After ten years, four moves, and one child it was finally time for a new bed. Dan and I had been falling out of love with our mattress for a few years, but we wanted to wait until we were back in America to buy a new one. Mattress sizes aren't the same in England, so we weren't sure if we would even be able to replace our American king-size bed.
Fun fact, in England, what they call king is what Americans call queen. Brits have a size called super king that is a hair smaller than an American king. Other fun fact, IKEA uses Swedish sizing, which is not the same as American or British. Their mattresses are
just different enough so that sheets bought anywhere other than IKEA don't fit perfectly.
Dan was off work during the holidays, so we used the opportunity while Zahara was at daycare to start shopping. We did a lot of research in advance, including taking several online quizzes to determine our likely best fits. That didn't really get us anywhere when we realized that Dan and I sleep completely differently and therefore have different needs.
We found the best way to buy a bed is the old-fashioned way. Going in to stores and trying each bed was the only way we were able to determine what worked for us. Dan read a great tip online that recommended we bring our own pillows to the store. I highly recommend that as it allowed us to feel comfortable laying on our sides and stomachs as if we really were at home.
Note: the following paragraphs will make it seem like I'm an infomercial saleswoman. I promise I'm not. No one has paid me to say any of the statements below.
Initially we thought we would go with a traditional coil mattress. We ended up with a Tempurpedic though. We tried dozens of different mattresses and kept coming back to the Tempurpedic Cloud Supreme. It was extremely comfortable and surprisingly cool. The company has undergone significant changes in their design since it first came out. My parents actually bought one of the early mattresses and returned it 30 days later because it was way too hot at night. Our bed comes with a cooling layer and a less dense foam that should hopefully solve that problem.
The salesman at Mattress Discounters was great. He was helpful and informative without being overbearing. It is awkward to test mattresses, I think, but he made himself scarce while we did our thing and then reappeared at the right moment.
He also managed to talk us into the adjustable base. I know. Dan and I are now officially old people. Trust me, I never thought I would get the base and I told the salesman that right away. We don't have a TV in our room and have never had a problem reading in bed with just pillows. What sold us in the end was when he put us in the zero gravity position and my backache completely disappeared.
Before we settled on the Tempurpedic though, we wanted to check out a furniture store that advertises Tempurpedic knock-offs. The store is called Bob's Discount Furniture and the bed is, ridiculously, called a Bob-urpedic. So silly. Anyway, people love the bed and it is nearly half the cost, but we weren't sold. I didn't find it nearly as comfortable and it didn't have the cooling layer like the one we ended up with. But, the salesman is someone I'll never forget.
Charles* was a lovely, flamboyant gay man who really wanted to get us into the right mattress. He told us about how he bought a Bob-urpedic first but wasn't happy with it. He and his husband are "young and athletic" and require a certain amount of "bounce." He switched to another type of bed that Bob carries and is much happier now.
Since my parents read this blog, I won't comment on the accuracy of his report, but I will say that so far I'm pretty happy with the bed. I'm only a few days in, so I'll let you know if anything changes.
* Name has been changed
