First of all, let me offer our appreciation for all of the hard work that went into this site: THANK YOU Phoenix. And, thank you to all of the members who have contributed. This resource has been invaluable in helping my wife and I to purchase our first latex mattress. We own and operate a housecleaning company, so our bodies are subjected to abuse on a daily basis. With our traditional coil mattress approaching its 7 year mark, we knew it was time for an upgrade. Furthermore, my wife has recently been diagnosed with a rare nerve disorder which sends stabs of pain into her head and face. The nerve disorder is agitated by movement, so driving or sleeping next to her restless husband is incredibly painful for my wife.
Once we decided to replace our mattress, we were so happy that we found this resource! As we both have slightly obsessive personalities, we began researching buying a new mattress. After reading the Mattress Shopping Tutorial, all about the support cores and comfort layers, we both were certain we wanted either Latex or memory (poly) foam. We were initially weary of the memory foam for two reasons: (1) it seems to be less effective at regulating temperature than all latex; (2) the memory foam seems to break down quicker than the latex. (Plus, it seems like it is a whole lot more deception in what memory foam is composed of versus the latex mattresses, at least from the retailers we initially researched). At any rate, we didn’t like the memory foam mattress when we tried them out in person (no good from our personal PPP equation).
So we decided to go with an all latex mattress (my wife was also happy about the dust mite “resistance” for the natural latex because is allergic to them). According to our research here and elsewhere, there are not many local sleep shops in Charleston, SC. We visited two of them in the area, Sleeping Organic and The Charleston Mattress (of the other three mentioned in a post from Phoenix, two were way overpriced, in our opinion, and the other one didn’t carry 100% latex mattresses). We absolutely loved the mattress at Sleeping Organic - the 4 layer, 13" Leaf Mattress. The only problem was the price - over $4,000 once we included their foundation. Now the price was THE ONLY problem because the mattress was wonderfully comfortable, they were going to split the king to make two separate mattress because it turns out I require a much firmer mattress than my wife, and the quilting, mattress cover and foundation cover were made from all natural, organic cotton and wool. Plus, they have a 100 night sleep trail where individual layers of latex can be exchanged within those first 100 nights, or the entire mattress can be returned within the first 45 days. If we had an extra $2,000, we would have bought this first mattress we tested on that same day we tested it out.
As the price seemed too much, we decided to keep looking. We next went to the Charleston Mattress. We absolutely loved the owners, a delightful husband and wife team (we could relate as we are the husband and wife owners of a Charleston area cleaning service). The only problem was that they only had one 100% latex mattress to choose from, the 12" Harbor Mattress. Once we tested it out, we liked it. But we didn’t love it - the 4 layer, 13" Leaf at Sleeping Organics was much nicer. We asked them what were the possibilities of customizing the mattress, as far as changing the firmness of the latex layers. While they were happy to be of service, the only customization available was asking the factory to choose the latex from the middle of the latex mold vs. the outsides of the mold (I can’t remember if it was softer or more firm, but the owner told us the latex taken from inside of the mold was either softer or more firm).
Next we proceeded to the online options and searched through all of them. Long story short, we finally settled on two twin XL mattresses from Sleep on Latex (a soft 9" mattress for my wife and a firm 9" mattress for myself). The total price was $1578 (no tax or shipping charges), making these two twin XL mattresses $1,364.50 cheaper than the split-King Sleeping Organic Mattress (The mattress alone, without the foundation, was $2942.50, after a 5% discount for being a member here and a $50 discount for liking them on Facebook). We thought saving that much money was worth the risk of ordering the mattresses online. We have the option to return one of the mattresses for a complete refund f we don’t like them and the company will pay to have them picked up (you can only return one mattress per household per year); OR, we can exchange one of the mattresses for free and the company will drop off the replacement at the dame time they pick up the one we didn’t like (again, this warranty is only good for one exchange per household per year). Additionally, Sleep On Latex has some good prices on toppers if we find that the mattresses are almost perfect, but just need to be a little softer, or a little more firm.
That’s our story in a nutshell. Now to our question for you Phoenix. Can you recommend a foundation/bed frame that will limit the amount of motion transference when I am being a restless sleeper? We have considered purchasing two bed frames/two foundations to completely eliminate the problem, because my wife’s nerve condition is worsening and the movement is extremely painful to her (and harmful to our marriage). However, if you can recommend one sturdy King bed, we would really like to make that work. My wife really likes the idea of a platform bed, and she really wanted a padded/upholstered headboard - I guess it is something she always wanted ever since she was a little girl. We read your post on choosing a good foundation for a latex mattress, but it seems like we either have to choose between the KD foundation or the platform bed - we can’t seem to find a recommendation that will combine the platform bed and upholstered headboard with the sturdy, breathable, solid-wood slats at 2". Do you have any recommendations to help us out?
We thank you for all of your tireless efforts on this site. We thank you for taking the time to read this post. And I hope the story I wrote above is not too drawn out or incorrectly included with this post. I only added it for background and to potentially help others in the Charleston, SC area. Please, move part of my biography to a different area of the forum if it will be better suited there. THANK YOU AGAIN!
