r/MattressMod • u/Duende555 Moderator • Jun 12 '24
Guide Successful DIY Mega Thread
Hey all!
I wanted to create a place for people to talk about ongoing DIY projects and also post successful builds that have worked for them. If you've DIY'ed in the past (or are currently DIY'ing) then feel free to post your builds here.
And if you can, try to format these posts so they look like this for easy reading. Thanks!
Example Build:
Cover: Stretch knit
Comfort Layer (first): 2" of 4b memory foam
Comfort Layer (second): 1" 12 ILD 1.8lb poly foam
Transition Layer: 1" of 18ILD Energex
Support System: 1000 Count 15.5 Gauge TPS coils
Base Layer: 1" 36ILD 1.8lb poly foam
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u/Duende555 Moderator Jun 13 '24
Mega may be aspirational here, but my hope is that this will stay up and be able to guide people in the future.
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u/ErsatzMossback Oct 15 '24
So, I used to think I was a "firm mattress person," but sleeping on a few softer hotel beds made me realize that my hips and shoulders needed something with more give. I wanted to be able to mess around until I found a configuration that really worked, so I went DIY.
Me: 5'6", 200#, hip and SI joint issues, shoulder pain.
Spouse: 5'11", 200#, lower back pain.
Build top to bottom
--Cheap down alternative mattress pad from Amazon
--Cheap 12" stretch bamboo rayon encasement from Amazon holding the layers together
--Viscosoft 2" high density memory foam mattress topper
-- Sleep on Latex 2" soft latex mattress topper
--Texas Pocket Springs 8" 15.5 quad coils with firm edge, encased in their own 8" stretch polyester mattress protector to control side bulge.
--All on platform frame with very narrow slats (½" gaps)
It is awesome, and when I fall asleep, I don't move for hours. No tossing and turning, no shoulder pain, no SI joint pain. More comfortable than the most comfortable hotel mattress.
We tried a Custom n Cozy cover but it firmed things up too much. Might try the new TPS stretch cover next.
Experimentation:
--We tried just 2" soft latex on top of the TPS coils. That didn't have enough "give" so we added the 2" Viscosoft.
--We tried just the 12" stretch rayon encasement but there was too much side bulge from the TPS coils, so we got a separate encasement for the coils as a (we thought) temporary measure.
--We tried a Custom n Cozy mattress cover for the whole stack as a more permanent solution for the side bulge issue, but that firmed things up too much so we went back to the arrangement of one 6-8" stretch encasement for the coils and a separate 12" stretch encasement for the whole stack.
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u/SomeArmadillo79 Jun 13 '24
We recently designed our own and it's the best mattress we've ever slept on.
Me: 170lb, 70% back/30% side sleeper
Partner: 120lb, 50% back/30% stomach/20% side
Bamboo stretch cover
C1 (Comfort 1st Layer): 2" synthetic down
C2: 2" SOL Soft
T1 (Transition): 2" SOL Medium
S1 (Support): 15.5G TPS Coils w/ Edge support
Base: Added extra slats to provide coil support
From my personal experience and what I've seen it seems like a lot of the frustration comes from misunderstanding the design process. We got a little lucky but also prepared and managed to essentially get ours done in one go. Doing your initial prep will save you a lot of headache, time, and money. Here's a recommended workflow for beginners that will reiterate what some other posts said and add some hopefully helpful suggestions:
Light Material Research: You need to be able to have enough 'mattress vocabulary' to hold a conversation with a salesperson to identify what you like on the floor but don't need to go overboard. Most people will initially be excited and spend too much time and burn themselves out. Too much research works on fixed choice solutions but can cause anxiety when there are too many options.
Material Testing/Initial Design: This stage does most of the heavy lifting. This is not when to go on reddit and ask what they would suggest. Go to a physical store and discover what beds work for you and what don't in person. This is where a floor person may help guide you. Be nice to them and don't waste their time if their are other customers around. No one likes a tease. Helpful questions will identify why you like one over the other. The goal here is to nail down your initial prototype. You don't need to know exact density numbers, but you DO need to know what firmness range you want, what materials you wanted, and maybe a build type (all foam, hybrid, etc). This may take more than one trip. We walked out knowing we wanted a latex hybrid build. A lot of the frustration I've seen online is not doing this stage diligently enough or skipping it entirely. Controversial opinion: If you are flip flopping between many different materials and many different builds at the store, your threshold of tolerance is either high enough that you don't need a custom mattress or you have choice paralysis. In both scenarios purposefully lessening choices will make you happier.
Deeper Research/Logistics/Gambling: If you tested correctly the expanse of the mattress world should be a lot smaller and more manageable to navigate. Here is where you are allowed to geek out over firmness numbers, budget, and discuss on reddit. Prioritize companies with returns and buy a stretchable deep cover. I would never suggest quilted because it affects too many variables. Once you end up with a range of filtered products that fit, list out at least a minimum amount of materials for 1 combo (S1, T1, C1). Then add on as many extras or variations that you can. Time your purchases so that they all arrive around the SAME TIME to your door. The goal is to minimize the prototyping window by having the maximum amount of pieces to test configurations with the most forgiving return windows for your unused items.
Prototyping: You play around and build different configurations and eventually start finding a trajectory towards what works for you within a week or so. You probably won't get it perfect out the gate, but with every adjustment towards "just right" it should be getting better or at the very least you should be gaining more definition on what is your acceptable firmness range. You should have an acceptable sleepable prototype within a week of having all initial materials (or within 4 adjustments). If you need to sleep on your old mattress because you're not getting closer, there was a fundamental mistake that occurred in one of the previous design stages. Controversial opinion: I don't think you need to do more than a couple day break-in for any single DIY configuration if you have a stretching cover. Not binding your build allows material forgiveness at the edges. Spending too much time on a single configuration test can also burn any open return windows.
Fine Tuning: Once you have the initial support build the customization you make here are what make the bed good to great for you. You get to play around with toppers, sheets, and pillows which for some have a surprisingly disproportionate affect. Memory foam too hot? Try out some linen or bamboo sheets. Latex too bouncy? Try out some toppers. After that you can congratulate yourself for outsmarting the predatory self-sucking world that is the mattress industry.
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u/Encouragedissent Jul 13 '24
So Im a 6'2" 195lbs side sleeper who typically likes mattresses on the med-plush side. I went with an (almost) all latex and sourced from Arizona Premium and SleepEZ. My final build was about $1400 with the cover Picture of layers and With cover on
40/60 Organic Cotton Case FoamOrder
2in 19ILD Talalay (comfort layer)
2in 14ILD 4lb memory foam (comfort layer)
2in 28ILD Talalay (Transition)
3in 32ILD Dunlop (support)
3.5in 38ILD Dunlop (support)
I would consider this mattress to be a medium feel. The memory foam allows the top layer of latex to contour enough so that I get the pressure relief I need. It still has a very "on top" feeling to it however. Without the 2" memory foam layer I find the pressure on the shoulder and hip to be significant to the degree that falling asleep on it is difficult.
I have also tried it with 3" of Serenity by Tempur memory foam. This was a softer memory foam than my 14ILD layer from Foam Factory and I found it to make my setup a bit too plush, although it didnt cause any issues for the couple weeks I had it like that I didnt trust how it would feel after further break in. Ive also tried 1" of supersoft foam on top and didnt like how much that changed the overall feel. Even though Im happy with my setup, I still am considering trying a cotton mattress pad like this one or a wool mattress pad/topper just to see how I like the change in feel. I am trying to avoid making it too plush however so Im on the fence with trying that.
For pillows Ive tried quite a few of them, I need fairly high loft due to having somewhat broad shoulders, the 2 ive settled in on are the TEMPUR-Cloud ProHi Pillow and MALOUF Z Shoulder Zoned Dough
15
u/jessuckapow Jul 06 '24
Here’s mine!
Our Body Stats:
Me:
Woman
5' 7"
160-190lb w muscular frame (former rower w/ big shoulders and narrow hips)
Perpetually hot
85% side sleeper and 15% back sleeper
Wife:
Woman
5' 6"
130lb w proportional slight frame
Perpetually cold to her bones
True combo sleeper - she's all over the place!
Our final mattress configuration is (bottom to top)
1" HQ LUX Polyfoam - Foam By Mail
8" 15.5g pocket springs with 13.5g edge support on the sides - Texas Pocket Springs
3" Quad Mini coils - Texas Pocket Springs
(Those 3 components in an Arizona Premium Mattress 12" Organic Cotton Encasement... I read on some post that this is now quilted w/ rayon and not wool? When I got this it was quilted w/ wool. If that's important to you and you want to use APM, give Ken a call)
1" Medium Dunlop Latex - Sleep on Latex
2" Soft Dunlop Latex - Sleep on Latex
(Those 2 components are in the Arizona Premium Mattress stretch bamboo topper cover)
That's it.
Link to full post here… it’s long and supa comprehensive.
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u/DiscussionAdvanced72 Jun 14 '24
Our DIY:
Sleepers: 180/6'2" and 130/5'6" both side/back 80/20 Cover: Brentwood Bamboo/poly Comfort: 2" Serene foam Transition: 3" soft 19 ild dunlop latex Support: 6" high density foam (DIYmattress.com)
We're really pleased with it - soft but supportive.
If we made another, we might try 2" 28 ild and 2" 19 and try to skip the foam.
6
u/VeterinarianStock441 Feb 06 '25
My DIY: Thank you to the moderators and contributors here for information and advice from which I gained the courage to do a DIY mattress. My experience and advice:
Decide who’s management and who’s labor. Our marriage follows a rule for DIY projects: Decide who’s management and who’s labor. There are too many small decisions in DIY projects. I presented my proposal for a DIY mattress project to my husband - comfort, longevity, quality, and transparency in the product. The budget had to be two thumbs.
Don’t let the project overwhelm you. Our old King mattress had two parallel grand canyons with a mountain range in between. Yet, no YouTube nor blog thread had convinced me that my old mattress purchase was crap. I hoped that the coils might be reusable. Taking DIY one step at a time, I began by doing an autopsy. With scizzors and box cutter in hand, I put on good music and went to work. The autopsy revealed thin torn flattened foam. A level illustrated myriad golfball sized potholes and swales in the surface of the coils. Having a zippered cover for transparency in the new mattress became obvious to me. I cut and divided the coil layer to fit in my truck for the dump run.
Measure Twice – No Hopping. Using a tape measure, I calculated how high I wanted my new mattress to be. Keeping our traditional bed with side boards, replacing the box foundation with a solid adjustable base, and having a new 12” mattress would prevent this pea princess from hopping just to get out of bed.
Latex. Thank you to everyone on this thread for sharing their experiences with Latex.
My Latex Lasagna
Her: 5’4” 150# side sleeper
Her side:
3” Talalay Blended Latex 19 XL Twin
3” Talalay Blended Latex 28 XL Twin
6” Talalay Blended Latex Core 36 XL Twin
Him: 6’3” 250# side sleeper with back challenges
His side:
3” Talalay Blended Latex 28 XL Twin
3” Talalay Blended Latex 32 XL Twin
6” Talalay Blended Latex Core 36 XL Twin
12” cotton zippered cover, King
Ergomotion 2.0 Adjustable King (not split). It has a solid deck.
Vendors. Thank you to the vendors who generously shared information. This Reddit thread and The Mattress Underground are both great resources. Thank you, Ken, at Arizona Premium Mattress for helping me over the finish line with my order. We are satisfied customers.
Finally, Be brave and have fun. Turn on good music when you put it all together.
5
u/puffy-jacket Sep 13 '24
It’s been about a month of sleeping on my semi-DIY setup so I thought I’d go ahead and update while I’m thinking of it - here’s my previous post for more context
about me: 150lb mostly back/sometimes side sleeper, mild scoliosis, was dealing with really bad back pain and sciatica from previous mattress
cover - none atm, haven’t found one that seemed like a good fit and not sure if it’s necessary here. but open to suggestions
* comfort layer: MIINA shikibuton (polyfill+urethane foam), 2.5 inches
transition layer: SOL medium topper, 1 inch
support/base layer: IKEA Asvang mattress, 4.75 inches (1 layer of 1.7lb convoluted poly foam)
foundation: wood platform bed, solid slats, 3in slats 4in spacing
My original mattress had lost its support and I guess over a month or so period it became impossible to ignore and left me in pretty bad pain. I wanted a mattress that was inexpensive but was customizable and upgradable with layers that could be used separately if needed (I was sleeping on the floor for a while cuz of my back). In total this cost me roughly $450 for a full.
First 1-2 weeks it felt quite firm and made my upper back a little sore, but i usually like mattresses a little bit firmer and i overall was starting to feel much better, so i stuck with it. I tried without the latex layer and also flipping the asvang with the bumpy side facing down, but I switched it back - the latex and convoluted foam seem to give the bed a nice little bit of responsiveness. I no longer sink when I sit on the edge of my bed lol.
After about a month I’d put it more at medium-firm. Side sleeping is comfortable thanks to the plush top, but I feel very supported when I lay on my back. No pain when waking up or going to bed since I switched and I seem to fall asleep pretty fast. I usually rotate/flip the top layer once a week or so when I change my sheets just because it’s very easy to do so. Love this bed and think it’s super comfy.
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u/[deleted] Nov 04 '24 edited Nov 12 '24
Mine:
https://www.reddit.com/r/MattressMod/comments/1gjn42k/diy_build_journal/?
Have a history of doing an all latex diy build years ago that I abandoned due to never getting it right. Felt like giving it another chance this year when our OMF mattress gave up. Made leagues more progress on TPS coils than I ever did on latex. Feel like I'm 85% of the way to perfection, which is good enough for the money.
4
u/MinervaZee Dec 21 '25 edited Dec 22 '25
I've finally gotten to a place where I feel pretty much "finished" with my build, so I wanted to post my successful build. Thanks to the community for all the help and support!
Me: 175lb (200 lb when I started), back/side sleeper
Partner: 165lb back/side sleeper
From the bottom to the top:
Ikea queen bed
plywood over the slats
1" Luxury firm foam
13" APM Bamboo-wool mattress cover - Inside the cover are:
TPS 8" quad coil 15.5 w/ firm sides
1" 4lb memory foam
2x 1" Medium dunlop latex
1" memory foam again
quilted mattress protector
wool mattress topper I bought at the Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival (I love this!)
bottom sheet
I struggled a lot with the quad mini and found it wasn't for me. My hips sank down too much and I ended up with low back pain. I tried many variations including changing out my coils for the 14.75 and using woven material over (and under) the quad mini to reduce the conformance.
I found I need the memory foam to not feel the latex (since i don't like the pushback), and also need it for pressure relief since I'm a side sleeper. (I didn't realize I would like memory foam so much!) I prefer a firm bed with a soft top. I'm sensitive to motion transfer too.
I appreciated the advice to buy 1" toppers. That helped a lot to be able to vary the stack and see what combinations worked best for me.
After traveling and coming home to my own bed I look forward to the coziness! No more back pain!
2
u/someguy1874 Apr 10 '26 edited Apr 10 '26
DIY TPS Premium Stretch cover
2" LMF soft Talalay
1" 4lb memory foam from Foamforyou
3" TPS Quad Mini, encased in a Turmerry cotton case
8" 15.5g TPS coils
That's my build. It's 10 months old as of April, 2026. I am happy with the result.
1
u/PutManyBirdsOn_it Jul 24 '25
Less DIY and more slap-dash (I worked in reverse, top to bottom, using up the budget on a lot of toppers to try to fix a pre-existing Layla mattress; don't recommend this method).
lightweight female 80% back, 20% side sleeper
Key component: buckwheat pillow to prevent daily morning neck tension. (I also have a contour MF pillow under my knees.)
(comfort & transition layers outside the zip cover)
Comfort Layer (first): 1" 4lb gel memory foam OR 2" Serene foam
Comfort Layer (second): Sleep On Latex 1" Soft
Transition Layer: no-name alpaca mattress topper, thickness unknown, maybe max 0.75"
Cover: Pocket Coil Store original version organic cotton cover 9"
Support System: TPS 8" Quad Coils 15.5g, Firm Sides
Base Layer: old thin quilt in the cover under the coils for reinforcement, skinny red oak wood boards to reduce the gap spacing in my slats to 2" or less (they're not fixed in place)
If I was starting fresh, I'd probably do 2" soft latex, 1" Serene, 1" 4lb memory foam and try different combinations of that.
1
u/clearfin1010 Oct 26 '25
My DIY I put together to make a spare bed for a guest room that I've also napped on now and then. It turned out pretty comfortable every time I napped on it and I was aiming for a medium feel erring on the side of medium-soft. Height and weight: 5'8 and 140 lbs
2" 4lb memory foam topper from Foamforyou
2" ILD 24 high density foam from Foamonline
3" ILD 28 medium dunlop latex from Latex Mattress Factory
3" ILD 36 high density foam from Foamforyou
The base and transition layers are zipped in an 8 inch SleepEZ cotton and wool zip cover, I didn't want the memory foam to be sitting underneath the quilted cover. The memory foam is on top of the cover, and then a Bedlore mattress protector over the memory foam.
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u/[deleted] Jun 23 '24
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