apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

I had one of the less-expensive ones in my guestroom ($99/twin) for a daybed/guest bed - not too bad for sleeping, but you bottomed out if you sat on it.

I have an inexpensive Sultan foam mattress. I like a firm bed but I find that it is not uncomfortably firm. I have had it for 3 years now and it is going strong! Many friends who have slept on it have told me they feel very comfortable. I also had a car accident which caused back pain, and I feel comfortable on my bed. I would recommend trying one of the foam ones- it's especially helpful when moving because you can curve around corners if necessary.

the low end of ikea mattressdom is hell. you will be annoyed at yourself for going there after a few optimistic nights.

In LA I have never gone wrong with the refurbished St Vincent de Paul thrift shop mattresses and box sets. (Five purchased over the years, firm, sleepable, loungeable, makeable, nary a cootie, never a stain, ever!, employs local people in trouble and NOW it also has had greenness bestowed upon it. I LOVE my nights on those St V de P mattresses.

it is very non boojie, and if it gives you the creeps like second hand shoes do me we'll all understand.

Don't even mention those dustmites or I'm going for the Xanax!

In a budget situation, I'd get a good mattress and skip buying the bed. A $20 metal bed frame (the kind that usually come with the mattress) is serviceable for a few years.

Another option -- perhaps a bit too Lucy and Ricky -- is to get two twin beds pushed together.

I bought a memory foam mattress on overstock.com. I love my mattress, although it had a bit of a weird smell coming from it for awhile (some sort of space age foam chemical? who knows!). Anyway, Overstock's pricing is competitive with the ikea foam and it ships SO CHEAPLY that it's worth not having the hassle of making an Ikea trek!

Yeah, I second skipping the bed itself. I put an interesting fitted sheet on the box spring and it is an instant platform bed. Meant to keep looking for a bed I liked, but it looks well enough that I guess I forgot.

i have an ikea sultan mattress, however i found it to be very firm. i like a firm mattress, but not to feel like i'm sleeping on a board. i bought an inexpensive memory foam with feather top mattress at Target, and the two work great together. Soft but firm. Basically $200 for the most comfy mattress i've ever had. (about $100 for sultan mattress and another $100 for the foam top).

DO NOT BUY any "memory foam" mattress, including the DWR ones. After a short time in bed the foam heats up from your body heat and they become very warm and uncomfortable. This is a fact. It will happen.

I had a DWR mattress and couldn't stand it. Sold the damn thing after a few weeks.

I've been mattress shopping for the last month. Almost bought memory foam from overstock, and then another non-tempurpedic brand from a local dealer. Just yesterday I finally settled on a Simmons Beautyrest with a slim pillowtop, and am feeling nervous about my decision. Anyone have any experience with the Beautyrest. I was going to ask the AT gang about this anyway, so thought I would tag along on this discussion!

I had an ikea mattress (the mid-range sultan foam) for 2 years and it was quite comfy. Doesn't beat a nice pillowtop though.

I have an Ikea latex mattress...I think its the "engenes." I also got a "lien" bedbase--one of those that's slightly rounded upward. The combination has been perfect for me...flat and solid enough for the firmness I want, but also gives a little because of the base, so it doesn't mess with the pressure points.

It's not luxury or anything, and I wouldn't recommend jumping up and down on the wooden slats, but otherwise it has really worked for me--not too hot, and not too firm.

I have an IKEA foam mattress, and am also a firm mattress lover (stomach sleeper). I've had two different mattresses from them over the last five years (because of moving, not because of them wearing out), and I love them. I would recommend the mid- to high-end foam mattresses over the memory foam mattresses.

I have the Simmons beauty rest with the pillow top. I also put a Duxiana topper on top of it that a friend gave me so it is firm yet cloud-like.

i do not share scoobydubious's feelings about memory foam. i love memoty foam toppers. i think they make any mattress feel good

Their foam mattresses are AWESOME. We have the one that is the most expensive (600 or so for a queen) and we put their second most expensive topper on it (150 bucks or so). It was cheaper than our heavenly mattress and far superior. We put the middle-grade one in our guest room with the cheapest topper and get constant feedback that is is comfortable. Highly recommended, and it fits easily in your trunk...

I have the Sonna mattress from DWR but mine has a "cool max" cover, never once has it caused me to be hot.

Had an el-cheapo IKEA foam mattress a few years back. It was comfortable enough, but it SMELLED NASTY. Waited a month for the smell to go away, but it never did.

Traded it in for a new one, which also stank. Finally gave up, returned it, and got an air mattress from Comfortaire. It stank too at first (smelled like a giant basketball), but at least it finally aired out after a few months. It cost about twice as much as the IKEA mattress, but it's more comfortable. Weighs next to nothing too, which is handy when it's time to move, and it's adjustable.

Wow thank you everybody! So helpful. I was thinking of going for the Sultan Erfjord (the name cracks me up... just try saying it :) it's their top of the line one with 85% natural latex, silk, eco-cotton and wool wadding and a 100% cotton cover. Sounds good. I think I might go for it. I'll let you know how it is!

I do not understand why so many people find memory foam so hot. I have had one for 6 years now and there is never any heat from it. I even use the pillow and find it perfect---all others, feather, etc. heat up for me to the point of pain. Memory foam does come in different forms of hardness---every company makes it different I seem to notice. Also note that if you go out to try one at a store, the colder the store is, the firmer the foam is going to feel.
My back pain has also gone away from sleeping on one.
I use to wake up each morning in pain that would last most of the day. If you do get one, be sure and force yourself to move once and a while or your arms may start to fall a sleep. I can fall asleep and stay in that same position for the whole night really. Even in comfort you can cut blood flow after a point.

My brother has one of the cheaper Ikea mattresses, and he hates it. Much like me, he's an "everything" sleeper - sometimes side, sometimes back, sometimes stomach.

Invest in a good mattress. It will last you for years. I inherited a bed frame from my grandparents, and spent a good $1000 on a Posturepedic mattress. I have never had a bad night's sleep on it.

And hey, if I can manage it being a student paying her own way through school, just about anyone can. Most mattress stores have decent financing options. I paid $200 down for mine and got no interest for a year - just paid it off as much as I could whenever I had free cash.

Don't be afraid to shop around. I brought a flyer from one store to another store with slightly more expensive mattresses, and they gave me the mattress at the price of the other store, plus an additional 10% off. Mattresses are one of those things you can actually haggle over.

My wife and I have the Sultan Erfjord. We've been very happy with it. We both sleep well and I don't wake up nearly as stiff as when I slept on springs. It's also, well, quieter.

I ordered the Malm bed for my quest room. I went and tried every single mattress at Ikea. I could not find one that would be remotely comfortable. If you weigh 100 pounds maybe.
I ended up getting a very good firm mattress that was on sale at Macy's that is a much better quality the the Ikea ones and for the same price.
For my own bed I sleep on a Royal Pedic latex mattress very expensive but worth it and you will never have to buy another bed.

I have a mid-range foam mattress from Ikea topped with a "pillowtop" topper from Target that cost < $50. The mattress is the middle firmness. I didn't love it when I first got it & didn't have the topper (it was a bit too firm for me), but after I added the topper, it was perfect! It is supportive enough so that I don't wake up with any pains (like I ALWAYS did before), but the pillowtop part makes it nice and comfy.

I moved up in the firmness when I bought it because my boyfriend is 6'5" & while not overweight, he just weighs MORE due to sheer size. In a less firm bed, I'm always being pulled over to his side while I'm sleeping & wake up with back aches because of my trying not to roll in my sleep. This setup solved that problem completely. We both love it. (He's a back & side sleeper, while I'm a stomach & side sleeper.)

Good luck!

Don't go Tempurpedic even if you wish to splurge. It's hot and will only last a year or two when it will indeed remember where you put your head and where you put the other end. It's so heavy and cumbersome it is hard to rotate!

@ scoobydubious ... that's the "tempur" in tempur-pedic. some memory foams rely on pressure to "reform" while others rely on heat (two different types). the DWR mattress is of the pressure variety... but foam, in general, is a decent insulator, so heat will be trapped a bit (i find polyester fill pillows to be "hotter" than feather). but really, it's all up to personal preference more than a universal edict to buy/not buy one.

alison... if you're in SFcity, just for kicks, perhaps take a look at mcroskey airflex mattress company at market and gough. this might give you a baseline on what a premium mattress looks/feels like as well as how they "used to me made". it's like a fun trip in a time-machine more than serious mattress shopping, but good for an afternoon excursion.

when we first moved to SF, we bought a kit (m bs) from them for about $1200 total (1997ish) and it was heaven. but when switching to a platform bed (5 years later), we could no longer use the combo and sold it on c-list for what we bought it for (they had gone up in price retail-wise, since we purchased)... who'da thunk a good mattress would be an "investment"...

we now have an ikea hamno with a topper and are fairly pleased, but realize it's not going to be an heirloom (and hard to unload when we're done with it).

Spare the bed, and buy a good quality mattress, whether foam or otherwise. (i.e. don't do the Ikea. Get one from a mattress company) It's a long term investment and getting a good night's sleep for mental and physical health, I think is underestimated.

We got a queen-sized Ikea Sultan ERFJORD latex mattress. It's wonderful! My husband and I were both sleeping poorly on an old futon mattress and the Erfjord has improved our sleep and made any number of aches and pains go away.

The bonus is that I was able to drive it home from Ikea because it fit in the back of my Toyota Matrix.

I forgot to mention that it doesn't get hot and it's worked well for me, a back and side sleeper, and my husband, a stomach sleeper.

I had one of the ikea mattresses in college - and it was sooo uncomfortable! After only 2 nights on it, I ended up buying a really thick memory foam mattress pad to make it bearable.
I now have a memory foam mattress I bought on overstock.com and I love it! It was so cheap and I couldn't be happier with it!! I sleep on my stomach most of the time, but also on my side, and it's just the right firmness for both positions.

There used to be a foam mattress company in Manhattan - I bought a super firm mattress 20 years ago that's still going strong (wrapped in a dust mite cover, so it is clean). It is on a board that looks like a box spring (to make my bed look right) and I have the Overstock 3" memory foam topper and a TempurPedic pillow - life is heaven. I keep telling myself that I should buy a new mattress but they're all so huge and expensive and complicated that I just can't motivate myself.

We purchased the Sonno Prima firm mattress from DWR two years ago after an exhaustive (and exhausting) mattress search. DWR is having a great sale on them right now. http://www.dwr.com/product/categories/bedroom/mattresses/sonno-prima-firm-mattress-king.do

We were shocked by the confusion tactics used by the mattress retailers -- they change the names of the models ever so slightly to make it difficult to compare price.

We are in LOVE with this mattress, so much so, we went out and purchased the full size for our guest room. When we go on vacation, we find that we yearn for our mattress, and the beds at the most decadent of hotels do not compare.

On a side note, we purchased a latex ikea mattress for my daughter's twin bed a year ago, and after sleeping on a few times for naps, I realized how incredibly hot it is. I would not recommend. Spend the extra money and go for the Sonno.

I got a DWR Sonno Prima mattress 6 months back and I love it. I spent years on a spring torture rack and I'm never going back.

I definitely would advise you to invest in a good mattress before you evern worry about the bed. You're going to spend SO much of your life on it that it should be the very best you can afford.

The Sonno mattress is cooler than most foams because it has little holes drilled from the top to bottom (we tore the cover of ours moving up the stairs-oops...)

I kept mine on the floor for about 3 months and it was a little warm because the air couldnt circulate through the holes. As soon as I got it up onto a slat bed it was perfectly cool - even through this hellish August (in a third floor room)

One note - ALL foam mattresses smell like musty dusty crap for about a month. It didnt bother me but the bf hated it.

We just bought a "pillow soft" mattress from Keetsa in San Francisco - http://shop.keetsa.com/products/the-keetsa-pillow-soft. Comparatively well priced, no (or little) smelly off-gassing, reduced environmental footprint, and it’s nice and firm with a memory-foam top. We’re really happy with it.

I bought an Ikea foam mattress, but I quickly found it to be way too hard. I remedied that, though, by putting a feather mattress topper on it. Now it's fine.

I have an Ikea mattres (Sultan Eidsvoll) and I'm delighted. It's quite firm, so I suppose it's not that good if you prefer soft mattresses. I was very sceptical, because it was quite cheap (189 € a bit more for the cover), specially considering it's latex, but I'm very happy with it. Either my back and it get on particularly well or I've been sleeping on even crappier mattresses before I bought this one and didn't realize. Or both. Anyway, it's easier to try buying a cheap mattress and moving up than the other way around...