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Making an emperor bed

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Re: Making an emperor bed

#81

Post by oneplane »

api_or_ipa wrote: post #77
oneplane wrote: post #75

I wonder what the deal is with 'naming' bed sizes. Here in The Netherlands as far as I know, we just use dimensions so you always know exactly what size you have/want/get. Is it a country or language specific thing? Or perhaps an industry idea to hide information behind ambiguous terms?

Names work well because the actual size of a mattress isn't really important to most mattress discussions, nor are the measurements ever 100% accurate because of differences in material or manufacture. If I'm at the shop buying sheets and I remember my queen mattress is roughly ~1.5m wide, is it a 1.37m wide double mattress or a 1.53m wide queen mattress? Using a name placeholder avoids this ambiguity, a queen sheet…

I guess that would work well in a situation where there is a limited set of sizes. We'd be stuck with about 15 different names here. I wonder if there is some size distribution difference, for example, almost all hotel beds in the US and the UK are too short, yet very wide for me.

Re: Making an emperor bed

#82

Post by dflock »

nextos wrote: post #29
rootedbox wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I get what your saying; but this is also how we end up with hacky software at companies.. The 'The I'm pretty sure I can make this better(or cheaper) myself... even if there is an off the shelf version done by dedicated professionals.'

I disagree. If you hang around The Mattress Underground, where lots of mattress aficionados and professional sellers post, you will quickly become aware that most beds are pretty mediocre and overpriced. There's lots of in-depth discussion on their internals, and it's pretty disappointing. It's not surprising, as there's a lot of information asymmetry in the bed market. Customers don't have a good understanding of in…

I'd be very interested in a writeup on your custom bed - but failing that, a picture of if would be great, if possible. Thanks!

Re: Making an emperor bed

#83

Post by gh02t »

MayeulC wrote: post #57
owenversteeg wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not sure about a cooling system, but heated blankets/mattress pads exist for pretty cheap ($10ish.) Anyone know if there's an inexpensive way to cool a mattress? I found the "ChiliPad" for US$450, with discount codes taking that to $336, which is still way more expensive than any heating pads. Everything else I've found just seems to be mattress pads with cooling fabrics, which just feel cool to the touch and don…

I would have expected some plastic hose meshes to exist, that could be plugged into any sort of cooling system (be it pelletier, compressor, evaporation, or just radiator based) trough a closed-loop "watercooling" system, but couldn't find any. Such a mesh could be built into the mattress itself. I would expect waterbeds to be easier to regulate as well, as I imagine they have a higher thermal conductivity. This coul…

> I would expect waterbeds to be easier to regulate as well, as I imagine they have a higher thermal conductivity. This could allow to place the cooling apparatus underneath, and make it something like a regular fridge radiator.

I dunno if you've ever slept on a waterbed, but you probably would not want to have a cooling system. The large heat capacity of water means that they act like a giant heat sink, they're actually pretty cold as is. It's the same reason a pool full of water at room temperature feels cold when you jump in.

Re: Making an emperor bed

#84

Post by bradknowles »

In Europe, on the Continent, standard sizes are 180cm by 2m, and 2m by 2m (or about 78.75" by 78.75"). When my wife and I lived in Belgium, we bought one of the German 2m by 2m beds, which was quite expensive. But it was still the best bed we've ever had.

Here in the US, we were able to find a store here in Austin (Austin Natural Mattress) that helped us find a solution with three separate layers that can be replaced as necessary, and design the bed to our exact requirements. This is the closest we've ever found to our beloved German 2m*2m bed, and since each side under the top mattress cover can be replaced as necessary, we each get to choose how hard or soft we like our side, or how cool or warm we like our side.

Given our recent experience, I would never again buy a bed that did not let us choose individually how we want our side of the bed to be.

Re: Making an emperor bed

#85

Post by tbrownaw »

twic wrote: post #79
api_or_ipa wrote: post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Names work well because the actual size of a mattress isn't really important to most mattress discussions, nor are the measurements ever 100% accurate because of differences in material or manufacture. If I'm at the shop buying sheets and I remember my queen mattress is roughly ~1.5m wide, is it a 1.37m wide double mattress or a 1.53m wide queen mattress? Using a name placeholder avoids this ambiguity, a queen sheet…

And yet, at the hardware store, you by two-by-four, and if someone suggested that that should be called a duke-size instead, you would think they were off their rocker.

But that's also just a name, since they're not actually 2" x 4".

Re: Making an emperor bed

#86

Post by war1025 »

koolba wrote: post #71
war1025 wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have no write-up, so probably not a terribly interesting comment. But my wife and I decided to make our own 100% wool mattress several years ago by stitching together five italian officer blankets with wool batting sandwiched between each layer. By far the most comfortable mattress I've ever slept on. We've had it for maybe 5 years now I think.

How would you rate the firmness and does it breathe? I’d imagine wool would retain body heat quite a bit.

Definitely on the firmer side, but it's like four inches of wool, so its got quite a bit of springiness to it.

As far as heat, we're of the opinion that wool is basically the ideal material. It is breathable, but it matches your body temperature and maintains it pretty well. It wicks the moisture away from you really well.

I don't know how exactly to compare it to other mattresses, but we keep our house at ~60F in the winter and we haven't been running AC in the summers, so our house has been up around 90F with high humidity. It is very comfortable across that whole spectrum.

If you've ever had a pair of high quality wool socks, it's kind of like that. They keep you warm in the winter and keep your feet comfortable and dry in the summer.

Re: Making an emperor bed

#87

Post by war1025 »

aekotra wrote: post #48
war1025 wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have no write-up, so probably not a terribly interesting comment. But my wife and I decided to make our own 100% wool mattress several years ago by stitching together five italian officer blankets with wool batting sandwiched between each layer. By far the most comfortable mattress I've ever slept on. We've had it for maybe 5 years now I think.

I would like to do the same! Could you please provide more detail on sourcing materials and the construction?

We basically bought 5 Italian Officer blankets off Ebay (They are roughly the size of a queen bed), and then a bunch of wool batting from a website that sells pre-made wool mattresses, but also just bulk wool.

I think I looked into it recently and we spent something like $700 on materials.

But then you just put down the first blanket, lay down a layer of the batting (I don't remember for sure, but I think it maybe came in queen size bats already from where we bought it), and then repeat.

We stitched around the outsize with yarn using a baseball-style stitch to keep everything sort of fixed in place.

Here's a picture: https://files.slack.com/files-pri/T03KPRY1A-FBT1180P5/wool_b...

Re: Making an emperor bed

#90

Post by peterwwillis »

closetohome wrote: post #25

I'd like to suggest that, no matter how proud you are of this, don't bring a woman over and open with "so I built my own mattress."

A better opening line: "Hi, I'm looking for volunteers to help me test a mattress I'm building, and you look pretty hefty and sensitive..."
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