Linen vs Cotton Curtains: Which Should You Buy? | Ona

Updated October 2026 · By the Ona team · 17 min read

That is the whole decision in one paragraph. The rest of this guide is the detail that changes an order: the fiber numbers behind those sentences, how to read a fiber label in the US, the shrink allowance math for a length you buy once, and what each fiber does and doesn't do about light. It is part of our survey of the best curtain fabrics.

One thing to settle first. Ona doesn't sell linen curtains or cotton curtains. Our fabric has a linen texture — a slubby, woven look — and we don't state its fiber content. So this comparison has nothing to sell you at the end of it. If you came looking for real flax linen, we'll point you at what to check and let you go buy it elsewhere.

Key facts - Linen is spun from flax stalk fibers. Cotton is spun from the seed boll. Both are cellulose, so they behave alike in water and alike in sunlight — the differences are of degree. - Linen fiber is stronger and far less stretchy than cotton, which is why it holds a crease hard and drapes in flat, angular folds. - Cotton stretches about three to four times more before it breaks, which is why it feels softer and sheds wrinkles more willingly. - Light control is a weave-and-lining question, not a fiber question. A loose linen sheer and a dense cotton canvas sit at opposite ends. - "Linen look" is not linen. It names a texture, not a fiber, and such curtains are commonly synthetic. Read the fiber content statement, not the product name. Ona doesn't state fiber content for its linen-look fabric.

In this guide

• Linen vs cotton at a glance
• The fiber facts behind the table
• What each fabric looks like hanging
• Light, privacy and glare
• Care, wrinkles and shrinking
• Shrink allowance: the math
• Cost per window, not per panel
• How to read a curtain's fiber label
• Which should you buy?
• Where Ona's linen-look fabric fits
• Questions, answered
• Sources

Linen vs cotton at a glance

Linen and cotton curtains compared on the twelve things that change an order

What you're judging	Linen (flax)	Cotton	Which wins
Surface	Slubby and irregular. Thick and thin spots in the same yarn.	Smooth and even. Reads uniform across a wide panel.	Taste, not quality
Drape	Stiff, flat, angular folds that fall away from the rod.	Softer, rounder folds that sit closer to the wall.	Linen for a relaxed look; cotton for a tidy one
Wrinkles	Creases readily and keeps them. Treated as the style.	Creases less, and releases more with steam.	Cotton, if wrinkles bother you
Hand (feel)	Dry, cool, crisp. Doesn't cling.	Soft, slightly warmer to the touch.	Taste
Light through the fabric	Usually looser and more open, so more light passes.	Available in denser weaves, so a tighter cotton blocks more.	Neither. The weave and lining decide
Sun resistance	Better of the two, but still degrades.	Loses strength and color faster in direct sun.	Linen
Washing	Often cool machine wash; some panels say dry clean.	Usually machine washable at home.	Cotton
Shrinkage	Shrinks on the first wash unless pre-shrunk.	Shrinks on the first wash unless pre-shrunk.	Draw. Both move; buy a length allowance either way
Ironing	Needs real heat and damp fabric to look pressed.	Presses crisp easily.	Cotton
Color and pattern choice	Mostly solids and naturals. Narrow palette.	Prints, stripes, florals, wide color range.	Cotton
Price	The more expensive of the two, usually by a wide margin.	Cheaper, and widely stocked.	Cotton
Lifespan in a window	Longer, if the window isn't blasted with direct sun.	Shorter in a sunny window; fine in a shaded one.	Linen

Read that table as tendencies of each fiber, not guarantees about a particular curtain. A dense linen can block more light than a thin cotton voile, and a pre-shrunk cotton can behave better in the wash than a raw linen. Weave, finish and lining swamp the fiber difference on a specific panel.

The fiber facts behind the table

Four measured properties explain almost every practical difference. These are published figures for the fibers in general. They are not measurements of any Ona product, and Ona has not tested any fiber.

Published fiber properties for flax and cotton, and what each one means for a curtain

Property	Flax (linen)	Cotton	What it means at your window
Standard commercial moisture regain (ASTM D1909)	12.0%	8.5%	Linen holds more water at the same room humidity. It feels cool and dry against skin, and it takes longer to dry after washing.
Dry tenacity (published fiber tables)	About 40–60 g/tex	About 25–40 g/tex	Linen yarn is the stronger of the two, so a linen panel tolerates more washing cycles and more handling over the years.
Wet vs dry strength	Stronger wet than dry; published tables put the gain around 20%	Also gains a little wet, by a smaller margin	Both fibers are safe to wash wet, linen more so. Both still need a gentle cycle, because the weave and the stitching are the weak points, not the fiber.
Elongation at break	About 1.8% dry / 2.2% wet	About 7%	This is the wrinkle answer. Linen barely stretches, so a fold becomes a crease and stays one. Cotton gives, so it recovers more.

The elongation row is the one most comparison articles skip, and it is the reason linen wrinkles. A crease is a local bend in the yarn. A fiber that stretches 7% before breaking can relax out of that bend. A fiber that stretches under 2% cannot: the bend is set. So "linen wrinkles" isn't a flaw in a particular panel, and no finish removes it completely. If creases will annoy you daily, that is a reason to buy cotton, a blend, or a textured synthetic — not a reason to shop for a better linen.

What the sun does to both

Both fibers are cellulose, and ultraviolet light breaks cellulose chains. In an accelerated lab test on coated 100% cotton tent fabric held under 35 W/m² of UV, the fabric lost 40% of its tensile strength and 70% of its tearing strength after 500 hours compared with unaged fabric (Temel, Bozdoğan and Mizmizoğlu, Tekstil ve Konfeksiyon, 2019). That is a tent in constant sun, not a curtain behind glass, and it is not a measurement of any retail curtain. Treat it as the mechanism, not as a lifespan: a south- or west-facing window ages any natural-fiber curtain, cotton faster than linen.

Two practical consequences:

• In a hard-sun window, line the curtain. The lining takes the UV hit and the face fabric lasts longer. That is true of linen, cotton and everything else.
• Rotate or alternate panels on a sunny window if you own two sets, the way you'd rotate a rug.

What each fabric looks like hanging

Linen. Flax yarn is uneven by nature, so a linen panel shows slubs — short thick spots — and a visible grid. Hung, it breaks into flat planes with sharp edges, and the panel stands away from the wall at the bottom. Two linen panels from different production lots can read as slightly different colors. That irregularity is the point; it is also why linen looks wrong in a formal, symmetrical room with hard-edged furniture.

Cotton. Cotton yarn is even, so the surface reads continuous even across a 100-inch span, and the folds are rounder and more regular. A cotton panel sits closer to the wall and looks tidier when open. It also takes print well, which is why nearly all patterned ready-made curtains are cotton or a cotton blend.

Fullness changes the comparison more than fiber does. A panel at 1.5× your rod width looks flat in either fiber; at 2× to 2.5×, both look full, and linen's angular folds become the feature. Ona's default is 2× your rod width in total flat fabric, and the curtain calculator lets you model 1× to 3× against real panel sizes.

Light, privacy and glare

Direct answer: fiber does not determine opacity. Weave density, color depth and lining do. A loose linen sheer and a dense cotton duck are both "natural fiber" and behave nothing alike.

What actually decides how much light gets through:

1. Weave density. Yarns per inch and how tightly they're packed. Hold the fabric up to a window: if you see a grid of daylight between the yarns, light will come through in your room too.
2. Lining. A separate layer behind the face fabric is the single biggest change you can make. It cuts light through the cloth, protects the face from UV, and adds a little insulation. See lined vs unlined curtains.
3. Color depth. On an unlined panel, a deep color blocks noticeably more than a pale one in the same cloth.
4. Fit. None of the above stops light at the top, the sides, the center gap or the hem. That is a hanging problem, and it is the one that ruins dark bedrooms. Our blackout curtains guide covers the edge gaps.

So:

• Want a dark bedroom? Neither linen nor cotton gets you there unlined. You need a blackout-backed or blackout-lined curtain, hung high, wide and to the floor.
• Want soft daylight and daytime privacy? Unlined linen does this better than almost anything: it diffuses light instead of blocking it, and the slubby surface breaks up the view in.
• Want privacy after dark? Unlined anything fails at night, because the lit side is the visible side. Silhouettes show through loose weaves. Line it, or add a second layer.

Care, wrinkles and shrinking

How linen and cotton curtains differ in care

Task	Linen	Cotton
Washing	Often cool, gentle machine wash. Some panels are labeled dry clean only because of a finish or an interlining, not the fiber.	Usually machine washable warm or cool. The most forgiving of the natural fibers.
Drying	Line dry or tumble low and pull from the machine damp. Heat sets creases hard.	Tumble low. High heat is the main cause of shrinkage, more than the wash itself.
Wrinkles	Permanent part of the look. Steam on the rod relaxes them; it won't remove them.	Steam or a warm iron removes most. Presses crisp.
Ironing	High heat on damp fabric, from the back. Dry linen barely responds.	Medium-high heat. Straightforward.
Shrinkage	Expect it on the first wash unless the label says pre-shrunk.	Expect it on the first wash unless the label says pre-shrunk. Neither fiber is reliably the more stable; the finish decides.
Over the years	Softens with every wash and keeps its strength.	Softens, then thins. Shows sun damage sooner.

Two rules that apply to both, and to every curtain you will ever own:

• The sewn-in care label beats any article, including this one. It reflects the finish, the lining and the stitching of that specific panel.
• Wash both panels of a pair together, every time. If one shrinks or fades and the other doesn't, you own two different curtains.

Method detail lives in how to wash curtains and how to get wrinkles out of curtains.

Shrink allowance: the math

This is the part that costs real money, because curtain length is the one dimension you can't fix after it shrinks. A curtain that was a floor kiss becomes a high-water mark, and there is no undoing it.

Use the dimensional-change figure on the label if there is one. US labels sometimes quote a figure tested to AATCC 135 (home laundering dimensional change). If the label quotes nothing, plan for the fabric to move.

The formula

Order length = needed drop ÷ (1 − shrinkage as a decimal), then round up to the next size the seller offers.

Worked examples on a needed drop of 96″ from the planned fabric top to the floor:

Label says	Decimal	Calculation	Minimum order length	Realistic buy
Pre-shrunk / 0%	0.00	96 ÷ 1.00	96″	96″
Up to 2%	0.02	96 ÷ 0.98 = 97.96	98″	108″, then hem to length
Up to 3%	0.03	96 ÷ 0.97 = 98.97	99″	108″, then hem to length
Up to 5%	0.05	96 ÷ 0.95 = 101.05	102″	108″, then hem to length
Unknown	plan 3%	96 ÷ 0.97 = 98.97	99″	108″, then hem to length

Ready-made lengths jump in big steps — commonly 63, 72, 84, 90, 96, 108 and 120 inches — so a 3% allowance on a 96″ drop usually means buying 108″ and shortening it. That is not waste. It is the only way to land a hem where you want it on a washable natural fiber. See how to shorten curtains for the hem methods.

Three ways to avoid the problem

1. Buy the next length up and hem after the first wash. Wash, dry, hang for a day, then mark and hem. Most accurate, needs a sewing machine or hem tape.
2. Pre-wash before hemming if you're making or altering panels. Wash the fabric exactly how you'll wash the finished curtain.
3. Choose a stable fabric if you want to buy once and hang once. Synthetic and synthetic-blend panels move far less in the wash than raw cellulose. That is the main practical argument for a linen-look textured synthetic over real linen.

Width shrinks too, but it matters less: you lose a little fullness rather than a visible hem line. Our measuring guide shows where to put the tape before any of this math.

Cost per window, not per panel

Panel prices mislead, because a window needs a quantity of fabric, not a panel. Compare like this:

Panels needed = (rod width × fullness) ÷ flat width of one panel, rounded up to an even number so the curtains part in the center. Cost per window = panels needed × price per panel.

A worked example on a 54″ window:

• Extend the rod 8″ past each side: 54 + 8 + 8 = 70″ rod.
• At 2× fullness: 70 × 2 = 140″ of total flat fabric.
• With 52″ panels: 140 ÷ 52 = 2.7 → 4 panels (2 pairs).
• With 70″ wide panels: 140 ÷ 70 = 2 panels.

Now run your candidates through it. A linen panel at twice the price of a cotton one but 50% wider may cost less per window, because you need fewer panels. A narrow bargain panel often needs four where a wide one needs two. The curtain calculator does this against real sizes.

Then add the things people forget: a lining or liner panels if the fabric is sheer, hem alteration if you bought long for shrinkage, and professional cleaning over the curtain's life if the label says dry clean only. A dry-clean linen pair cleaned twice a year can out-cost its own purchase price.

How to read a curtain's fiber label

Direct answer: the product name is marketing, the fiber content statement is the fact. "Linen look", "faux linen", "linen texture", "linen blend" and the color name "Linen" all appear on curtains containing no flax at all.

In the US, sellers of household textile articles are generally required to disclose fiber content by generic name and percentage under the Textile Fiber Products Identification Act and the FTC's rules at 16 CFR Part 303. In practice:

1. Find the fiber content statement, not the title. On the product page it's usually under Materials, Specifications or Details. On the panel it's on a sewn-in label.
2. Read percentages. "100% Linen" means flax. "55% linen / 45% cotton" is a blend that wrinkles less than pure linen and costs less. "100% polyester" is a synthetic, whatever the texture looks like.
3. Decode the marketing words.

Words on the listing	What it tells you about fiber	What to do
100% linen, pure linen	Flax. The real thing.	Check price and care; expect wrinkles
Linen blend	Part flax, part something else. Percentage matters.	Find the percentages
Belgian, European, French flax	A claim about origin, not content	Still look for the percentage
Faux linen, linen look, linen texture, linen-style	Almost certainly a synthetic woven to look like linen	Look for the fiber statement
"Linen" as a color	Nothing at all. It's a shade of beige.	Ignore it
Cotton rich	Mostly cotton, blended	Find the percentages
No fiber statement anywhere	The seller hasn't disclosed it	Ask before buying, or assume synthetic

1. If the fiber matters to you, ask before you buy. A seller who can state the fiber content will. A seller who can't, won't — and that answer is itself information.

Our companion guide, linen-look vs linen curtains, goes deeper on telling the two apart by look, feel and price.

Which should you buy?

Your situation	Buy	Why
You want the relaxed, rumpled, European look	Linen	Nothing else drapes in those flat, irregular folds. Accept the wrinkles
Wrinkles will bother you every time you walk past	Cotton, a cotton-linen blend, or a linen-look synthetic	Cotton's higher elongation lets creases relax out
Budget is the deciding factor	Cotton	Cheaper per panel and more widely stocked
Big south- or west-facing window, direct sun all afternoon	Linen, and line it	Better UV durability of the two, though both age; the lining takes the hit
You want prints, stripes or a specific color	Cotton	Linen is mostly solids and naturals
Washing at home matters	Cotton	More panels are machine washable, and it dries faster
A dark bedroom or a nursery	Neither, unlined	Buy a blackout-backed or blackout-lined curtain and hang it high, wide and long
Soft diffused daylight and daytime privacy	Unlined linen	Diffuses rather than blocks; the texture breaks up the view in
You want to buy once, hang once, never alter	A linen-look synthetic	It moves far less in the wash than raw cellulose
Kids' room, high traffic, frequent washing	Cotton, or a synthetic	Washes hot, costs less to replace
A formal, symmetrical, tailored room	Cotton	Even surface and rounder folds read tidier
You can't verify the fiber and the fiber matters	Walk away	An undisclosed fiber content is an answer

Where Ona's linen-look fabric fits

Plainly: Ona sells neither linen nor cotton curtains. Three of our styles have a textured, linen-look face — faux linen — and we don't state their fiber content. Our fourth is velvet, whose supplier specifications list 100% polyester. If you want flax, buy flax from someone who sells it.

What Ona does sell is the third column of the decision table above: a linen texture on a lined, washable, dimensionally stable panel that you buy once and hang once. Here is the honest comparison.

	Real linen	Real cotton	Ona's linen-look styles
Surface	Slubby, irregular	Smooth, even	Woven linen texture
Fiber content stated	Yes, on the label	Yes, on the label	No. We don't state fiber content; see the care label
Wrinkling	Heavy, permanent	Moderate, releases	Low in our experience of the construction
Light through the fabric	Usually open, unless lined	Varies with weave	Supplier-listed 100% blackout fabric on the three lined styles; light can still enter at the top, sides and center
Lining	Usually sold separately	Usually sold separately	Lined as sold (grommet pair, wide panel, back-tab pair). Velvet is unlined
Insulation	None claimed	None claimed	Listed by the supplier as thermal insulating; no insulation rating
Care	Cool wash or dry clean	Machine wash	Follow the sewn-in care label

The four styles:

Style	Set	Heading	Flat width per panel	Lengths	Price
Linen Texture Blackout Grommet Pair	1 pair · 2 panels	Metal grommets	42″ or 52″	63–96″ (42″ wide); 63–108″ (52″ wide)	$189–$239 per pair
Linen Texture Blackout Wide Grommet Panel	1 panel	Metal grommets	70″	90, 96, 108″	$139–$169 per panel
Back-Tab & Rod-Pocket Blackout Pair	1 pair · 2 panels	Hidden back tabs plus a rod pocket	52″	63–120″	$189–$219 per pair
Velvet Room-Darkening Grommet Pair	1 pair · 2 panels	Metal grommets	52″	63–108″ (not every color in every length)	$139–$149 per pair

"Linen texture" and "linen-look" describe how the fabric looks, not its fiber. "Linen" is also one of our color names. "Blackout" here means supplier-listed 100% blackout fabric, not a promise of a dark room. Room images on our site are styling visualizations, not proof of color, size or opacity.

Still weighing fabrics? Read our survey of the best curtain fabrics, or linen-look vs linen curtains if what you really need to know is whether a listing is selling you flax.

Questions, answered

Are linen or cotton curtains better?

Neither is better overall. Linen gives loose, irregular folds, lasts longer in sun and costs more; cotton is smoother, cheaper, easier to wash and comes in more colors and patterns. Choose linen for the relaxed look and cotton for practicality and price.

What is the difference between linen and cotton curtains?

Linen is spun from flax stalk fibers and cotton from cotton seed fibers. Linen is stronger, barely stretches and therefore wrinkles permanently, drapes in flat angular folds and costs more. Cotton stretches about seven percent before breaking, so it recovers from creases, feels softer, presses crisp and fades faster in direct sun.

Do linen curtains wrinkle more than cotton?

Yes, and permanently. Flax fiber stretches under about 2% before breaking, against roughly 7% for cotton, so a fold in linen becomes a set crease rather than relaxing out. Steaming on the rod softens the creases but will not remove them. With linen, the wrinkles are the look.

Do cotton curtains shrink?

Expect shrinkage on the first wash unless the label says pre-shrunk. Both cotton and linen are cellulose and both move in hot water and hot drying. Plan a length allowance: order length = needed drop ÷ (1 − shrinkage as a decimal). On a 96-inch drop with a 3% figure, that is 99 inches, so buy 108 and hem after the first wash.

Which blocks more light, linen or cotton curtains?

Fiber doesn't decide this. Weave density, color depth and lining do. A loose linen sheer passes a lot of light; a dense cotton canvas passes little. For a dark room, neither fiber is enough unlined — buy a blackout-backed or blackout-lined curtain and hang it above and beyond the frame, down to the floor.

Are linen curtains see-through?

Unlined linen is usually somewhat sheer, which is why it's chosen for diffused daylight. It gives daytime privacy because the texture breaks up the view, but it fails at night, when the lit side becomes the visible side. Line it or layer it if night privacy matters.

Do cotton curtains fade in the sun?

Faster than linen. Both are cellulose, and ultraviolet light breaks cellulose chains. In accelerated lab testing of coated 100% cotton tent fabric, the fabric lost 40% of its tensile strength and 70% of its tearing strength after 500 hours under UV. That was a tent in constant sun, not a curtain behind glass, but it shows the mechanism: in a hard-sun window, line the curtain so the lining takes the damage.

Why are linen curtains so expensive?

Flax is more labor-intensive to grow, ret, scutch and spin than cotton, and it's produced in much smaller volumes. The fiber is also stronger and longer-lasting, so the price buys durability as well as the look. Blends and linen-look synthetics exist precisely to deliver the appearance at a lower price.

Are linen-cotton blend curtains a good compromise?

For most rooms, yes. A blend keeps much of linen's texture while cotton's stretch lets creases relax, and it usually costs less than pure linen. Check the percentages: the more linen in the blend, the more texture and the more wrinkling.

Can you machine wash linen curtains?

Often yes, on a cool gentle cycle — flax is stronger wet than dry, by around 20% in published fiber tables. But the label governs, because a finish, an interlining or the stitching may require dry cleaning even when the fiber doesn't. Line dry or tumble low and remove damp; heat sets creases.

Does "linen look" mean linen?

No. "Linen look", "faux linen", "linen texture" and "linen-style" describe appearance, and such curtains are usually synthetic. "Linen" is also a common beige color name. Only the fiber content statement — by generic fiber name and percentage — tells you what a curtain is made of.

Does Ona sell linen or cotton curtains?

No. Three Ona styles have a textured, linen-look face and we don't state their fiber content; our velvet's supplier specifications list 100% polyester. If flax matters to you, buy from a seller who states fiber content.

Which is better for a bedroom, linen or cotton?

It depends on whether you need darkness. For soft morning light, unlined linen is lovely. For sleeping past sunrise, neither fiber matters: you need a blackout-backed or blackout-lined curtain hung high, wide and to the floor, with the center closed.

Sources

• ASTM International. ASTM D1909, Standard Tables of Commercial Moisture Regains and Commercial Allowances for Textile Fibers — standard commercial regain: cotton 8.5%, flax 12.0%.
• Temel E., Bozdoğan F., Mizmizoğlu D. "Structural Investigation of UV Aged Tent Fabrics." Tekstil ve Konfeksiyon 29(3), 2019, 246–252. DOI 10.32710/tekstilvekonfeksiyon.472048. ADP-coated 100% cotton tent fabric aged at 35 W/m² UV: −40% tensile strength and −70% tearing strength at 500 hours vs unaged.
• Published flax and cotton fiber-property tables for dry tenacity, wet-strength gain and elongation at break.
• U.S. Federal Trade Commission, Textile Fiber Products Identification Act (15 U.S.C. §70 et seq.) and Rules and Regulations, 16 CFR Part 303, on fiber content disclosure.
• Ona product facts: live product listings, October 2026. Blackout and thermal descriptions are supplier-listed and have not been independently tested. Ona states no fiber content for the linen-look fabrics.