My wife and I have spent about 20 hours over the past few weeks doing online research, in store testing, and a bit of “intense discussion,” and feel only slightly closer to making a decision regarding a new mattress than we felt before we started the whole process. We started with the Mattress Shopping Tutorial, and then proceeded with all the online and in-store research. For context, here’s a quick bit of background:
- I’m 33, 5’8" and about 165 pounds. I’m pretty fit so the BMI calculators we’ve used to help us decide don’t give great results.
- She’s 32, 5’8" and about 130 pounds. Also pretty fit, so the same is true re: BMI calculators
- We both tend to fall asleep on our back or side, and then sleep on our back
- She prefers something a little more firm, and I’d like something a little more plush (we’ll go with her pick here, as I travel 3-4 days per week)
- Neither one of us likes the sleeping “in” your bed feeling of memory foam; we’d prefer to sleep “on” our bed
- I sleep very hot, and she sleeps rather cold, so we accept that this may need to be addressed with sheets/comforter rather than the mattress
We did quite a bit of reading on this site, as well as on a few others, and decided we would like to go with either an all latex or latex hybrid mattress. With that in mind, we checked out a couple of the stores that were listed in this post about options in our area (Cincinnati).
We started with The Original Mattress Factory, but found that their only hybrid option was far to spongy/bouncy for either one of us.
Next we tried The Denver Mattress Company, in Florence, KY. I really like the Telluride hybrid mattress they had, as did my wife, but we’re both concerned about the longevity of this one because there’s not as much information available on each of the components. The gentleman in the store used the “it’s a proprietary blend” shtick with us.
Our favorite mattress thus far has been the Macybed Lux Lovell 15" Plush Euro Top, but again, neither the gentleman in the store, nor the folks at Restonic, who make the bed for Macy’s, were able to give me foam densities or latex ILD info. We were also skeptical because of all the warnings about the big box route, though Restonic does get a strong GOOD POSSIBILITY review on this site.
Our last resort at this point is likely a trip to Design Sleep, which is about an hour’s drive for us. It looks like they do both standard and custom-built latex and latex hybrid mattresses. Based upon reviews they appear to be very knowledgeable.
If that doesn’t work, what are we to do? Do any of you have information regarding stores in the Cincinnati/Dayton area, or should we go with an online retailer that has a replacement guarantee so we know we’ll be able to “try” a few options (we’d prefer not to have to return anything, but we’ve struggled to find something we really like).