Shop Québec - Maison Tess Linens

I'll admit, I've fallen hard for the linen trend sweeping the home decor world. For a couple of years now, I've had my eye on linen clothing and housewares for the sheer appearance of it all - the texture that's visible to the eye, the rawness to it, the typical rich colours and natural look to linen, it all took me in. But I soon learned that all linen is not on equal footing. I purchased a big box store linen dress pillow and a linen dress from the Internet and both disappointed me. The dress was extremely harsh and not at all soft, even after several washings, the cushion, so thin that it had none of the texture that linen is known for and will likely wear out within a year. Both were cheap short cuts and neither satisfied, so in the end my money-saving attempts were money wasted. Lesson learned. It's worth investigating the ethics behind a company, the sourcing of their materials, and the quality of their linens before investing. That's exactly what I did with Maison Tess and why I'm writing this post - to sing the praises of this little Montreal linen start up until I lose my voice! Not hard, since I'm just getting over a bout of Tonsillitis, but you get my point. I love love love these linens and find their quality to be high above that of the big box linens I've seen for near the same price. Let me introduce you to Maison Tess.

I'm writing this post at an ideal time to be reviewing bed linens. As you know from my stories, I spent all last week in my bed (if not at the hospital) with a terrible throat infection. Finally some super strong antibiotics and steroids by way of IV brought me back to the road to health but not after logging more hours in my bed that week than is normal for two. And oh how I love my bed!! It's always been comfortable, but these linens kick things up to a whole new level.

Here's what we went with, from the bottom, up. For starters, we chose the chrome linen fitted sheet.  It's a very generous size, so will definitely fit any style of mattress which I especially appreciated, since our other cotton fitted sheet is always really hard to put on our very thick mattress. I loved sleeping on the fitted sheet right away but after a few washes, even more so. It just gets softer and softer, and has this super cozy feel, like flannel, but without overheating you, as that material tends to do.

Then we went with Maison Tess's cotton pillowcases, which feel nothing like any cotton pillowcase I've felt. I wanted to go with cotton for pillowcases as I'm less a texture fan when it comes to something on my face.  I can't say if there's even a right or wrong answer here, because these sensory preferences are so personal, but I have to say I love the texture and feel of their cotton pillowcases! They use 100% long staple percale woven cotton, which explains why these feel worlds away from our other cotton pillowcases, even those that boast a high thread count. It would be really hard to choose if I had to pick one piece of our bedding that I love the most, but it *might* be these percale cotton pillowcases...

We chose the Maison Tess signature linen duvet cover (which is on sale right now!), and I went with midnight blue which is totally not my usual style but I'm so pleased with it! I'm usually someone who sticks with white or light grey, hence the chrome pillowcases and linen fitted sheet, and right, the entire rest of my house! But when I saw the midnight blue it almost struck me as a bold neutral. It's cool but also warm, depending on the decor around it. It's a statement to add to my very neutral bedroom, but I think it's just right, especially since we usually fold the duvet at the foot of our bed, so it's just that touch of boldness. On Instagram, I asked you all in a poll a while back if adding the midnight blue would be the way to go or if I should stick with light neutrals in my bedroom and after hundreds of opinions, the voting was 60/40 for adding a touch of boldness. It just goes to show that while many of you were with me on my choice, a lot of you prefer colours more like Maison Tess's chrome (a cool, soft grey), or their rose (the perfect dusty pink), and that's cool too!

I'm so excited to share this brand with you, because they seem like one of the only ethical, affordable linen companies out there, and plus, they're based here in Canada, in my city no less. Linen is a pricier material than others, and for good reason - it's more durable, gets better with every wash, has a timeless look and higher quality than basic cottons. And while it's an investment to buy linen anything, Maison Tess's prices are very close to big box linen prices I've seen (H&M, for example), even though they make everything ethically and in small batches! They often share videos from their factories in their Instagram stories and it's such a relief to see that some companies still care about making their products the right way that values people and protects the planet. Their linens are European made and OEKO-TEX certified, and you're supporting a small female-run business instead of a huge corporation with Maison Tess. if you're looking for bedding, or any linen household items (they have beautiful dining room items, too!), definitely check out this amazing company!

Also if you use this link, or any other link within this blog post to buy Maison Tess items, you'll get 10% off on top of their already great sale prices (like my duvet cover which is $75 off right now!).