April’s (she's a real person!)'s linens are pleasingly sackcloth-y, embroidered with blueberries (kitchen towels) and printed with ditsy florals rendered in bright colors for summer, warmer shades for winter. The fabrics are pleasant to the touch—think crisp cotton pillowcases and hefty linen napkins, and the detail, from print to embroidery, is always much nicer than it needs to be for the (very reasonable, IMHO) price points. You can shop online, of course, but to get the full experience I'd suggest getting one of the brand's paper catalogues, pouring a large glass of iced tea, and flipping through the pages while a cozy coffeshop-style YouTube video plays in the background. It's what I'm doing right now!

Unless you're unbelievably loaded, you can't just replace your furniture as your tastes evolve, but one thing I learned is that you can zhuzh it up, just like you can dress up and transform some basic clothing—say, a plain white dress—with a host of different silk scarves to achieve a few different looks.

Currently, my favorite product category in this regard is, for lack of a better term, an artsy blanket, preferably in cotton—think of those thick woven or embroidered throws that actually depict something. It allows me to enjoy the crisp, artificial breeze provided by having central air without having me descend into full-body shivers. 

I am partial to Olivia Wendel’s creations, which depict animals in a style that, to me, looks like a hybrid between Matisse and Yoshitaka Amano. The Blue Cheetahs blanket and the Peaceful Swans blanket can make even the most sterile and corporate-adjacent piece of upholstery look whimsical. 

And while I don’t own a Wendel creation yet—but I will once some outstanding payments clear—I was lucky enough to nab a Clare Ritchie blanket from Slow Down studio. Check out their selection if you’re more into abstract art than elegant animals. I would not say no to the Thurston Knit Blanket or the Melba Throw.

PS: If you like bed sheets in 100% linen I know that Bed Threads has superior marketing and photography, but I can tell you from experience that I found many good dupes on Amazon. 

An honor to be asked. I love the artist edition towels from Plunge. I know they're supposed to be for the beach but I use them for my bathroom

And my favorite napkins are the upcycled linens from Suay—which is such a treat to visit in person in LA. 

Last summer, I finally did something I should have done years ago and purchased linen bedding. I honestly don’t love the look of it in my Los Angeles apartment—there’s an avocado tree just outside my window, which is so luxurious, but I fear the avocados combined with the linen might give one the impression that I am the floppy felt hat type. But whatever. They are so soft and cool and breathable, a boon to hot sleepers in summer, which you probably already knew. Anyway I have one set from Parachute and one less expensive set from Quince, and they’re both very nice to crawl into. 

My favorite dishrags are from the Malibu CVS, and they say I ❤️ Malibu in the Marlboro cigarette font. The Malibu CVS is one of my favorite stores in the greatest Los Angeles area, boasting an assortment of California-themed towels, shot glasses, key chains, and a rotating rack of drug rugs.

My tablecloths and placemats are from a little frilly linen store in Venice called Evem Sas Ricami e Merletti. It is the most beautiful shop, all pistachio-colored walls pinned with handmade lace, and I now set the table with embroidered napkins and a giant doily. I scored all this bounty for very little money in a closing sale, but according to the internet Evem Sas seems to have risen from the dead! I’m praying.

I get most of my linen recommendations from podcasts. If I hear the name of a sheets/pillowcase brand enough times, that’s it. I must have these products. At least that’s how I came to be a customer of Brooklinen, a company that seemed to emerge from an AirPod. It started with the waffle towels, the linen gateway drug. Not only do they look nice when folded, they are super absorbent and don’t get that “ratty” look over time. (I do caution that hanging them on a hook when wet can cause them to lose their shape.) When I needed fresh white sheets and pillowcases I turned again to Brooklinen. I’m not a bedding aficionado but these just work. They are crisp and light and stay nice and cool in the summer. One of the company’s finest innovations, for which they should be considered for the Nobel Prize as far as I’m concerned, is to label the inside of sheets “long side” and “short side.” I mean, wow.

In hindsight, it's not surprising that I ended up an interiors editor. I had strong opinions about the specific paint colors I wanted in my room from a young age, was more drawn to historic homes than the beach as a teenager, and I come from a lineage of craftspeople working in wood, basketry, and, yes, soft goods.

Bedding is a particular obsession of mine. My grandmother was an incredible quilter, and she did a lot of applique. Everything she made had a graphic quality to it—hollyhocks were a jumble of fabric strips and circles, cardinals were bulbous ovals, ships had sails but they weren't particularly realistic. Living my whole life with those pieces have made me drawn to similar styles: Thompson Street Studio and Studio Ford make the most beautiful quilts, as does Toast. When it comes to sheets, I'm not particularly allegiant to a material—I just want it to feel cool when I hop in at night and like I'm getting a kinda soft hug. For cotton, that's Tekla, Nickey Kehoe, and Boll & Branch; for linen, it's Bed Threads, Cultiver, and The Citizenry. I usually opt for crisp white or a subtle stripe that will let what's on top shine.

I've gone down the rabbit hole of table linens since becoming a Domino editor, and my collection has started to outgrow the nooks and crannies that could contain it before. I have a newsletter called Dinner at 10; it's a lo-fi way to document dinners my husband (an excellent bread baker and pastry cook) and I host, wine I like, and cookbooks I'm excited about, among other things like tablecloths and napkins. I always reach for Madre, Soil to Studio, Malaika, Coton Colors, and anything Ark Elements lists to play up the meal. (I have to toot Domino's Heather Taylor Home collab, too.) I have to admit that this category has made me much more open to color in my home—filling our home with pattern and warm tones has brought a lot of joy and comfort into our day-to-day.