Learn Me: Beds

For protracted reasons, my wife and I need a new bedroom set. The retail prices for beds and bedroom furniture are heartbreaking. We've been searching CraigsList for a couple of weeks, but just aren't finding anything we like. So I have a few questions:

Mattress / boxspring set prices soar into the stratosphere. I've not seen any Queen sets that retail for under $500 that are not complete junk. Is there a brand I'm missing? Is a $1000 mattress really that much better than a $500 one?

Uggh, I should be in the furniture game. $500 headboards? $900 beds? $2500 bedroom sets? Where should I be shopping to find a bedroom set that's nice and modern and affordable - but not particle board?

Find a local store with the scratch and dent area that also has mattresses. We picked up a $900 mattress with box for $500 or so. Pocketed springs, pillow top with a bit of memory foam. No warranty but for $400 less, who cares.

As to the 'used' portion of our mattress, they said the original buyer didn't accept it at the delivery. There was an area on one of the sides that looks like some dirt from being slide around in the delivery truck and the plastic bag ripping a bit. No biggie..

I've had the same realization. As much as my bed is possibly destroying my back, I can't swallow dumping that kind of money on a disposable product. At least $1K for something that wears out in 5 years?

Good point RossD, we have a Sears outlet nearby that I browsed for tools at lately. Seemed like 3/4 of the store was dedicated to mattresses. I think I'll look for some good deals on some blems or mismatched sets.

A good one will last about 10 years. And besides that, yes, it might be disposable, but you spend about 1/3 to 1/2 of your life on it.

I'm [hopefully] lucking out. Guy who sits in the cube next to me needs to get a new one for his hip/back, and I am 2nd in line for his old, very expensive, very nice and only a couple years old Queen sized one.

Our local monthly auction regularly has "returns" from Sears and a high-end bedding store. I bought mine, Queen-size Serta, pillow-top on both sides, for only $200.

I have found that most of the big Mattress Stores are a step below used car lots. I have had good luck buying from a place like JC Penny or Macy's or Sears...a place not known for mattresses. They have a sale once in a while to clear out old units that have sat for a while. Can be as much as 50% off.

Sam's Club and Costco also sell mattresses. I have not checked prices, but I am guessing they are not a bad deal.

The Original Mattress Factory here in PGH used to have great deals, not sure if that is still the case. $550 for their base model King, up to $2200 for the top of the line.

I'm probably going to be picking up a new bed in the coming months once I'm in a new house- something about 2 people plus an 80-lb dog not fitting comfortably on a Queen bed and SWMBO refusing to make the dog sleep on the floor. I've been seriously considering some of the latex foam (i.e. non-spring) mattresses you can get fairly inexpensively since it will be something of an experiment.

Bedroom sets though are annoying. I got kind of lucky with mine- it was the set was part of the furnishings that my company was renting for the furnished apartment they had for me when this assignment was still temporary and I just bought out some of the furniture I liked and kept it. If I had to shop for a 'new' bedroom set, I'd probably be looking someplace akin to the "Railroad Salvage" store where my awesome dining room table came from- a store that gets unclaimed freight stupidly cheap and turns around and sells it.

After being poked in the ribs by springs for far too long, SWIMBO & I needed a new bed. As usual I researched the E36 M3 out of the purchase and checked out all options. We ended up with a SULTAN FJORDGARD from IKEA. It is foam & latex so it sleeps cool in the summer and warms up quick in the winter, has no springs to poke me and is heavenly to sleep on. It was less than $600 bucks. Keep in mind it will only work with an IKEA bed frame.

Some may call me a fool:

I needed a new bed, and I was Cheap, so after doing some searching I bought a King size memory foam mattress from amazon for under 200 shipped (yay amazon prime), a nice platform bed for it (also under 200 bucks, from amazon... a steel frame jobby. you can only see it when the bed is stripped, so I didn't care what it looked like.) and a down mattress topper for 125. end result: the best sleep I have ever had, and going on 6 years now, with no appreciable degradation. and I have lots of storage space, as I didn't need a box spring.. that space is all platform-storagy-goodness.

lots of storage, no springs to deal with, and so far, long lasting for just over 500.. total (bed and mattress, and pad)

edit decided to give some links: frame: http://www.amazon.com/Sleep-Master-Platform-Mattress-Foundation/dp/B006MIUM20/ref=pd_bxgy_hg_img_z

matress (price has gone up.. or it was on sale...I don't know which): http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0050JL32U/ref=oh_details_o07_s00_i00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

topper was acquired at sears... in the clearance section.

This may help

http://www.themattressunderground.com/mattresses/five-steps-to-your-perfect-mattress/value.html

http://www.sleeplikethedead.com/

I read through those and wanted this

http://www.sleepez.com/latex-mattress-9000.htm

but cheaped out and just bought this today. I'll let you know how we like it.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0051AQXZK/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=slelikthedea-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B0051AQXZK

SCARR wrote: Some may call me a fool: I needed a new bed, and I was Cheap, so after doing some searching I bought a King size memory foam mattress from amazon for under 200 shipped (yay amazon prime), a nice platform bed for it (also under 200 bucks, from amazon... a steel frame jobby. you can only see it when the bed is stripped, so I didn't care what it looked like.) and a down mattress topper for 125. end result: the best sleep I have ever had, and going on 6 years now, with no appreciable degradation. and I have lots of storage space, as I didn't need a box spring.. that space is all platform-storagy-goodness. lots of storage, no springs to deal with, and so far, long lasting for just over 500.. total (bed and mattress, and pad)

What is the point of a box-spring anyways?

In reply to mtn:

from what I understand... it is because bed frames are "frames" and not "shelves" I grew up without one. my dad built my bed, and it had a full solid "shelf" with a mattress on it. it was perfect. with a normal bed frame, it is the outside frame, and MAYBE a bar or 2 in the middle, and the box springs is to hold up the mattress.

IMO: it is a scam to get you to buy more. as long as you have a platform, or shelf, or whatever.. you don't need IMO.

Is a $1000 mattress really that much better than a $500 one?

YES!!!!! And I've wasted $2k in $500 mattresses figuring that out. Also: A $2k mattress is that much better than a $1k mattress.

Also also, there are HUGE markups on mattresses. Go to an INDEPENDENTLY owned store. If they won't knock AT LEAST 15% off the advertised price, I walk out of the store.

There's a good article in CR on shopping for mattresses from a couple months back. Check it out. Good luck.

We bought a Jamison(?) memory foam with gel-top last year. I've never slept better in my life.

SCARR wrote: In reply to mtn: from what I understand... it is because bed frames are "frames" and not "shelves" I grew up without one. my dad built my bed, and it had a full solid "shelf" with a mattress on it. it was perfect. with a normal bed frame, it is the outside frame, and MAYBE a bar or 2 in the middle, and the box springs is to hold up the mattress. IMO: it is a scam to get you to buy more. as long as you have a platform, or shelf, or whatever.. you don't need IMO.

So if this deal of mine falls through and I need to buy a mattress, I could save on the box-spring buy buying a couple of plyboards and calling it a day?

Ikea. We got a super comfy latex foam mattress there for something like $800. Comprable mattress at a mattress store are $2000+

I bought my mattress at Macy's about 10 years ago (jeeze, has it been that long?) and it's been great. Got it during a sale, had it delivered to my new apartment several states away, no issues.

What my parents encountered when shopping for their king-sized bed is that the same brand can be manufactured differently for different price points. If you walk into a SUPER DISCOUNT SALE SALE SALE place, you're going to get a different Serta/Sealy/whatever than if you walk into JCPenny and look at the "same" mattress: lesson - at the discount chains, you get what you pay for. And the "sleep on it for 30/60/90" days crap is just that: crap. If you don't like the one you're sleeping on, you're probably not going to like the replacement, which will be difficult to acquire and may (depending on fine print) require another delivery fee.

So essentially, it's a used car dealership. If you want, you can probably even get scammed out of money by leasing or financing through their friendly loan shark...

Also, unless I really knew where the mattress came from, I'd be extremely hesitant to buy used, what with the bedbugs and all. Of course, this may have to do with the fact I live in NYC and our building had a bedbug outbreak (10 floors beneath me, whew!), but those buggers creep me out!

pinchvalve wrote: I have found that most of the big Mattress Stores are a step below used car lots. I have had good luck buying from a place like JC Penny or Macy's or Sears............Sam's Club and Costco also sell mattresses.

1. My wife and I got ours at Macy's - I agree with above - 6 months pay as cash.

2. The sons mattress was from Sam's (or Costco) - works fine and the decision process was as simple as can be. (this one OR this one)

In reply to mtn:

yes-ish... you need support to hold the mattress, and you up.

easy way to find out if you like it: put your mattress on the floor. still comfy? good to go, grab something way cheaper than overpriced boxsprings.

DISCAIMER: none of what I have done is advice... it what worked awesome for me. (cheap and comfy).

SCARR wrote: In reply to mtn: yes-ish... you need support to hold the mattress, and you up. easy way to find out if you like it: put your mattress on the floor. still comfy? good to go, grab something way cheaper than overpriced boxsprings. DISCAIMER: none of what I have done is advice... it what worked awesome for me. (cheap and comfy).

Worth a shot. With that information, I figure that I could probably make a decent frame and "box spring" with about $50 worth of plywood and 2x4's (or 2x6's or 4x4's or some combination thereof)

peter wrote: I bought my mattress at Macy's about 10 years ago (jeeze, has it been that long?) and it's been great. Got it during a sale, had it delivered to my new apartment several states away, no issues. What my parents encountered when shopping for their king-sized bed is that the same brand can be manufactured differently for different price points. If you walk into a SUPER DISCOUNT SALE SALE SALE place, you're going to get a different Serta/Sealy/whatever than if you walk into JCPenny and look at the "same" mattress: lesson - at the discount chains, you get what you pay for. And the "sleep on it for 30/60/90" days crap is just that: crap. If you don't like the one you're sleeping on, you're probably not going to like the replacement, which will be difficult to acquire and may (depending on fine print) require another delivery fee. So essentially, it's a used car dealership. If you want, you can probably even get scammed out of money by leasing or financing through their friendly loan shark... Also, unless I really knew where the mattress came from, I'd be extremely hesitant to buy used, what with the bedbugs and all. Of course, this may have to do with the fact I live in NYC and our building had a bedbug outbreak (10 floors beneath me, whew!), but those buggers creep me out!

and God help you if there are any stains on it when you try to exchange

mtn wrote:

SCARR wrote: In reply to mtn: yes-ish... you need support to hold the mattress, and you up. easy way to find out if you like it: put your mattress on the floor. still comfy? good to go, grab something way cheaper than overpriced boxsprings. DISCAIMER: none of what I have done is advice... it what worked awesome for me. (cheap and comfy).

Worth a shot. With that information, I figure that I could probably make a decent frame and "box spring" with about $50 worth of plywood and 2x4's (or 2x6's or 4x4's or some combination thereof)

Yes you can. I've never had a box spring under any of my mattresses in my entire life. I've always had a bed frame with a platform. Box springs are just stupid.