The best kitchen towels are an easy way to layer softness against your kitchen’s typically sterile and harsh fixtures. While these textiles may bring to mind back-of-house sanitization rituals and impromptu landing pads for your larger, hand-wash-only pots, we’re insisting that they should do more than hang beautifully off your oven handle. The best options infuse a bit of pattern—a traditional French stripe or a playful gingham—while remaining highly absorbent and machine washable. There are a few different kinds of kitchen towels out there: thicker dish towels meant for drying dishes and wiping down counters, and tea towels, which are largely for covering serveware and for display only. Regardless of whether your devotion to the humble kitchen towel is closer to indifference than a line cook tucking one in their apron every night, we’ve gathered the best to elevate your culinary and aesthetic pursuits.
Our Top Picks
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Crate & Barrel Textured Terry Organic Cotton Kitchen Towels (Set of 2 )
These reversible terrycloth dish rags feature a more plush side for mopping up spills and a side with a tighter weave best suited to tasks like polishing glassware. Giving you the best of both worlds, this do-it-all kitchen towel can go from grilling to cleaning and back again, all without a loose stitch or frayed edge.
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Coyuchi Oak Organic Hand Towel (Set of 2)
Made from organic cotton and adorned with delicate embroidery, these towels are great for drying hands and looking good while doing so. Shopping writer Julia Harrison adores them for their elegant look, but admits that they’re not going to wow if used as a utilitarian bar towel. “I won’t pretend these are the most absorbent kitchen towels—their weave is the sort that always stays starchy—but I will declare them some of the best-looking kitchen towels on the market,” she says. “Few things look so graceful and worldly draped from the sticky handle of my oven.”
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Hawkins New York Essential Waffle Dish Towel (Set of 2)
With the same superabsorbent quality as your favorite bath towels, these waffle kitchen towels are perfect for wiping up spills and serving as a makeshift dish rack for wet plates. The cotton weave is lightweight and designed to dry in minutes, plus it’s more likely to be lint-free than most linens. Each set of two comes in a satisfying tonal colorway for easy coordination with your existing design scheme.
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Nickey Kehoe Red & Blue Linen Tea Towel
A highbrow take on traditional flour sack towels, Nickey Kehoe’s iteration boasts a similar striped motif and lightweight linen construction. The washed linen creates a softer feel, one that’s probably better suited to drying delicate dishes every evening than for heavy-duty cleaning.
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Stamperia Bertozzi Hand-Painted Tea Towels (Set of 2)
Gingham can lean quite twee, but the pattern gets a boost when presented in a blocky, hand-painted fashion. This 100%-linen set is quick-drying and best used for draping over a freshly baked loaf of bread or as oversized napkins during your next dinner party. Keep in mind that these artisanal pieces are hand-wash only.
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Ferm Living Day Tea Towel (Set of 7)
Shopping market editor Kate McGregor has used Ferm Living’s tea towels for nearly six years now, touting their crisp feel and durability. “They’re all made from GOTS-certified organic cotton, which is easy to wash, dry, and repeat the next day,” she says. “I use these for everything under the sun, from wiping down my counters at the end of the day to drying dishes to throwing over my shoulder to keep my hands clean like a real chef. They’ve yet to fail me.” This set is cheekily labeled with days of the week, should you want to feel a sense of nostalgia or have your cleaning schedule streamlined.
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Channel Scandinavian farmhouse vibes with these kitchen linens, hand-woven on antique looms in a small Swedish town. Use them to harvest fresh eggs from your coops—because of course you have one—and cover your sourdough starter between folds.
