After looking over all of the getting started posts and a decent amount of testing, my wife and I are considering a latex bed. We tried some memory foam and like the softness of the cloud luxe by tempurpedic, but being able to turn was difficult. I was considering the the aloe alexis from brooklyn bedding for the value, and they recommended the ultra plush, 3" of 19ild and 3" of 24ild since we like the cloud luxe.
I started to wonder if buying separate latex toppers would be a better value. 3-3" toppers would run about $1212 for a king, and cover from SleepEZ about $350 with shipping for a total of $1550, vs $2000 for the SleepEZ 10,000, or the all latex from brooklyn bedding? I know DIY’ing a bed is risky, but when you order either of these mattresses you choose all of the different levels of softness anyways.
I’m 5’10" and about 140lbs and wife is 5’6" about 160lbs, and are stomach, side and back sleepers. The restonic latex beds we’ve tried with the 24-26ild have been too firm for our liking. We were thinking of going with 3" of 19ild, 3" of 24ild, and 3" of 32ild of the blended latex toppers from brooklyn. I figured if it seemed to soft we could try switching the 24 and 19 and we could ask them to ship the toppers without the free cover as the cover between each layer may affect it quite a bit. It seems this is the cheapest option for an all latex mattress even if it is blended. Any concerns you may see with this? Thanks for any input.
I would read post #15 here and the post it links to before starting to design and build a DIY mattress just to make sure your expectations of success and cost are realistic.
If you enjoy these types of DIY projects and the cost savings are less important than what you learn and you approach it with a “spirit of adventure” it can certainly be worth the risk or any extra costs that may be involved vs a component mattress where you have a good return or exchange policy in case you make a mistake or the mattress turns out to be different from what you expected.
If you decide to go ahead I hope you have the chance to let us know how it turns out for you.
Hello again Phoenix. We put the bed on hold for awhile and are getting ready to finally bite the bullet. We also had a chance to test out the PLB Beautiful and thought it was just the right amount of softness and support.
I am still leaning towards a 3 layer system using 3" blended talalay and 19ild, 28ild, and 36ild layering, after seeing the stats on the PLB. I know it’s all down to our preference, but do you have any suggestions with the options of 19, 24, 28, 32, 36?
We definitely like the softness of the Beautiful, but like you’ve stated previously, the extra thickness of the middle layer and the fact that the layers won’t be glued together should help. I was worried the 19 and 24 would be too soft. Also, do you think there is any benefit using a 32 instead of the 36 as the base?
If it helps, we’ll be using a stretch cotton cover with no wool as the mattress encasement/cover and a St. Dormier Wool pad, and we decided to stick with a queen size. Thanks again for your help and all of the time you’ve put into site. I’ll definitely provide our feedback through the process.
You’ve probably seen this but the specs for the Beautiful are in post #2 here so if you believe that the Beautiful is “perfect” for you and you are trying to “duplicate” it then the closer the specs of your mattress come to the specs of the Beautiful (in terms of the type, thickness, and firmness of all the layers and the type of cover) the more similar it will be to the feel and performance of the Beautiful. Any difference in any of these can produce a mattress that feels different from the Beautiful in one way or another and sometimes even seemingly small differences can have a surprising effect for some people. Differences in the upper layers (which have more of an effect on “comfort” and pressure relief) will probably be more noticeable to most people than differences in the deeper layers (which have more of an effect on support/alignment). If you are considering a 9" mattress vs the 12" Beautiful you can read more about the effect of thickness in post #14 here.
If you are considering a component mattress (option 2 in the previous post I linked) then I would base your layering choices on a conversation with the retailer or manufacturer you are considering who will be in the best position to tell you which of the options they have available will likely be closest to the Beautiful for you (see mattress firmness/comfort levels in post #2 here). If you are considering building your own mattress from scratch (option 3 in the previous post I linked) and you are confident that the Beautiful is the ideal choice for you in terms of PPP then the the materials you will need to “duplicate” the Beautiful are available from the sources that are listed in the component post here. If you use a design that is different in some way than the layers in the Beautiful then you will need to use trial and error and your own experience to assess how they feel for you compared to the Beautiful and whether you need to make any changes or additions to your design.
That depends entirely on the other layers and components in the mattress (every layer and component in a mattress will affect the feel and performance of all the other layers) and how well a specific combination works for a specific person (body type, sleeping style, and preferences) in terms of PPP. For some people it may work well as part of an overall design so for them it would be a good choice and for others it may not work well at all as part of a specific design and for them of course it wouldn’t be such a good choice.