How To Build Your Own Mattress

It would be shockingly easy to knock off most of our competitors’ mattresses without the markups and create your very own DIY mattress. Companies can get away with offering basic foams and latexes at premium prices because most consumers never take the time to find out what exactly they’re paying for.

If you want to build your own, it really isn’t that difficult. You can use cheap, poor quality off-the-shelf materials and save all the markups our competitors are adding. You can also use organic and natural materials to ensure you know exactly what your bed is made of.

We’ve perfected the DIY mattress technique—and so can you in just three easy steps.

1. Start with a layer of cheap poly foam or latex. It really doesn’t matter where it comes from, you’re never going to feel it under all of the layers you’ll add in step two.
2. Select softer foams or latexes like memory foam or Talalay latex with the desired benefits. Layer these materials on top of each other one by one until you have the desired firmness or softness. Make sure the foam or latex you like the most is the top layer, since that’s the only one you’re really going to sleep on. You’ll have to add adhesive between each layer, which may impact breathability, but the more layers the better, right?
3. Cover it all up! We recommend an ultra-soft and durable Tencel® cover, but this is yours, not ours. Other options include wool batting toppers, mattress toppers, pads or covers. Don’t forget to give your bed a crazy name to catch the eye of the consumer. A few ideas: Wonderluxe, CoolCloud, DreamGelz, UltraDreamMcFancyFoam.

Here’s a rough cost breakdown:

$200 Base Layer + $250 Additional foam or latex Layers + $100 Cover = $500

Not a bad deal. But would people really want to sleep on it?

This is what some of our competitors do when they make a bed. They “engineer” by swapping the order of the layers of foams and latexes that have been used forever and rely on outdated techniques to get the most cost-effective product, while still charging you for something “innovative and new”.

That’s why we’ve decided to be radically transparent about what you’re paying for when you buy a Tuft & Needle. We use a proprietary foam that can’t be recreated—though many have tried and failed. Our foam is built on customer feedback and has been tweaked repeatedly to make sure that we’re providing the best product for the best price, and no one else will ever be able to replicate it.

If you’d like to join the many who have tried to recreate our product, here’s a step-by-step guide to making a genuine Tuft & Needle bed:

1. Get fed up with the shady tactics of the bedding and sleep industry. Getting your mind to this place is crucial to building an authentic T&N bed.
2. Realize that there’s a better way to build a bed and a business. Invent your own proprietary material and give it a clear, simple name: T&N Adaptive® Foam. Adhere one layer of this new material onto an exclusive poly foam base that’s built to last.

Cut through the heat retention by only using one thin adhesive application. Stitch a super soft and cozy cover to protect your invention and make sure it will stay cozy for years to come. Give it a 10-year warranty without tricky wording and deceptive requirements.

Make sure to give the bed a 100-Night Sleep Trial and hassle-free return policy – though 95% of sleepers won’t want to give it up.

3. The final, and inarguably, most important step. Give your product a fair and honest price that allows you to keep innovating and working hard to make the best bed products for the best price, while still ensuring your customers are getting more than what they are paying for.

Really that’s all there is to it!

There are a few follow-up steps that are important to the process as well—like gathering customer feedback for years and making over 100 iterations to your new invention to improve it or curating an award-winning company culture, but you can worry about those later. You’ve got work to do!

If you’d like to save yourself the time and money, you can always buy a real Tuft & Needle mattress in a box that is ready to go.