Hi Bryce720,
This is the first option that I would try because it would keep the benefits of the cotton/wool cover. Your mattress cover would most likely have room for an additional inch although it could still have a small effect on the feel of the mattress because of some additional precompression of the latex.
Since this is exactly the same combination that you tried in the store it would be the closest to what you tried in terms of how it feels with the exception of any effect of your sheets . You would lose “some” of the benefits of sleeping directly on the wool quilted cover but latex is very breathable so it’s unlikely that you would have any temperature regulation issues with sleeping directly on an inch of latex. The biggest down side of this is that a bare layer of latex may break down or be damaged more quickly than a latex layer that is either inside of the mattress cover or has its own dedicated cover.
Latex can oxidize faster with exposure to air and ozone and ultraviolet light along with other substances that can damage it (see here) and it’s generally a good idea for latex to have a suitable dedicated cover to give it the best possible protection and to help maximize it’s useful lifetime. It can also help protect it with handling. There is more in post #3 here and post #3 here that will give you some sense of the effect of different types of covers on latex. A cover would have “some” effect on the feel of the topper but a relatively thin stretchy knit cover would have the least possible effect. Your own personal experience is the only reliable way to know how much effect it has and whether the cover was either beneficial or detrimental or whether you could feel any effect at all.
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This would probably be the first thing I would try as well followed by the topper with its own dedicated cover.
Phoenix