Today, we’re talking about bed sheets and pitting two similar products against each other to see which one is better.
Contestant 1: Ikea Skogsnarv
The Skogsnarv bed sheet set is made out of sateen cotton with 450 thread count. (Thread count, if you need a refresher, refers to the number of horizontal and vertical threads per square inch, so generally, the higher the thread count, the softer the sheet, though that’s not always true.)
Ikea sells a queen set with a flat sheet, fitted sheets, and two standard pillow cases for $49.99. In addition to the fun name (try to say Skogsnarv three times in a row), one thing that I like about this set is that the pillow cases have envelope closures. That’s the flap at the end to keep your pillow in. I believe all of Ikea’s pillowcases have this feature and I think it’s such a smart design.
I’ve had my Skognarv set for about a year now and it’s held up pretty well. The color hasn’t faded after many, many washings. It’s soft, though not remarkably soft.
Contestant 2: Target Threshold Performance Bed Sheets
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Target’s Threshold Performance Bed Sheets is also made out of sateen cotton. At 400 thread count, it has a slightly lower thread count than the Ikea set, but I can’t really discern any difference in softness. It comes in 20 different colors, and I picked this rich red color. It’s also at the same price point: $49.99 for a queen set, though you can snag it on sale sometimes.
One nice feature of these sheets is that they have serious heavy duty elastic in each corner. I imagine that comes in pretty handy for thicker mattresses. My mattress is about 8″ thick, so it’s not particularly deep, but even for my mattress, I appreciate the reinforced corners.
I’ve had these sheets for about five months. Despite numerous washes, these sheets really attract lint. I have never encountered this with a set of sheets before. Lint just loves to hang out on these sheets.
I ran a lint brush over the sheets and the amount of stuff it picked up surprised me. Even after doing that, the sheets are still covered in lint. Sure, there are various Interwebs articles that tell you how to remove lint from your bed sheets. But, this is not how I want to be spending my time!
Winner
Due to the linty situation with the Target sheets, I declare the Ikea Skogsnarv the winner. Now, I don’t know if the lint situation with Target’s sheets is only limited to the red, or if it’s an issue with all 20 colors or just some of the colors. I’m curious to hear from someone else who owns these Threshold sheets in another color if they have a lint problem too. (Please leave a comment if you know! I’m certainly not going to buy another set to find out.) UPDATE 3/7/20: A reader reports that other colors don’t attract lint.
One bummer about the Ikea Skogsnarv is that it only comes in three colors: white, teal, and light gray. Please make these sheets in more colors, Ikea!
UPDATE 12/10/17 – I’m trying to be better about making ethical shopping choices, so I’m updating my posts with info about where and how things were made. The Target sheets were made in India and the Ikea ones in China. I don’t know under what conditions these were produced, though both companies were named top ethical companies by the Ethisphere Institute in 2010.
UPDATE 12/15/19 – It’s two years later now and I can report that the Target Threshold sheets have finally stopped being linty. I’m not sure when this happened exactly, but I was just folding laundry and noticed this. The Ikea sheets are about three years old now and the fitted sheet has gotten loose on the sides. I now feel that the Target sheets might be more durable, but it’s hard to know for sure since I bought these sheet sets at different times. I’ve owned the Ikea sheets for at least seven months longer than the Target ones.
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