5 Yrs Later - What Would I Change Now?

Our latex and polyurethane bed is now almost 5 years old (see the Steps we followed building our mattress - right sidebar). We have no real complaints, the bed is still very comfortable - certainly an order of magnitude more comfortable than our old innerspring mattress! We've found that rotating the comfort layers 180 degrees every few months helps to keep the surface flat. We have also recently turned (flipped) all the foam layers as they have started to sag after 5 years.

If we started over now I might substitute a high quality HR foam for the latex layers only because latex is heavy and harder to move around. As we get older the prospect of wrestling with the latex layers several times a year becomes more of an issue all the time!

I'd probably also go with thinner foam layers. We used 2", 3" and even 4" thick layers. I think this was unnecessary and added greatly to the overall weight of the bed. One inch thick pieces for the comfort layers might have been enough and additional "toppers" could be added if needed. 

I would like to try a memory foam topper as the top layer some time as well. My guess is I won't like it (might be too soft and "grabby") but I'd still like to give one a fair try. One issue with trying out different topper pieces, however, is what to do with the ones that you don't want to keep.

What About The New All Foam Beds

You may have seen ads for several different all foam beds that are now available online. These beds are very similar in design to our DIY bed. Two of the more widely advertised all foam beds are the Casper and Leesa. If you look at their websites (google "Casper mattress" or "Leesa mattress") cutaway diagrams show how the layers are stacked. Both are available for under $1000 (queen size).

If we were just starting our project now I might get one of these mattresses and place it on a single 4" layer of our foundation (blue) foam instead of building the entire bed from scratch. This would have added some cost but would have saved a lot of time. One thing I really like about these new mattresses are the covers that hold all the pieces together. However, one important disadvantage is that since the covers can't be removed the foam layers can't be turned (flipped). All foam will eventually sag and need to be turned or replaced. I suspect that our DIY bed will last many years longer since we can, and have already, turned the foam layers. Please note that I have no connection to these companies and am not specifically recommending any commercial mattress.

Hope this has been useful. Don't hesitate to build your own mattress, I can't imagine ever going back to an innerspring mattress, no matter how much it costs!

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