Building a bed... planning for mattress surgery.
I have a 7yr old, $200 when bought brand new futon that my lady and I have slept on every night for 7 years. I'm 6ft and 200lb, while she is 5ft and 140lbs. Its gotten less comfortable lately. Perhaps I'm getting older.  In pricing beds, the fact that they cost so much, and perform so poorly initially (a bad person to bed fit), then later (poor quality) makes me leery of spending $1000+ on something that won't last as long or be as comfortable as a 7yr old, $200 futon. I mean, my back doesn't hurt. I don't roll off. Its not sagging in the middle. So I think I'm going to try the following... purchase a few high quality mattress toppers in a range of densities, and use this on top of the very compressed yet uniformily flat futon. The range of densities should allow me to cut them lengthwise if too firm is too much for my lady, while too soft causes me problems, to make custom densities. I plan to throw a wool cover on top, and then, if i get the latex right, find a cheap spring mattress and perform surgery, adding my hopefully long lived latex toppers to a spring mattresses long lived springs. I estimate $400 for three 1in latex toppers in med, firm, and extra firm densities, $100 for the wool cover, and wait till i find a screaming deal on a good set of springs underneath a bunch of bad foam, to rebuild with my latex toppers... and I could probably use the futon as a box springs. Pass it down to my childrens children as a family heirloom. Something like that. So, I'm wondering if this sounds like a good plan, because I've just said I'm used to a 7yr old $200 futon, and I realize I am solidly out of my mind... Any tips? Points to make? Stuff I've left out? Thanks! I've enjoyed reading this site the last few days as well. |
Re: Building a bed... planning for mattress surgery.
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Uh. One thing I found was the ridiculous prices on quilted wool toppers. 3 inches for a queen sized bed. Stuffed with 14 lbs of wool, for $300 to $400. I can get mohair (nice, soft, hardwearing) from a nice lady here in Oregon for like.. $4 a pound. She has a storage unit full. I'll wash it myself so I know what will be in it. Since I'm not a prima donna, I think I can live with a plain old muslin encased wool topper made by my own hands. Total price is probably $60 or so. $400 is outrageous. Great. Now I'm outraged. |
Re: Building a bed... planning for mattress surgery.
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I use to sleep on futons years ago (but can't now), and my husband still likes them, and often sleeps on the one in the second bedroom. It actually used to be comprised of 2 very old futons, one 6 " one and one 4" one on a futon slat frame. But we changed it and the current configuration, from top to bottom is: flexible european-style slat foundation (which we had from our old bed), 2" very firm latex (I think dunlop), the 4" futon, and lastly the 3" wool topper. Way too firm for me now but I think a pretty good combination for someone who likes firm beds (and futons). We tried it with the futon on the bottom, then latex, then wool topper (which would seem to make more sense) but y husband prefers it the other way around. It sounds you could probably do a combination with your old futon that you'd like, even if you don't use springs and do mattress surgery. Re: making a wool topper--yeah, mohair fleece would be great I would think. I used to work with wool a lot in various fiber arts, and mohair is wonderful and springy and very strong. Just make sure you tack the cover through all layers (wool and cover) in several places (like in a futon) so the wool doesn't shift around and clump. I would pull apart the mohair and use several thin layers of fleece set in different directions, for the same reason. |
Re: Building a bed... planning for mattress surgery.
| Thanks for the tips on the mohair. I'm hoping to get the coarsest stuff available, as it will hold up better, and from what I understand it doesn't shrink when wet, though it will felt. |
Re: Building a bed... planning for mattress surgery.
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grimloki wrote: I have a 7yr old, $200 when bought brand new futon that my lady and I have slept on every night for 7 years. I'm 6ft and 200lb, while she is 5ft and 140lbs. Its gotten less comfortable lately. Perhaps I'm getting older. In pricing beds, the fact that they cost so much, and perform so poorly initially (a bad person to bed fit), then later (poor quality) makes me leery of spending $1000+ on something that won't last as long or be as comfortable as a 7yr old, $200 futon. I mean, my back doesn't hurt. I don't roll off. Its not sagging in the middle. So I think I'm going to try the following... purchase a few high quality mattress toppers in a range of densities, and use this on top of the very compressed yet uniformily flat futon. The range of densities should allow me to cut them lengthwise if too firm is too much for my lady, while too soft causes me problems, to make custom densities. I plan to throw a wool cover on top, and then, if i get the latex right, find a cheap spring mattress and perform surgery, adding my hopefully long lived latex toppers to a spring mattresses long lived springs. I estimate $400 for three 1in latex toppers in med, firm, and extra firm densities, $100 for the wool cover, and wait till i find a screaming deal on a good set of springs underneath a bunch of bad foam, to rebuild with my latex toppers... and I could probably use the futon as a box springs. Pass it down to my childrens children as a family heirloom. Something like that. So, I'm wondering if this sounds like a good plan, because I've just said I'm used to a 7yr old $200 futon, and I realize I am solidly out of my mind... Any tips? Points to make? Stuff I've left out? Thanks! I've enjoyed reading this site the last few days as well. Sounds like a good plan. I'm somewhat skeptical about putting it all on top of a futon though. I think there may be some sinking in the middle or somewhere even though you don't notice it. So I would do this: Go ahead and try it. But if you find it hurts your back, try it just on the floor or on top of some very firm HR foam to see if that is better. You could probably get 4" of firm HR foam in queen size for a couple hundred dollars, or find a cheap mattress with good springs for $300-350. It MAY work as you describe and if so that is great. If not, you may indeed want to find some springs inside a mattress that you can do surgery on. I'm also curious where you can get 3 x 1" layers of Queen size latex for $400... I think it may cost more than that. |