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Choosing a Bed
Choosing a Mattress

 

Advice on choosing your bedstead or bed base

There are two main components to your bed.
The mattress you lay on which ultimately gives the bed its feel - soft, medium or firm - and is responsible for giving you a good night's sleep.
And the bedstead, which gives you the style and look you want for your bedroom.

When choosing your bed there are 4 main points to take into consideration.
1. Style
2. Comfort (See above)
3. Size
4. Usage and Quality

Style

Nowadays there is a vast selection of styles but for simplicity sake I have divided them into 4 - METAL, WOOD, UPHOLSTERED AND LEATHER, and DIVAN.

Metal Bedsteads

Metal Bedsteads have come a long way since Victorian days when they were made of very heavy wrought-iron, often trimmed with brass.
Now modern alloys give a variety of finishes and colours, from sleek polished chrome, nickel, grey, brass to black and white finishes.
They are now lightweight and easy to assemble or move.
The mattress support is normally metal bars or pinewood slats, or, on more expensive quality metal bedsteads, sprung pine slats to give the mattress a softer feel.

Wood Bedsteads

Only a few years ago you had a choice of pine or pine!
Now a vast selection of various hardwoods, softwoods, laminates and foil finishes will give you thousands of shapes, colours and grain finishes - beech, natural, honey pine, mahogany to name but a few.
The mattress support is normally pine slats or sprung pinewood stats. Incidentally, it is best not to use a pocket sprung mattress on a pine or metal bedstead as the spacing between the slats may distort the pocket springs as they tend to compress between the slats giving a "railway" effect when you turn the mattress over. However if you are worried about this there is a simple solution - put a piece of plywood over the slats and under the mattress (ideally pegboard with holes in it to allow the underside of the mattress to breathe) available from DIY stores.

Upholstered and Leather

Latest on the scene since 2002. The base, headend and footend are covered in leather, faux (artificial) leather effect or soft upholstery fabric. Brown is by far the most popular leather colour with neutral and gentle tones available in soft fabrics.
The mattress support is normally wood slats but can be a covered over platform (fabric covered) top or sprung base.

Divan

So called divan beds simply means a mattress with a base covered in the same fabric or "ticking" as the mattress.
Divans have domineered the market since probably the 1940's and 1950's.
It is only since the 1990's that the bedstead has come back into its own since younger people decided that style had entered the bedroom.
The mattress support ( the divan base under the mattress) is available as a platform base/firm base or a sprung base.
A platform base/firm base means just what it says. This is a wooden frame with a hardboard top and covered with matching cloth to the mattress.
A sprung base means a wooden frame but with a layer of springs on top to give the mattress a softer feel when you lie on it, then covered with fabric to match the mattress.
Both the platform base and sprung base are available with or without storage under the mattress i.e. drawers and mounted on castors for ease of cleaning of carpets.
Incidentally, castors can be a problem on laminate flooring as they can move - if so replace with glides.

 

Size

Size is, as often as not, governed by the size of the bedroom.
But, generally, buy a bed as big as the room will accommodate, so you will be as comfortable as possible.
In Britain, the accepted sizes for mattresses throughout the industry are set out below.
These are the sizes for mattresses or traditional divan bases.
So it follows that if you decide on a bedstead in metal or wood, the overall sizes of the bedstead will be slightly larger to accommodate the mattress. This is to allow for the thickness of the bedstead legs and frame. Generally add on 5cms all round - this is 10cms in overall length of the mattress and 10cms in overall width of the mattress.
10cms is only a guide, as the thickness of frames varies.

Mattress Sizes

Bed Small Single Single Small Double Double King Size Super King Size

Imperial Width x Length 2ft 6in x 6ft 3in 3ft x 6ft 3in 4ft x 6ft 3in 4ft 6in x 6ft 3in 5ft x 6ft 6in 6ft x 6ft 6in

Metric Width x Length 75cm x 190cm 90cm x 190cm 120cm x 190cm 135cm x 190cm 150cm x 200cm 180cm x 200cm

 

 

Advice on choosing your mattress

The mattress is the most vital single component of a bed for comfort, particularly if you choose a bedstead which is essentially a stylish base to support the mattress and without a sprung base.

Modern technology has changed the mattress beyond recognition from its earliest predecessors of only 20 years ago. Using high tensile steel in springs, topped with layers of traditional felt, wool, cotton and more modern fillings of foam, latex, polyester padding, manufacturers can now combine all or some of these materials to give you different 'feels' like never before. Indeed the latest trends are towards no springs and different density layers of high resilient foams and, or, latex and polyester.

For simplicity I have grouped mattresses into 5 groups:-
1. Open Coil Springs
2. Pocket Sprung
3. Latex & Memory Foam
4. Combination of Memory Foam, Latex + open coil spring unit.
5. No Turn Mattresses

 

Open Coil Spring Units

Essentially this means the core of the mattress is made of connected springs with a thicker gauge wire round the edge, to hold it all within a frame. Then, layers of padding are fastened to the top and bottom of the unit so you don't feel the springs. The spring unit supports your body weight and the fillings give you the comfort.

The tempered wire which makes the spring unit is made of either 12 gauge or 13.5 gauge wire (gauge means thickness)
13.5 gauge is a thinner wire and gives you a softer feel than 12 gauge which is used in firmer or so called orthopaedic mattresses. Most mattresses contain 13.5 gauge wire. However, the filling top and bottom used by the manufacturer can also make the mattress feel firmer or softer. So each mattress feels different.

 

Pocket Sprung Mattresses

Here, individual springs are contained within individual cloth bags and so move up and down independently of one another to support the contours of your body. Then they are covered top and bottom with various layers of different fillings, so you don't feel the supporting springs. Finally a pocket sprung mattress is tufted to hold the springs in place.

Tufting means a length of tape inserted at intervals from the top of the mattress to the bottom with a long needle, about 40cms in length. The purpose of the tuft is
(a) To stabilise the padding in place so it does not move
(b) To stabilise the springs in place especially in the case of individual pocket springs, so they do not move out of place
(c) To compress both padding and springs, thereby giving a mattress a firmer feel.

Quilting is a different treatment to the sleep surface of the mattress. A quilted pattern is sewn through the top fabric or ticking and upper layer of final padding to bind the layer/s of padding together, to stop it moving and to improve the aesthetics of the mattress surface.

 

Foam, Lates & Memory Foam Mattresses

Foam - We are all familiar with foam in cushions on sofas, car seats etc. It is a product of the oil industry and has many applications. Since its invention, it has revolutionised the upholstery and packaging industries, making new shapes and styles possible.

Latex - Predated foam and is natural rubber, derived from the rubber tree. Because it is a crop and harvested by hand it can be quite expensive but has a certain malleability and compression quite unlike foam.

Memory Foam - is a recent invention and a spin off from the space industry. When first used in the bed industry it was used in the health industry to combat bed sores and is now making its impact in the domestic bed industry. When compressed it moulds itself around your body shape and can be extremely comfortable. It returns to its original shape to a remarkable degree - better than foam or latex.

Some mattresses are made without springs whatsoever - in all foam, all latex, all memory foam or, indeed, combinations of all three, to give differing density levels. Also, foam or latex or memory foam is used as 'cappers' above traditional spring interiors, to give you the best of both worlds.

 

No Turn Mattresses

Traditionally all mattresses needed to be turned from top to bottom and, also, flipped over. This was to equalise wear areas and give the more traditional fillings a chance to recover their former shape.
Most spring interior mattresses still require this and always follow each individual manufacturer's advice on their particular mattresses.

However, now there is a new generation of mattresses, particularly those made with an interior spring unit and topped with a layer or layers of foam, latex or memory foam, which do not require 'flipping over'.
These mattresses have one sleep surface only.

Advantages to this are less maintenance - no longer to you need to flip over your mattress - it can be a difficult feat for the elderly or infirm.
Another advantage is keeping costs down - both latex and memory foam are expensive commodities - so by putting it on one sleep surface only it brings the cost of these hi-tech mattresses down. This makes them more affordable for a greater number of people.

No turn mattresses are as good as reversible mattresses, despite only having one sleep surface.