First Post, Buying Firm Mattress

[Markus250]

Hey everyone, first post here so I’ll give some background info.

Bought my first bedroom set about four years ago when I got married and moved out with my wife, neither of us had ever had a good mattress/pillow in our lives. The builder of our home was able to get us contractor pricing at The Brick so we went there for all of our new furniture. We didn’t do any research beforehand but based on price/comfort we picked a Trump Home queen mattress with a pretty thick pillow top and some sort of two sided aloe/memory foam pillow and loved both, thought they were very comfortable and our sleep seemed to improve.

Four years later, we recently moved into a bigger house and have a bigger bedroom that can accommodate a king size bed. Our queen bed frame has some play in the brackets and our mattress is sagging a little bit at the edge so that makes our decision even easier (I think the sagging comes from the fact that my wife has been pregnant twice during the four years we’ve slept on the mattress and hogs the majority of the bed with a fort of pillow supports, I’m 6’4 and 210 pounds and end up sleeping right on the edge of the bed and I think I crushed the edge of the pillow top). Recently at a hotel my wife noticed she actually found the firmer mattresses there more comfortable, myself I don’t have a preference really.

I was out of town for work and my wife asked me to check out a bed frame at Urban Barn (I think it’s like Canadian Pottery Barn?). It looked good and would fit our new house and apparently they sell mattresses at this place as well and I’d get 20% off for buying the frame. I tried the pillow top and the firm mattress, both felt fine but the firm was cheaper and I figured my wife might like it better.

I never make impulse decisions and now that I am home, I want to do my research and make the right decision. I’m finding it hard to find any info about the mattress online which makes me wary. The Urban Barn website has limited information, the information they printed off for me is identical but also includes the brand name, Novosuite. When I go to that website, it seems Novo makes mattresses but none of which are under the novosuite brand (which is actually a type of pillow they sell). The Restwell website (that Novo falls under) doesn’t have any additional information either.

So on the one hand, the mattress is a good price (999 plus 20% off), felt comfortable and could be picked up along with the frame. On the other hand, I haven’t really shopped around too much so I’d be open to some suggestions. I also have a very large gift card for Sears that I need to find a way to spend so if they have anything decent, I’d definitely consider.

[phoenix]

Hi Markus250,

Four years later, we recently moved into a bigger house and have a bigger bedroom that can accommodate a king size bed. Our queen bed frame has some play in the brackets and our mattress is sagging a little bit at the edge so that makes our decision even easier (I think the sagging comes from the fact that my wife has been pregnant twice during the four years we’ve slept on the mattress and hogs the majority of the bed with a fort of pillow supports, I’m 6’4 and 210 pounds and end up sleeping right on the edge of the bed and I think I crushed the edge of the pillow top). Recently at a hotel my wife noticed she actually found the firmer mattresses there more comfortable, myself I don’t have a preference really.

It’s also quite probably that the sagging and softening is from the use of thicker layers of lower quality foams in the comfort layers and pillowtop of the mattress (which unfortunately is the case with most major brands). 4 years is “about average” or in some cases longer than the comfort life of a mattress like this for many people.

The first place I would start your research is the tutorial post (it’s linked in the top right corner of the page and after all of my posts) which has all the most important information, steps, and guidelines you will need to find the most suitable and highest quality mattress in your budget range all in one place.

I would never buy a mattress where you didn’t know the quality of the materials inside it because that kind of “blind purchase” is very risky and the odds are very high that you will end up with a mattress that won’t last you nearly as long as you hoped for (and the loss of comfort and support which is the most common cause of needing to replace a mattress isn’t covered by a warranty). Neither Urban Barn or Restwell provide the information you would need to make an informed choice or make meaningful comparisons with other mattresses.

Phoenix