So my 9 yr old Serta is starting to hurt my back, so I think it’s time to find a new mattress. So before I learned about this site, I went testing for a few beds at Macys, Bloomingdales, Sleepys, and Mattress Warehouse. I found the perfect bed for me at Bloomingdales. It’s called Nature’s Spa Serenity Norma Collection. It’s made for Bloomingdales by Paramount. It’s an all natural hybrid coil/latex bed that had the just the right amount of firmness.
The only problem is it’s cost. They want $3000 just for the mattress which seems a bit steep to me. So I tried to do some research and found this website. Now I have additional concerns about the quality of the materials since it’s sold at Bloomingdales.
Since they are a lack of mattress places in DC, I am kind of a loss. I really like the feel of the hybrid latex/coil system. Though I like the feel of some all latex beds, I am still a traditionalist and afraid to make that leap.
I tried the R&B bed. I like it, but wasn’t blown away by it. It seems a bit springy and didn’t feel as luxury as the Nature’s Spa.
My distance second choices would be the Airloom Hotel Collection Firm at Macys or the Kluft Sovereign LS. Both sell for $2000 just for the mattress. But after reading some reviews here, I want to stay away from them.
Any thoughts? Is the Nature’s Spa bed worth the price?
The “value” of a mattress purchase really depends on many factors including of course how suitable it is for you after careful and objective testing for PPP (Posture and alignment, Pressure relief, and Personal preferences). Outside of the things you can feel in terms of comfort and support and the subjective “feel” of the mattress … comparing mattresses in terms of quality, durability, and “value” depends on knowing the specifics of all the layers in a mattress so you can decide which of the mattresses you are comparing with the Nature’s Spa Norma is the best match for all your individual criteria and personal value equation.
I agree that it appears to be in a higher price range than other mattresses that may be comparable but the Bloomingdale’s website doesn’t list enough information to make any meaningful assessments possible. I would want to know the specifics of the cover (including what percentage of the quilting is wool and what is other fibers), the thickness of the polyfoam in the quilting and its density if it’s more than an inch or so, the thickness, type and blend of all the latex layers (although it appears to be blended Talalay), the type and thickness of the gel material that they use (which appears to be a pure gel which is a more costly material than a gel infused memory foam), and the density of the polyfoam that is used around the innerspring. It uses a high quality innerspring that is a “coil in coil” design (and would be more costly than some other types of pocket coils) so this is good quality, and it has a high quality heavy duty slatted wood foundation with 16 slats if you decide to add that to your purchase.
If you can provide the information that’s missing then I can make more meaningful comments about it and let you know if there are any obvious weak links in the mattress.
Whether it’s “worth” the price would depend on the parts of your personal value equation that are most important to you and on how it compares to any of your other finalists (value is relative to how a mattress compares to others that your are considering or that are available to you) but it’s certainly in a high enough budget range that once you know the specifics of the materials inside it I would make some careful value comparisons to other mattresses that are either in a similar budget range or that use similar materials to decide on which one is better value to you.
Some of the better options and possibilities I’m aware of in the Washington DC area are listed in post #2 here.
Just in case you haven’t read it yet as well … the tutorial post here has all the basic information, steps, and guidelines that can help you make the best possible choices.
Did you make a decision yet? I am also trying to decide between all-latex or a hybrid. I was just at Bloomingdales and the salesman was pushing their Nature’s Spa Serenity Collection over EVERYTHING else in the showroom–their “Perry” mattress. After questioning him a bit, I found out that they just started selling the Paramount line about two months ago (manufacturer of the NS) and that they were “specially” designed for Bloomingdales. Made me wonder if the commission he would get on that line is higher than any other…
That aside, I DID like the bed and felt it might be an easier transition from a traditional mattress.
After giving up on his savvy rest for comfort…
My son just purchased a Paramount Spa mattress at Bloomingdales last night and I am concerned about what is in the gel the mattress cover and the tallalay… how pure is this mattress….what do they use for a fire retardant ….the wool ?…what is the soy"based" product made up of? What other type of foam is in the core?
Has anyone information on this or experience with this mattress?
I can answer some of your questions in very general terms but you will need to contact Paramount for some of the more specific answers you may need.
Talalay latex is one of two methods used to make latex foam. It can use synthetic rubber or 100% natural rubber or a blend of both (which is the most common version of Talalay). There is more about the different types and blends of latex in post #6 here. The gel that is added to some types of latex is a phase change gel that can absorb and release heat within a certain temperature range to help regulate temperature. All the latex you are likely to encounter (either Dunlop or Talalay made with natural or synthetic rubber or a blend of both) will have been tested by Oeko-Tex or Eco-Institut for harmful substances and VOC’s (see post #2 here). The description says that they use 100% natural Talalay which would mean that there wasn’t any synthetic rubber in the blend although there would still be other substances used to make the latex in the compounding formula (see post #7 here). If the latex has gel added to it then it’s probably blended Talalay latex not 100% natural since I don’t believe that they make 100% natural Talalay with gel.
The description of the cover says that it uses 64% natural cotton but they don’t mention the other fibers in the blend although it would probably be polyester.
All they say about the wool is that it is New Zealand natural wool.
So called “soy based foam” is just polyfoam that has replaced a small percentage of one of the two main chemicals used to make the polyfoam (the polyol) with a polyol that is derived from soy oil (see post #2 here). It would be closely comparable in terms of durability to other types of polyfoam that are the same density range. I would want to know the density of any polyfoam in a mattress.
You would need to ask Paramount for information about the type of fire barrier they use and also for the specifics of all the layers and components in the mattress (see this article).
“Pure” is a very ambiguous term that doesn’t have any specific meaning when it comes to mattress materials (anything can be pure including synthetic chemicals if they aren’t mixed with other chemicals) but I’m guessing what you are really asking about is how “safe” are the materials.
If this is the case then these types of “safety” questions are a very complex subject with a lack of clear and definitive answers but there is more information in post #2 here and the more detailed posts and information it links to about safe, natural, organic, “chemical free”, and “green” mattresses and mattress materials that can help you sort through some of the marketing information and terminology that you will encounter in the industry and can help you differentiate between them and help answer “how safe is safe enough for me” that can help you decide on the types of materials you (or your son) are most comfortable having in your mattress. These types of issues are complex and are generally specific to each person and their individual sensitivities, circumstances, criteria, beliefs, and lifestyle choices.