Good reporting. One more thing: I'd love to get your read on how well the consturuction of the bed and/or the materials (foam) affects feeling the movements of your parnter during the night. I don't know if it's temp. issues or the bed bouncing when we shift positions, but my partner and I wake eachother up several times a night. We're on a quest for a "green" bed that will alleviate this problem. Can you advise? Thanks.

Ditto re: the good reporting. Question: how deep is the mattress? Wondering if it'll feel comfortable on a case study bed without a box spring. Love the price. I was contemplating getting an OMI (which is scary-expsensive) http://www.omimattress.com/Flora.php Has anyone here tried an OMI and what do you guys think? Also, can you recommend a place in NYC that sells the Natura for an in-store tryout?
Thanks

Having gone through several expensive foam-based mattresses over the years (including 2 Temperpedics), I have found that they all develop "depressions" after a year or two, and the comfort/support factor is out the window... it doesn't really matter if the foam is organic or not.

One more comment on foam-based bedding... there are two things that people do on a bed - one is sleep, the other feels unnatural and unsatisfying on foam - it has absolutely no resiliency - natural, rythmic body movements
are absorbed (for both partners, regardless of position).This is not a unique observation...

I disagree about 'the other' on a foam bed. We've had a foam bed for about 6 months and I prefer the foam to a traditional mattress with box spring. Having no tell tale 'Ka-ching, ka-ching' sound is nice and I no longer worry about waking up my kids or bothering neighbors. It was a pleasant surprise I hadn't expected when we purchased the foam bed.

So glad someone brought up the other bed activities... it can be rather difficult to discuss them with a salesperson in a showroom!

I had the same experience as Zint only the permanent depressions on our foam mattress developed after about six months. There has been no support ever since. We've had the thing for three years now and I'm counting the days until we can replace it.

I'm one of those people who takes except to the "nearly natural" proviso that comes with a NaturaLatex. We decided to buy from FloBeds because it is 100% natural organic latex, with all of the great stuff that NaturaLatex has as well, including organic wool. Sorry if I sound like an advertisement, but I did lots of research on latex mattresses 2 years ago, and we decided to spend the extra money and splurge on the FloBeds. We're really happy with it.

Great reporting, though!

"Takes exception," sorry.

"Ka-ching, ka-ching sound"

Ahh! I just snorted Diet Coke out of my nose!

Overall, a good report. Just one nit-pick, though. Since you can't necessarily smell gaseous chemicals, you can't really say that there was no off-gassing - just that you couldn't detect a chemical odor. It's like people assuming that no/low VOCs in paint equates to no 'paint' odor (or vice versa).

@stealthq - Latex doesn't off-gas b/c there's nothing to off-gas. Right?

Interesting, we have a natural latex foam mattress and it was fine for the first few months and it was on the floor with the box spring since we didn't have a bed frame yet. but when we got a platform bed frame. we didn't need and didn't use the box spring. we only used the mattress and it became extremely soft (not firm at all), which is a problem because we like a firm mattress. i'm afraid if we invest in another foam mattress we'll have the same problem.

KA CHING!! HA! I did not think reading about foam mattresses would lead down this path....but now that we're all here: I agree that the quiet was a pleasant surprise. No foam mattress is going to stop any real fun.....

As far as "the other" goes, my husband and I prefer our natural latex mattress over the innerspring as well. Much quieter, less springy,..etc. Our mattress isn't that sinking-in-quicksand type foam mattress (when I tried those I felt a bit stuck in place). It's more firm than that.

Also, I never feel the bed shifting if he rolls over in his sleep or when he gets out of bed in the morning.

This is a great article and I was very excited about checking out this mattress, but, for me, the nearest store is 150 miles away. Back to the Winndoms.

@lovemodern - before you go out and buy another mattress you might try getting a thick cotton mattress cover that has a bit of stiffness to put on top of your too soft latex. We have a GreenSleep all latex mattress in a soft version that is great but in the interest of making it last as long as possible I got a heavy duty cotton protector and it does make the mattress significantly firmer. Also you should turn and flip your mattress regularly even though they say you don't have to.

I'm so glad I came across these reviews. I've been considering getting a new mattress for a little while now but not sure which kind to get. I definitely want a good and comfortable mattress but would not want to spend more than $2K and I'll only be needing the top mattress.

I would like to see a review of a mattress from: http://thenaturalsleepstore.com/

~ L.

@Sukie: Sounds like you're a satisfied customer. Can you tell us what mattress you have? Thanks.

re: the off-gassing: this bed is primarily foams other than latex, so there could still be off-gassing.

Sure NGP-It is a WJ Southard mattress from Syracuse NY. Here's their site: http://www.wjsouthard.com/

Good luck finding a mattress : ) It was an arduous process for us and I'm glad it's over. Some of those mattress stores are horrible. I'm glad we finally took a different approach and went to a green home goods store.

thanks Sukie!

We've heard that Natura's customer service is awful (and this was confirmed when we called to ask where we could try their beds--the customer service person didn't seem at all knowledgable), but we still wanted to try a Natura bed. The store we went to (on LI) showed us the Natura Harmony and a similar, slightly lower-priced bed by King Koil/Comfort Solutions called the Natural Elegance St. Barts. We ordered it but now are having cold feet because we can't find any reviews of the bed. Do you know ANYTHING about this bed? Is it actually green, or just a scam? Is this a current product, or were we sold a discontinued mattress? Moreover, we'd love to know about the durability/customer service, if anyone has any info. Thank you!!!

On the website it says that the queen is $1499 not $1399. Unless you meant the Full.

Sadly, it seems that the prices have gone up a fair amount on these beds.

Be aware this is not an organic mattress and should not be compared to OMI or other organic brands, Natura actually does make an organic line and is quite a bit higher, This also uses Boron as the flame retardant and although I believe it is up to the individual what they prefer it is not comparable to wool and does deserve research.

As far as the post on WJ Southard that is a brand my company carries. It is very high quality and we actually carry one of there prodects which is all natural latex with organic cotton cover, Rayon/Poly FR (non Chemical) it is actually pricved very competive to this and contains no petro based foam.

Joey

www.theorganicbedroom.com