New bed and mattress advice please

[Rosebud05]

I'm pushing 50 and have never bought a bed and mattress before. This feels like real grown up territory (almost as much as the 'how to pleat your curtains' booklet that I got from JL).

Where do people buy them from? I'l guessing Ikea etc are cheap and cheerful, which is fine for most of our furnishings, but I would like to get a bed that lasts. Warren Evans?

Thinking super king as we've finally got room. Up to a grand for both. Don't need anything orthopedic, but would like to sleep on something that's not broken and lumpy as we are now.

Any recommendations?

TIA

I recently bought a Marks and Spencers divan base (on legs though, without drawers) and the Beaumont mattress from Laura Ashley. Granted we'd been sleeping on a 10yr old cheap mattress from Argos, so anything was an improvement, but it is amazing. H and I have said that it is the best house purchase we have ever made. We both sleep so much better.

Very happy with our king size Warren Evans bed and pocket sprung mattress - over three years old and they've done well. Only thing is WE beds are all made of pine as far as I know - so they do get a bit bashed on the legs with the hoover as the wood is quite soft. Wouldn't stop me buying from them again though. Sofa.com beds look really nice if you like the whole fabric headboard thing. Make sure you buy something you really like the look of - a posh new bed is a real treat that keeps giving!

We have a 6ft zip and link so two 3ft singles zipped together as we cannot get a 6ft mattress up the stairs and once they fold a mattress you may as well bin it.

It has a mattress topper on it and you can buy fitted sheets for zip and links (they are used in hotels a lot to enable them to be separated to form two singles) and you cannot feel the zip.

We chose a divan base, chose the colour of the material on the base, chose the feet, chose the contents of the mattress and the colour of the mattress. It cost £1079 ish 3 years ago. That was for the entire bed. It is lovely.

There is a height and weight difference between me and Dh, he is 6'3" and built like a rugby player and gets hot at night so no memory foam for us. We went to a bed factory where they make the mattress on site for you. So they know what they are talking about. There are lots of them across the country. Ours is near Leeds in Batley.

Don't be fooled by names of mattresses that hide a cheap cage mattress inside with lots of synthetic stuffing. I did a lot of research. The best site for research was factory beds Manchester but my own factory beds shop was a lot closer. There are other sites but they merely confirm what John and Ryan say.

I bought a John Ryan bed (see DoooblieDooo's link above) and it is absolutely brilliant. The mattress was c. £500 for a double and the divan and headboard was £350 which is amazingly cheap compared to the main stream retailers. I can't believe the quality we got for the money, I was literally inviting my mum/mil up to our room to check out the mattress!
You can ring them and talk through what you need and they don't try to upsell you which is lovely. They also deliver for free and the men walk the stuff in, assemble it and take the packaging away which I found really handy with a toddler around.
I might sound like I work for them now (!) but if you look at the reviews they are all 9/10* it feels a gamble ordering online but it really paid off for us. Other options we looked at were John Lewis and Dreams. I preferred John Lewis out of the two but still prefer the JR bed we got in the end.

Thanks all. I prefer the look of the Warren Evans headboards to John Ryan but agree that researching mattresses is time worth taking.

If you have a grand, the cheapest ViSpring from john lewis is what I'd go for.

I came across ViSpring recommendations somewhere else on the web.

Are they really fabulous?

So happy with our Warren Evans bed frames. Ours aren't bashed at all and we've had them for years.

I'm getting another one for the spare room soon. Their customer service is excellent too. Nothing but praise for them. I think they are so reasonable.

I think so. I'd avoid Warren Evans mattresses, they aren't as good value as their beds. John Lewis has some good Special Buys (not discounts, but particularly good value).

Whereever you go, look for one with as many pocket springs per inch (or whatever the measure is) as possible.

We got ours from Dreams We have tight staircase and the base could be split
so easy to carry One thing I would not give up is the storage drawers in the base
great for storing spare duvets in

I wouldn't buy a mattress from John Lewis. We bought an (admittedly cheap) mattress from there as one of their Special Buys, relying on the John Lewis brand, and it was awful. Springs showed through the mattress within months.

JL own brand stuff often isn't great from my experience.

Though I do get branded electricals from there as they do a 2 year guarantee.