Help deciding on a new foundation - losing my mind!

Mattress Talk Additional Components & Accessories
1

I’m suffering from information overload and decision anxiety and need some help deciding on a proper foundation.

Backstory: I’m a 40-year-old 285 lb solo back sleeper that has mostly slept on cheap memory foam or traditional coil mattresses my whole life. I’ve decided recently that it’s time to get a good quality mattress. I first settled on a Titan Plus Elite as I need something firm but wanted something that would be just the slightest bit soft. At first it was really comfortable, but over the course of 6 weeks I noticed I started to sink into the mattress more than was comfortable. I returned that and went back to the drawing board and that’s when I discovered TMU and started to find a whole new world of quality mattress companies and better information.

Current situation: I’ve now settled on either a DLX latex lux in medium/firm or an engineered sleep duo latex but am leaning towards the former. However, my current foundation is a cheap zinus metal grid style platform with very wide boxes. I’ve since wondered if it could have been the cause of my issues with the helix. It seems my choices are either a platform bed with quality wooden slats that are as wide, thick, and with as little gap as possible. Or a foundation (which I would then have to find an affordable bed that would work which is potentially more cost).

Choices: With a budget of less than $2,000 I want in queen something with enough support for my size, little noise, and ideally that will hold up with some time.

  1. Thuma the bed – slats 3 inches apart, 2.5 inches wide, .75 thick made out of “double strength plywood” per Thuma. Lots of very positive reviews online, but I’ve read 3 inches might not be enough support for someone my size. I LOVE the look and it’s in my budget so it’s the easiest choice if it’s quality and the slat distance won’t be a problem. I’m just not sold as there’s so much marketing out there.

  2. Big fig foundation – most flexible as I can pair it with any bed I find. The problem is in the past typical bed frames I’ve owned have had noise, movement, and may end up costing me more after all this than the thuma. Plus side is that the slats are 1.5” apart, ¾ inch thick, and 2.5” wide so should definitely be sturdy.

  3. Tatami Room Tall Platform bed – less reviews than Thuma but all I found were very favorable for a company that spends less on marketing and has been around longer than Thuma. Better spacing of the slats at 2”. I need to reach out about the other slat dimensions however, but they advertise 18 slats so I think they have to be at least 2.5 inches wide. BUT the lead time is currently 14 weeks.

  4. Others?

Thank you all in advance!

2

I went with the Sleep-EZ platform along with a 13 inch set of 4 layers of latex and I’m 340 lbs at a little over 6 feet tall. It’s working quite well for me so far after three weeks so far.

I went with the queen sized Terra platform. It really was tool-less assembly using the wingnuts to secure the pieces. The wood, including the slats, are all spruce so it’s NOT hardwood unlike the Tatami and it is NOT finished although they did a great job sanding the wood pieces down. The fabric six-sided cover will fit over the entire thing. They use hook and loop patches (velcro) and staples to assemble the pieces of the frame outside of the places where the bolts go.

Those patches are also used to attach the cover to the wood frame on the underside. The result looks much like any box-springs setup except there’s no springs, just the wood slats. For the queen sized platform, they end up having about a quarter to half an inch gap between edges when laid out. The spacing will vary some as you have to eyeball where to lay them down. The hook/loop patches work quite well at keeping them in place.

The foundation seems very solid once assembled. The weight of the mattress alone is enough to keep anything from shifting easily. They provide lock washers for the wingnuts to keep them tight after assembly. I get zero noise or sag even though the platform is resting on a steel bed frame that the existing head and footboards are attached to. The supplied legs for the platform aren’t being used as they are shorter than the frame itself. It helps that the frame has a middle side-to-side support member that’s angle-iron to provide rigidity. If it weren’t there, I’d likely have used the platform feet and set aside the bed frame.

All said, you DO get what you pay for. The Terra foundation is likely to not last near as long or look near as good as the Tatami one. I’m less concerned about that than some might be. Bedspreads tend to cover all that anyways.