Hi there,
I’m interested in trying to DIY my own blended Talalay latex mattress. I’m 5’6", 165lbs, I like a softer bed and have wider shoulders so I like a thick comfort layer.
The best thing I’ve tried:
- 2" 14 ILD Blended Talalay
- 2" 19 ILD Blended Talalay
- An 8" QE Elite Bolsa spring unit from my purchase of a Luma mattress. I found the Bolsa unit to be much too firm and I experienced rib pain and restless sleeping. It had a 1.5" 28 ILD layer on top that I took off to see if that would help somehow, but I’m not really sure it made much of a difference one way or another. Now it’s just the coils. Any way to translate the Bolsa unit into a Talalay Latex ILD?
I have a 3" 24 ILD blended layer I tried as a top layer but was too firm. Later I tried it as a transition layer, but then it didn’t seem supportive enough.
I went to a local mattress shop and tried out the beds they had. I found I liked the feel of the Pure Talalay Bliss blended talalay latex beds. The softest model they had was the Beautiful, but it still seemed on the firm side for me and definitely too firm for my gf (5’4" 145lbs side sleeper – likes very soft beds).
I was thinking about something like:
2" 14 ILD
2" 19 ILD
3" 28 ILD
3" 32/36 ILD.
I have been looking at the AUP for inspiration and it looks like you guys use a blended 6" core of all the same firmness (in 28, 32, or 36 ILD). Would a 6" core be better for some reason, or is it more of a cost or personal preference thing?
I was thinking to fine-tune the firmness a little (Rather than a 6" core) to be softer at first with the 28 ILD middle layer. I’m not sure if I should go with a 36 or a 32 underneath the 28. I know the 32 will feel closer to the 28, and I tend to like a softer bed, but I don’t want to bottom out or get lower back pain either. Sort of a goldilocks situation.
Final question: If you think I might be barking up the wrong tree, what mattress of yours would you recommend for me/us?
I’ll have this mattress on top of a platform bed with 2.5" slat gaps.
Thanks very much for your time and assistance!
Thank you for the questions. If you thought the PLB Beautiful was still too firm then you want something ultra ultra soft. You will need 3" of #14 over 3" #19 based on those remarks. The Bolsa coil will equate to the firmness of the Beautiful base core which is 6" #36 Talalay. So I would start by trying those two toppers with your QE Bolsa spring. I sleep on very soft latex but even the Beautiful is too soft for me so you are the first I’ve ever had say that model was too firm.
Thank you so much for your replies.
I have tried 2" of 19 and 4" of 14, and 2" of 19 and 3" of 14. The 4" of 14 caused lower back pain pretty quickly and I wasn’t a fan. 3" of 14 (2" + 1" more) seemed great at first… but when laying on my side for any length of time, it seemed to make me feel like I had to continuously try to stop myself from rolling over and I wound up sleeping splayed out on my stomach to stop this rolling feeling. It was an odd feeling. I also tried folding over the 2" of 19 ILD (so 4" of 19) with 2" of 14 on top, and I wasn’t crazy about that feel either. That’s why I was thinking some sort of transition layer and maybe a slightly softer support layer might be in order, to try to coax some softness out of deeper in the bed.
I think what I tried was the Beautiful, but I’m not 100% sure. The guy kinda had to be coaxed a bit, at first he said they don’t make one softer than his softest… then after some coaxing he said that it was the second softest bed PTB made. He said they had one model softer than his softest, but he doesn’t carry it because it’s so soft that ‘you really don’t want to go with one that soft’. I inferred then that his softest must then be the Beautiful, and the PTB World’s Best Bed would then be the one he felt was too soft for almost everyone.
I was thinking I could DIY build something like the WBB since I like the feel of the blended Talalay and wanted something just a little softer than the Beautiful.
That was the theory anyway…!
The only thing I can say at this point is try one layer at a time until you get something that works since you’ve basically already tried my recommendation.
Okay, that’s smart. Thank you very much!