I bought a 100% natural latex twin dunlap process and pillow from an Amish run company. I still have it airing in it's box on the lanai. It is all natural, but I don't know if I'll ever be able to sleep on it. I can still smell it. If you want mine, you can come and see it. I'm in Sarasota. Good Luck. Linda
email:
linterzi@cs.com

Hi there ~

I think that the design and creation of "the great, affordable bed" is still in process - and may be different for each of us as well.

After spending the last year researching and shopping I ended up buying a beautiful wool bed and topper which rests on wood slats with latex strips.

The aesthetics and green value are grreat and the people who made the bed were lovely to interact with - but being relatively slight of frame I wake up each morning with numbness in my hands. It's just too firm for me - this 55 yr. old body, though active and fit, seems to need more. I'm thinking of buying a springy horsehair and wool topper for a little more of a delicate surface (though quite pricey, only 6 yr. life and requiring "manual fluffing".)

A friend recently purchased an organic latex mattress (medium firm) with a wool topper.) I plan to ask her if I can take a nap on her bed and start over with a latex mattress once I can afford it. Maybe you could figure out some way to actually sleep on one before making a purchase. I think it's essential.

Overall I'm feeling somewhat disspirited (leaning toward desparate) about still not being comfortable after investing more than $1400. on the wool mattress, slats, latex strips, wool topper, pillows, comforter, cover, sheets . . .

Gratefully, something inside has been able to refocus on an attitude of just accepting the current mattress situation - while asking myself what else I can do to strengthen my body - and praying that something positive will unfold in the future.

Will report back to you once I've taken a nap on the latex mattress.

I wish you the best in your shopping - and with great results.

May all beings be happy. Sincerely, Cheryl

(On a positive note: I also bought a "body roll" - and find it's a helpful addition.)

cheryl,

thank you! your post was extremely informative and helpful. i'm in the process of ordering (it's on backorder) of what sounds to be the same bed, from the same company that you ordered. i'm only buying the wool topper, comforter and pillows, at this time.

currently, i sleep on a cotton futon on wood platform bed. this futon is very old and worn and VERY firm. you mentioned the downside of your situation w/ the wool bed as being TOO firm. i hope you don't mind me asking, but were you previously sleeping on a firm surface? i'm asking in hopes of getting more information. i'm very sensitive and have been saving for this bed for several months, and would be devastated if it didn't work out for me. did you find the wool to be soothing in terms of getting a better sleep?

i have back and neck issues, and my current old futon, causes me to wake with a backache. i was hoping the new topper would give me some much needed cushioning.

would appreciate any feedback you might have. thanks so much!

wt

On beds & bedding: We purchased a very expensive wool & cotton innerspring mattress from a CA company specializing in organic bedding--it was too hard in spite of a phone consultation with staff (we are in MA). I am very thin, late 50's, & no princess, but it felt like we were sleeping on cement. After much research, we bought 2, 2-inch latex foam slabs, one medium, one soft (just the medium was still too hard over the mattress)from foamsource.com for $250 each. The foam was quite smelly when I first opened it, but after airing on the porch for a day or 2, it was much better, though still had an odor. So I bought an organic quilted cotton comforter on sale from Gaiam, put it over the foam layers resting on top of the mattress, then put a fitted organic cotton sheet over it to hold it in place, & at long last, we had a bed that was pretty close to being "just right". I've found that quilted comforters are great for shielding smells on beds or couches, etc. They're just thick enough to block them, at least for my level of sensitivity, which is pretty severe. Wishing us all a good night's sleep--Dorothy, MA

Cheryl here, reporting to you after the nap on my friend's "3 month old" latex bed. I know quite clearly that I would not have been happy with that bed. My friend says that she likes the bed so much that she hardly notices the smell. For me it's the first thing I smelll when I walk into her apartment and know that lying on it for 8 hours straight would be out of the question. At least my wool bed has a lovely, comforting quality and maybe just the faintest smell of natural wool. The aesthetics are much more in alignment with my sensibilities. (Perhaps there is a latex out there which does not have so strong an odor.)

To respond to another question - I had been sleeping on a cotton futon with a foam pad for many years, so the wool mattress with wool topper on latex strips on slats has been an improvement. Still I am searching for a way to make the surface a little more resislient and with a finer texture. When I'm able I may just get the Hastens horsehair/wool/cotton topper (the finer version - I think it could be just right.

Sweet dreams.

the most comfortable bed i ever slept on was a 4x8 ft. piece of 3/4 " wood with a very thick quilted comforter for a pad, i supported it off the floor with concrete blocks but i'm sure other things would work just as well.

it was very uncomfortable for the first week . this is because your body's weight presses on the muscles and gives them a 'workout'!like any workout situation when you first begin you will be sore until your muscles adjust. after this intro period, i had wonderful sleep, better posture, and iguess more muscle tone on my back and sides.

the only drawback for me was that ever since i've found soft mattresses very unpleasant. lately i bought a 4" tempurpedic mattresspad from overstock.com but it smells like brake cleaner or at least it makes me just as headachey, maybe it was made somewhere like china with no overste re toxicity. thanks.

rob wisconsin u s a 1 22 07

p.s. i really find your site useful. thank-you.

I recently recieved my Natural Latex "Flobed". It came from California to the east coast in 6 boxes (foundation included!) After airing the slabs out for two days(only a slight smell even right out of the packaging), assembling the slabs in the beautiful organic cotton cover and zipping on the puregrow wool topper, I am thrilled. Hardly any smell at all, I dont notice any smell after a couple of weeks. I wonder if the Natural latex has less of a smell than the SBR or blends. Unless you really look hard, most "latex" out there in beds is NOT all natural. After a couple of experiments with the order of layers(you can choose your firmness) I am really pleased with the comfort. It has the luxury of memory foam, without all the yucky chemicals.
Sweet dreams,
Jennifer

Jennifer, Thank you so much for sharing how you feel about your new flobed. Clients of mine love theirs and I am thinking this is what would be good for me since I need 100% natural latex due to the chemicals in the manmade latex outgassing and bothering me. I love my 100% natural latex pillow.

I do have a question about the wood top. Does it get hot? I see on the site, I can choose wool, cotton or polyester for my mattress cover that encloses the three 100% natural foam boards.

Maybe the smell at first is the plastic the latex is in since that is how it was with my pillow and after one day of airing it out, I was able to sleep on it and be so happy since my old Latex Pillow had fallen apart after many years of enjoyment.

Hi

I have probably tried more mattresses than many people do in a lifetime. After a bad car accidentI was literaly on a quest for sleep. I have cronic shoulder and neck pain. Memory foam is so smelly and synthetic laytex is too hard in my opinion. With memory foam i would wake up over heated and my eyes were puffy in the morning. The out gassing of fumes was overwelming .i am a young 50.

Since I am slight of frame the bed took a long time to respond to my turning . men usually sleep on their backs women on their sides. i felt that i was sleeping on a rock in winter and sinking into the bed in summer.

then by miracle i was reading e-pinions and found the bed!!! , i will never be looking for another bed.I will tell you that there are stores in florida that sell this amazing 100 percent natural no smell latex foam bed. no smell that i could find. except maybe a very very slight pure scentthe first day. really! iam very sensitive to smells and have asthma in my family. the wonderful helpful people helped me chose the right bed for me, and from the very first night my health really did improve, knock wood no pain in the A.m. and i didnt toss or wake once!

im a tough customer and i have not one bad thing to say about this mattress or the store. Its heavenly.

the name of the Mattress is the PranaGuru. There are several florida locations for this bed. thank you and may you all sleep in comfort. By the way i believe that we are vulnerable to the hype and ads when we are injured so be cautious when buying memory foam. I guess icant stress this enough, it seems to have its own thermal heat system. remember your sleeping on petro chemicals. plus I was over baking. The bed i have now is literally a dream within a dream.

good luck all.

Thank goodness I found this site. I thought I was the only one in the world that was having difficulty finding a healthful mattress to sleep on. I live in Minneapolis. We have basically four major stores to choose from, and they all carry pretty much that same offerings (but listed under different names so that one can't comparison shop-one of their tricks). Anyway, I have literally spent in excess of $6000.00 over the past few months buying, exchanging ('reselecting' for a fee), selling, and giving away mattresses-both inner-spring and latex. They all smell! Even after weeks of airing out. And the consumer doesn't know what they are smelling because it's a toxic mixture of various foams and flame retardant (required by law). When my wonderful old bed was just too uncomfortable to sleep on any longer, I had no idea that it would be impossible to find another mattress that would be supportive and non-toxic. Clearly, people on this site are informed and concerned consumers. We should all be concerned for our safety and the safety of our children. Think about how damaging it is for them? Good luck to us all in our search.

By the way, my last mattress, a top of the line latex smells, and though it is an "ultra firm," it is anything but.

I have a talalay latex bed from Comfort Sleep in Ct. They are a very small company and make a great product. There never was any smell from this mattress or the one that I had sent to Florida for our second home. My son also has one from the same company and his does not smell either.

The mattress is soft yet supports me. Talalay latex works oposite than the tempur pedic type product, it pushes back for support as opposed to sinking in.

I am not hot from the mattress and there is never a moist feeling, I believe true Talaly latex breaths, and an added bonus does not allow mites to grow.

Nancy

This is to Cheryl and Cathi,

Have you considered keeping your wool bed with slat frame and inserting an air mattress between the slats and wool mattress? Some air mattresses are less smelly than others and can be off-gassed in the sun. It is important to have individual air mattresses in the case of a shared bed because the other person will cause the air mattress to be firm instead of soft. I did this with a featherbed/air mattress combo. I would air out the featherbed regularly to prevent moisture issues.

I am mcs and need a soft surface. We currently are using a not-so-healthy option that for some reason I can tolerate: waterbed with wool fleece topper. I did make the mistake of a king-size bladder instead of a two bladder situation. If we change waterbed bladders we will have to go through the off-gassing process of heating an empty bed for a couple of months to take the edge off the plastic smell.

None of the natural latex beds work for me due to smell and firmness. For someone that can tolerate latex- Essentia has a topper that is super soft (feels like Tempurpedic). It doesn't have the normal smell of latex and Rob is wonderful to deal with. (They have mattresses, too.) A wool topper should help with moisture issues on any mattress.

If you end up not going for the latex, check out McRoskey for a simple more traditional mattress option.

I would like to suggest (after months and months of research and "shopping") that you make sure you're not allergic to latex.

When we shopped a lovely organic store that had several latex beds on display - I became very dizzy; later found out from a local doctor's staff, that they are seeing more and more latex allergies, due to the foam (not sure if it's the natural rubber/latex or the synthetic) that's put into mattresses.

What a shame - the latex mattresses are super comfy! We also talked to others that said not only is the allergy a potential problem, but the latex can rip easily.

We are still looking; found an organic place that sells wool, but the wool topper and mattress were too hard for us, and we understand they compress and become even harder.

We are completely confused - very savvy consumers - as you all are on this site. One of the sales reps at LifeKind (a great company) told me they've been trying to get Oprah to do a show on the mattress chemicals for years - maybe we should all email her staff!

Best of luck to all of us in our search to remain healthy :)

Have thought about posting several times....but beds are pretty personal....but I do have some ideas that might be helpful. Our first try at an organic bed was a "topper"....called 3 inch by the lady who made it, but they do squash down. Over a few years we added these thinner topper/futons till we had several.Some are just wool, some are cotton with wool wrapping....ALL ARE LIGHT ENOUGH FROM A qUEEN SIZE TO BE CARRIED OUTSIDE (A BIT OF COMPLAINING FROM HUBBY....MORE FROM HAVING TO TAKE SEVERAL THAN THE WEIGHT OF EACH.)

i AM NOT VERY STRONG....MY GRANDSON "cANT FIND MY MUSCLE" lol

I can carry one out by myself from upstairs.

Out side we beat them with a carpet beater (just once a year or every other year....you can vacumm inbetween)....yes you can buy them.

Inside we can vacumm with a light weight vacumm that seems to fluff them up and I imagine removes some of the dust. All in all, I imagine we get out more dust and stuff than people are able to do with a regular mattress.

Recently I am experimenting with a home made feather topper (I am not allergic to feathers.) By the way, feather pillows can be washed, eventually losing some of the bulk....you can put two to a case eventually if you need more bulk.

My topper consists of 4 queen pillow cases sewed together so they cover one side of the bed (sew the wide sides together.) I recommend hand sewing with double quilting thread at about 3/4 inch intervals with a blanket stitch. This makes them sturdy but able to give a bit to fit your body. Then I fold it inside a sheet with edges to the outside. Since the pillows I slip inside also have pillow cases and/or covers, the pillows are pretty well protected, and so are you from the feathers, but the pillows can come out to be washed.

I got everything on sale on the net and I consider it a much better arrangement than a feather topper as everything comes apart into easily washable, or dryer decontaminating parts.

This of course, just covers one side of the bed....we have two now, but since my son occasionally stays over if he has a day off, I'm going to make another one.

Has anyone done any research on the Danny Seo line of beds that feature natural latex? I think the bottom two brands still have a lot of synthetic stuff, but the top one, Pike's Peak, might be good. Any thoughts??

Thanks,