7 best bamboo sheets that are soft, stylish and sustainable

Buttery soft, silky sheets that are eco-friendly, hypoallergenic and you don’t have to iron them. Sounds too good to be true, right? Well, bamboo bedding delivers on all these fronts. They’re the bedsheets of the moment, and it’s easy to see why.

Bamboo fabric is incredibly soft. It boils down to there being fewer sharp bits in the fibres, making it feel more akin to silk than cotton. It’s also great for temperature regulation – keeping you cosy in winter and cool in summer – and it is naturally antibacterial.

One of the other reasons bamboo fabric is so brilliant is for its eco-friendly credentials. It is hardy and fast growing, yielding much more fabric than cotton does for the space it takes up. It also is more often (although not always) made without using chemicals.

Another tick for bamboo is that it is much more durable than cotton, so long as you treat it well. Just wash the sheets at a low temperature (also good for the environment) in non-bio washing powder and don’t tumble dry them on a hot setting.

Your bamboo sheets will then last much longer than their cotton counterparts. They will shrink when you first wash them – but most sheets are made larger to accommodate shrinkage. As you shouldn’t iron bamboo (such a shame!), they will have that rumpled bed look.

How we tested

We tested the bedding sets by feeling how soft they were, looking at how they fitted our bed and duvet and whether they slipped about – we hate the duvet bunching in the covers. We also looked at what came in the sets – we liked to find a fitted sheet in the set too, to complete the experience. Of course, we washed all the sheets according to their care instructions and paid attention to how they looked and felt afterwards.

Lastly, we slept on all the bedding sets for several nights each. We tried kingsize sets, which tended to include two pillowcases, whereas single sets often include just one. These are our top picks.

The best bamboo sheets for 2022 are:

• Best overall – Sloth London luxury bamboo bedding set: £105, Slothlondon.co.uk

• Best for super silky sheets – Panda 100 per cent bamboo bedding set: £145, TheIndependent.co.uk

• Best for a high-street brand – Marks & Spencer bamboo blend duvet cover: £42.50, Marksandspencer.com

• Best for looks – Truly blush bamboo bedding set: £90: Truly.co.uk

• Best for bright colours – Paragon Bamboo 100 per cent bamboo bedding set: £115, Paragonbamboo.com

• Best for a high-end feel – Lune Living bamboo duvet and pillowcase set: £110, Luneliving.com

• Best for kids – Baby Bamboo 100 per cent bamboo cot set: £50, Babybamboobyparagon.com

Sloth London luxury bamboo bedding set

These 100 per cent bamboo sheets by Sloth London are the cat’s pyjamas of the bamboo bedding world. They only come in white, with a choice of colour on the trim – we went for double white, but there’s also peach, navy, ochre and grey. They washed spectacularly well at 30C (as per the care instructions), staying brilliantly white and never going dull or grey. They also dried nice and quickly on our washing line. The sheets were smooth without being slippery or getting us ravelled up in them, and we felt wonderfully cocooned all night. The set comes in a matching drawstring bag and includes a duvet cover, fitted sheet and two pillowcases.

Buy now £105.00, Slothlondon.co.uk

Panda 100 per cent bamboo bedding set

Panda is a giant in the bamboo world, as the name might suggest. And so one thing is for sure, it knows its bamboo. It’s 100 per cent bamboo and ridiculously soft – more akin to silk than cotton. If you like sleek, super-smooth sheets, then these are the ones for you. They wash really well with no fading, and they are quick to dry. They are extremely wrinkled, but they do drop out. We loved the wooden button fastenings – a small touch, but it’s nice to have a feature on a fairly pared-back bedding set. The set comes in its own bag – handy for organising bedsheets in the cupboard or drawers – and includes a fitted sheet, duvet cover and pillowcases. The range of muted colours it comes in is pretty decent, too.

Buy now £105.00, Mypandalife

M&S bamboo blend duvet cover

We were pleasantly surprised to find M&S do bamboo bedsheets – a sure sign that bamboo has crossed over to the mainstream. These are a blend of 70 per cent bamboo and 30 per cent cotton. It’s certainly less silky than the 100 per cent bamboo sheets we tried, but much softer than traditional cotton sheets. You can wash these sheets at 40C, which is 10C warmer than others we tried. This helps if you’re washing with other laundry. You can also tumble dry these on medium, rather than cool, which obviously gets the job done quicker. They wash really well, and stay wrinkle free, unlike all the pure bamboo sheets we tried. They also come in a decent range of colours, although it’s worth noting that the duvet cover, sheets and pillowcases are all sold separately.

Buy now £42.50, Marksandspencer.com

Truly blush bamboo bedding set

The colour on these Truly bedsheets is gorgeous – the perfect hue of dusty pink to create a bedroom oasis without being overly feminine. They’re made from 100 per cent viscose bamboo and look like silk thanks to the glossy sheen. They’re actually a little less silky than some of the others we tried, but we quite liked having a little more purchase on them so they didn’t slip around so much. They wash well, and come out with that bamboo wrinkle to them and retain their colour well. Because of the sheen to these sheets and the crumpled texture of washed bamboo, this creates different shades to the bedding when it’s on the bed. This set comes with a duvet cover and two cases, and we like that you can buy additional pillowcases separately so you can have as many matching pillows as you want.

Buy now £90.00, Truly.co.uk

Paragon Bamboo 100 per cent bamboo bedding set

Another heavy hitter in the bamboo world, Paragon Bamboo has a huge range of bedding sets and sheets. We went for the four-piece set, which includes a duvet cover, fitted sheet and two pillowcases. This comes in an impressive nine colour choices – ours were a very purplish Heather. These were probably the most vibrant of all the bedding we tried. We really liked that the fastening is a zip rather than buttons – it made the frankly horrendous job of changing the sheets that bit easier. It washes well at 30C and comes out wrinkled, yes, but perhaps not quite as much as others we tried. Paragon Bamboo offers a 14-night trial on its sheets, so in the unlikely event that you try them and don’t like them, you can send them back.

Buy now £115.00, Paragonbamboo.com

Lune Living bamboo duvet and pillowcase set

We were immediately struck by how high-end these sheets were. They have little ties at the bottom rather than buttons for one. Yes, this creates a bit of extra work, but it also looks good and means the sheets are totally free from plastic. These come in a little matching storage bag too. The set includes a duvet cover and two pillowcases, but pillowcases and flat sheets are sold separately if you want the full kit. They feel super silky soft and cool to the touch – it felt like sliding into a silky cloud when we got into bed. We tried these sheets in “whispering white”, but there are three other calming colours to choose from, including “inky slate”, which is hard to come by in the world of bamboo bedding.

Buy now £110.00, Luneliving.com

Baby Bamboo 100 per cent bamboo cot set

Let’s not leave our kids out of this bamboo dream. Baby Bamboo does cot and cot bed bedding sets, which are beautifully soft and have all the same benefits as the adult bedding sets. Our mini tester seemed very snuggly in them. They’re particularly sensitive to overheating, and these sheets seemed to keep them just right all night long. The set includes a duvet cover, fitted sheet and pillow – all in undyed fabric, so there are absolutely no chemicals near their skin.

Buy now £50.00, Babybamboobyparagon.com

The verdict: Bamboo sheets

Hand on heart, all the bedding sets here are winners. But we must pick one. We loved the sheets by Sloth London. We estimate they made us 60 per cent more excited to get into bed each night, which is pretty impressive. Notable mentions go to Eve Sleep for its superb linen/bamboo hybrid sheets, which were crisp perfection. And our mini tester gave the Baby Bamboo set a mini two thumbs up.

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