Episode 21 - Beds

You spend a third of your life in bed, so getting the right one is important! In this episode, Kate and Jenny take you through everything you need to know about picking your perfect bed, your perfect mattress, and your perfect sleep set-up.

Items mentioned:

• Get Laid Beds
• Made.com
• MLILY
• Your Sleep Number Beds
• Moebe
• Ottoman Bed
• Tempur
• Memory Foam Mattresses
• Pocket Spring Mattresses
• Slat caps

Follow the podcast on Instagram @ripitup_podcast_official, or follow us - Jenny is @workerscottage and Kate is @victorianrathmines

Transcript

Jenny: 0:03

You are listening to Rip It Up, the Renovations Podcast. Hi, I'm Kate. I run the Instagram page Victorian Rathmines. I'm Jenny, I run the Instagram at workerscottage.

Kate: 0:14

This podcast is all about renovation and interiors from a renovators perspective.

Jenny: 0:18

We've been through it a few times between us and it hasn't scared us off. In fact, we loved it. So if you are fanning too of your own home, you can expect to hear lots of advice from our own experience along with plenty of tips and information. You spend over a third of your life in bed, so it is absolutely true that your sleep setup is good. So today, Kate and Jenny are going to take you through everything you need to know about picking your perfect bed, perfect mattress, and perfect sleep setup. Alright, welcome back to the podcast. Hi Kate. Hi Jen. How are you?

Kate: 0:50

I'm good. I'm good.

Jenny: 0:51

You're off on your travels, so this is a remote one. I'm on my travels. Yeah, this is remote. I'm currently in South Korea. An absolute haven really for interior design. Everything is so beautiful. Very cool, Instagrammable. I know I sound like a really elder millennium while I say that, but yeah, it is. Everything's really cool. Everything's very cool. Is that the word the kids still use? Is it cool? But yeah, I've cried it's outgria. Haven't spent the last two weeks in uh New Zealand visiting my family and friends, and it was also wonderful. My god, they do things to coffee in New Zealand. Oh, stop. Why can't we do that in the rest of the world? I don't understand how it's so good.

Kate: 1:31

I know brunch and everything in general is just amazing.

Jenny: 1:35

Yeah, it's wonderful. Yeah. Um, anyway, that's not what we're talking about today. Anyway, you're away from your normal bed. I'm away from my normal bed. And sleeping in a different bed. Yeah. And that's what we're talking about tonight. We're talking about beds. You're this morning. Uh we're talking about beds. Um, I was going through this recently with somebody who's choosing a bed and there's just so much in it. There is mattress decisions, bed decisions, bed storage, lighting, everything. There's just a huge amount. Yeah.

Kate: 2:02

I'm obsessed with beds. I actually used to sell mattresses in a big furniture shop in Limerick after college.

Jenny: 2:08

I was the expert.

Kate: 2:10

I I used to sell mattresses, everything from the temper memory foam to pockets bro to everything. Yeah. So I'm obsessed with mattresses. And I I really think it's something that's hugely worth investing in. And if you don't agree. Sorry, you're wrong. You spend so long in bed. Everything is better with good sleep. Everything.

Jenny: 2:29

And sleeping on a bad mattress is detrimental to your sleep. So it is, it's vital. It's one of those things as well that I wouldn't scrimp on. There's areas in my house when I'm decorating or buying stuff that I will happily scrimp on because I just don't really care that much about it. But a good mattress in particular, whatever about the bed frame, we can get into that later. But a good mattress is critical. Absolutely.

Kate: 2:49

And I sleep, I'd say consistently. Almost every night I get at least eight hours sleep. Unless the kids have a really crappy night. I go to bed at half nine. I'm asleep by ten. I don't get out of bed till 7.30 or eight when the kids I go.

Jenny: 3:01

I'm such an anna, but I do. I mean bedtime is 9 30. I'm no use to anyone really much.

Kate: 3:07

If I have bad sleep, I'm so less productive the next day. It's so worth it.

Jenny: 3:11

It's worth the investment. Okay, we could do an entire monologue on sleep, but people have written books on it, and we know it's important. Okay, mattresses first, right? I actually went shopping for a new mattress because the very first one I got when I moved into my house, it was just too hard for me, and there was a memory foam topper on it attached. It's just not for me. I just don't like memory foam. So I switched I switched around. So I did a big mattress shop last year, and you are a mattress expert, having successfully sold hundreds, if not thousands of them to college.

Kate: 3:41

So tell me the memory foam was it that I'm not even gonna say the brand, but was it that big brand that are plugged a lot?

Jenny: 3:47

It was a very big brand, yes.

Kate: 3:49

Okay, and you still didn't like it.

Jenny: 3:51

Big Irish brand. I just don't like it. Now it people do it, but it's not for me. Okay. I find it too hot. I don't like being too hot in bed. It's heavy. And I found it way too firm. Yeah. Like that feeling of sinking into it. I'm a side sleeper, so I don't know if that helps. Maybe people who sleep on their backs or something might find it a bit better. I really don't. I didn't like the feeling of it keeping my shape, which look the secrets or the clue is in the name, it's called memory foam. If I didn't want a material that was going to remember my shape, then I probably shouldn't have gotten memory foam in the first place. So that one's on me, but no, it's not for me.

Kate: 4:27

Yeah, but memory memory foam, it's a love-in or hate it thing. I remember when I used to sell mattresses, couples would be really divided on this. Like mattresses can be quite personal. So I remember a couple came in and they had spent 2,000 euros on this king size memory foam, one of the big brands, and she hated it. The husband loved it, did not want to get rid of it, and they actually came back in. She was like, I can't sleep now, it's too hot. I feel like I'm it's I'm stuck in it. It's hard to move if you want to move. So, like you said, if you're moving it, if you're not moving, you're in one spot and you sink into that spot and you're there for the night, you get so hot, like just that area gets so hot. It's like the way some people like to flip their pillow. If you're a pillow flipper, you probably won't like the heat of a mattress like that. So they end up going back like to a really basic coil sprung firm orthopedic, like 500 quid mattress or something from a two-gram.

Jenny: 5:17

Now you're talking because coil sprung for me is very much where it's at. Pocket sprung.

Kate: 5:22

Pocket sprung, but coil sprung now, they're different. Coil sprung is like one continuous coil over the area of the mattress, right? So if someone sits on the edge can slightly collapse, if that makes sense, because it's all one big coil, and then pocket sprung are all individualized, kind of pocketed springs, and then the higher the number of pocket springs, the firmer because you've more individual smaller springs, and smaller springs are firmer to push loads of them rather than less big springs, if that makes sense. So once you get up over the kind of 2,000 pocket springs, you're going more firm and but more soft. I have 1400 just for reference.

Jenny: 6:00

If anyone out there also likes a relative. Yeah, for a king bed, a slightly softer mattress, not soft, like it's firm enough, but slightly softer mattress. I still have there is a layer of gel on the top of it. It's not memory foam, yeah, it is a gel that regulates temperature. And I love it. I love it so much. It really just wicks the heat away from you. And as a pillow flipper, it's I love it. It's for me.

Kate: 6:27

Yeah, you're a cool sleeper, you like being like not there. Yeah, yeah. Another thing, then, if you like pocket springs, but you want a bit of plushness, that kind of hotel feeling. Some people get a pocket spring with a pillow top on the top. That pillow top gives you a real kind of sumptuous, almost like a duvet over your mattress feel, and that can be real soft but still supportive. And then that pillow top or box top, some of them are like a deeper box top, can be filled with, like you said, gel, can be memory foam in that as well. If you just went a topper, but you still want the springs underneath. You can get loads of different things, like this chenille ones and all these other mad kind of ones for, like you said, regulating body temperature, but also to give you that kind of coziness or something as well.

Jenny: 7:09

And there is something very cozy about that little top layer, it's so nice, like it just feels a bit luxurious, it's not even to look.

Kate: 7:16

What do you have now? So you pocket spring, just straight pocket spring, no pillow top or anything.

Jenny: 7:20

No, I do have a topper, so it's pock it's 1400 pockets bronky size, which for me feels perfect for somebody who likes things not very soft, but on the softer side of a firm. And then there is a a small little topper on it that's filled with that gel that regulates the temperature.

Kate: 7:38

And is that topper separate? I know there's stitch at the top, but yeah, yeah, it is like an actual pillow top where some of them are just layered over the springs, if that makes sense, so it's not actually a pillow top or a box top. But yeah, I have something similar. I don't have the actual pillow top, but I recently changed and I was like one brand till I die up until recently, and it is pocket spring, and I'm still pocket spring, but mine does have a kind of a memory foam topper on it. It's just enough.

Jenny: 8:05

Tell me more about the memory foam. Why? It just gave me that little judgmental of my question here.

Kate: 8:10

So I actually originally bought this mattress brand on special for our guest room and didn't spend a huge amount of money on it. No, it is a good mattress, but it wasn't mad money because once it was on special, I was like, it's for this guest room, it's fine. And when I had my first baby, I used to do a bit of a night away where Kean would mine the baby, and I'd get a full night's sleep and I'd go off into that room, and then I fell in love with that mattress. I loved it, I loved it more than our main bedroom mattress. I don't know why, it was just the supportiveness, but it just gave that little bit of kind of squishiness on the top, and I actually liked that combination. The pocket springs underneath combined with that gave still gave that breathability. Now I'm with you. I totally hate full memory foam. I slept on the good ones, I just don't like them. But this still gives you that springiness of a sprung mattress, but the tiny bit of memory foam. So I really liked it. And then when it came time to change my mattress for our main room, I got the same one for in there. Um can you reveal it? Yeah, I can say the brand. It's a brand called M Lily. Yeah, I think they're like a sponsor of Manchester United or something, something random. I remember when I was searching it, I Manchester United jerseys came up anyway. But it's amazing, I love it. I bought it in Des Kelly originally, and then I went back when I wanted the one for our main bedroom. Yeah, I love it. I really love it. The bank. It doesn't what? Amazing, it doesn't break the bank. No, it doesn't, it's still good, and again, the the amount of springs on the base vary as well. So the more you go up in spring count, the firmer it gets, but also the more expensive it gets. So you can get one starting from your thousand or twelve hundred, and then there's a two thousand one, then there's a three thousand one. So the one in our guest room, I think, is two thousand. I think, and I think our firm that's quite firm. It is firm, yeah. But I think our one is maybe I don't know, is it the same or is it 2500 in the super king size? I don't know. I don't find it firm. I think just because the mattress topper that memory foam topper now weighs a ton. So I have movers coming here next week, and someone, one of our friends, offered, oh, I have a big pickup truck, whatever, if you want to help move. I was like, I'm never moving mattresses again in my life. I've done it once or twice. Like they weigh so much nowadays, like I'm just not touching it. I'm gonna injure myself.

Jenny: 10:23

There's nowhere to I know they have handles and everything.

Kate: 10:25

They're just they're too big, big things, they're big sheets of jelly, so you don't know what way they're gonna go. So, yeah, that's mattresses. I suppose you can go your coil sprawl, most basic pocket spring with pillow topper knot, or topper of memory foam or whatever, and then yeah, all the way up to your full memory foam, which for me just isn't it, isn't it? But I also know other people that love it. Can I just say one thing? It's slightly on to the next topic a little bit, but pillows, part of the mattress setup. I do have a memory foam pillow, a temper one, and they're the brand that do like real expensive memory foam mattresses. While I don't like their mattresses, I love the pillow, and I actually find when I go anywhere else now, um, I find it hard to sleep in another pillow because they're not at all as supportive. So the memory foam really sits in the kind of like nape in the side of your neck, and I'm a slight side sleeper most of the time, but I just find it really supportive.

Jenny: 11:16

Yeah, I usually like a very flat pillow, actually. I don't like too much bulk in it, even though I am also a side sleeper, but I don't like too much bulk in my pillow at all.

Kate: 11:24

You know what I hate? I don't understand feather pillows. I love them. They just go dead, but I have a sore ear after about 10 minutes.

Jenny: 11:32

I don't know, I feel like it's such a dead weight or something. I always had feather pillows and I love sleeping on them. I'm not sure.

Kate: 11:37

I hate them when they're in hotels and everything. I feel like I'm fluffing them the whole time and then my ear gets sore. If I'm wearing my earrings in bed, I feel my earrings with feather feather pillows. I don't know.

Jenny: 11:47

Yeah, not for me.

Kate: 11:48

Not for me.

Jenny: 11:48

Do you like those pillows that have the shape that kind of goes into your neck?

Kate: 11:52

Well, temper the memory foam one, they actually do those as well. But mine is just a standard kind of rectangular shape pillow, it's not the shaped one. I don't know if I'd be the kind of sleeper now for the shaped one. Like you would want to not move at all, I think.

Jenny: 12:06

You'd want to not move at all, that's exactly because I do slip a little bit from my side to my back, and I find if I lie on my back at all, then I have a terrible night's sleep. But on my side, it's okay. I just feel like I'm choking a little bit as well. I don't even know if that's just psychological, but it's just not for me. Wouldn't be for me, wouldn't be for me.

Kate: 12:23

Yeah, what about duvet?

Jenny: 12:24

Duvet. I've I like a feather-filled duvet as well, but with the pockets, yeah, obviously with the pockets, otherwise they just go all over the place. Yeah, like stitched. But I love a feather-down duvet, and I have two, so I have a three-tog one for summertime, which is very cold, obviously, but I really like sleeping in yeah, I like a really low one as yeah. Yeah, I have a ten-tog one then for lunchtime.

Kate: 12:45

I don't know up to 40. I don't know how people go for those. I feel like it'd be sweating any time of the year. Maybe if you sleep outside or you don't have central heating, but other than that, it's too hot.

Jenny: 12:55

What is really clever, the two that I have, there's a three and a ten, and they up they have buttons at the corners, so you can flip them together. Yeah, put them into the duvet, and then you can have a 13 top, really. So you have three duvets and two, which is really handy.

Kate: 13:08

That is really cool. But yeah, no, I'm thinking I'm what would you call it? Artificial filling on duvets as well.

Jenny: 13:14

Yeah, I'm fine with the artificial filling on duvet, I like it. I don't but I overall just I want it to be quite light. I don't like anything too heavy on me, maybe it's the heat. What I do like though is a bit of layering. So I like a duvet. I also love having a blanket, but only from the waist down. I don't like anything over. I don't know what it is, just a little bit of weight on my legs or something. A little blanket or two. It looks really pretty anyway, like it looks lovely, but yeah. Sleeping setup.

Kate: 13:41

What about duvet covers? Are you like a cotton-only kind of gal?

Jenny: 13:46

No, I like linen in summertime and I like cotton year-round. I love cotton actually. Cotton's probably my favourite. And the set that I have that I always go back to that I love the most is a is Foxford. Foxford. It's a Foxford cotton set percal weave, just a lot.

Kate: 14:02

Yeah, I used to be all about like a high tread count, and then more recently in recent years, I've gone away from that a little bit. They're still decent, but I have Amarel all the time on my bed, the Irish brand. I the linen or the best. I have both actually, but I love linen in the summertime, but then maybe the cotton in the colder months.

Jenny: 14:20

Thread count is it is worth talking about because it there's a bit of a there's a bit of a red herring with hair count, isn't there? It's not necessarily you can fake it the higher the hair count, the better it is. You can fake it. Yeah, they have a way, they have a way of doing it. It used to be that the higher the heart count, the better it was because it was denser and the weave was was denser and everything was softer and just lovelier and nicer and higher quality, and it would last a lot longer after more washes. But basically, they found a way of effectively faking high thread count, and that's just not true anymore. And sometimes it could mean you might have high thread count, but it could be really low-quality materials, or actually the weave of the thread could be not so well done, and so it's just not a reliable marker to look at anyway.

Kate: 15:02

And am I right in thinking like the actual thread thickness can vary so much that yeah, it's not all it's cracked up to be anymore, unless you're really pure Egyptian cotton or something like that.

Jenny: 15:13

Then typically the thread is actually quite it's really long, really robust, and quite slender, and so a high thread count of a thread of that nature is a really positive thing. But actually, then what they do now, or what some places do now, is they just mash a bunch of threads together or artificially make them a bit thinner and then weave more together, but they're not great quality and in the first place, and so having more of them doesn't make a really good material overall.

Kate: 15:40

Yeah. Okay, so that's bad sleeping materials, bed spreads, cushions, or pillows.

Jenny: 15:47

Sorry, but you do have the linen as use a cotton and the linen. I love I have the Amarella linen one as well, and I do love it. I find it hard to wash sometimes, it just goes a bit stiff, and then it definitely washes around.

Kate: 15:58

I usually like air dry mine, but then give them a light go in the tumble dryer at the end, and it just off at the end of the floor. That's what I do for 20 minutes. Yeah, and then just fold them when they're warm, and then I do it.

Jenny: 16:09

And I find those drier balls you can buy. You can just use tennis balls actually, but I just got I got these wool ones that really helps, it just bashes a bit of soft. Yeah, because I don't use fabric softener on them, so I think they do a lot of they do a lot of good. Yeah, okay. So that's all the preferred materials, preferred mattresses. The bed itself, how important is that to me? The bed itself, the frame, the bed frame.

Kate: 16:30

The slats and the base is important for the mattress support, especially now. Mattresses are so bloody heavy. If you've really crappy slats that are bending all the time, they'll be creaky and they just won't support a big heavy mattress, especially if there's two people on the bed. So I would say it's it's important to have decent slats, or if you have a divan, like a decent sprung divan base or a decent base. But you can think about just a solid divan base. It depends on your room, doesn't it? Like I pick it in certain rooms, and I think they can look really cool now with a linen box valance and stuff.

Jenny: 17:03

Yeah, and it's again it's a hotel look. Yeah, the right material.

Kate: 17:07

I've not massively gone on the ones that are pre-finished in fabric a lot of the time. Yeah, I think the fabrics can be like available, can be a little bit naff, unless they're really custom ones or something like that. So I tend to prefer, if I was going with a divan, like a box valance over it, like a nice box balance over it or something. But then I suppose whether I'd go for a bed frame or a divan, it depends on your room and like the size of your room and whether your room can take it.

Jenny: 17:32

What do you have? So things to think about. I I have an ottoman, which really looks like a divan. Okay. The reason I have an ottoman is because it's a storage ottoman, and I think if you're living in a small house or you're stuck for storage, you just have to get a storage bed because my god, the amount of stuff I have under that thing. It's like having it's like having a garage, I swear to God. Like I have so much stuff under there. Garden shed under the body. So much stuff because it's unbelievable. I swear to God, there's so much in there. There's no reason not to. And I I feel quite strongly about getting one that lifts up instead of getting one that has drawers underneath it because you can't fit nearly as much in the drawers and it's really hard to access them.

Kate: 18:11

Um, it's a little bit more than the drawers as well. Sometimes it can be a pain. You know, if anything lifts up higher than the drawer and then a jam and you're trying to hang and get stuff out. No, like the drawers never work that well.

Jenny: 18:22

And lifting it up is a little bit heavy, but the hinges are they're like these hydraulic hinges that have their support, the lift. I don't know exactly how it works, to be perfectly honest with you, but there's some kind of a gas in them that helps to support it. You don't have to lift the full weight of a mattress up like it's a supported lift. You can get two types. You get one that lifts up from the end of the bed, or you can get one that lifts up along the side of the bed. If you're depending on where your bed is in the room, it might be easier for you to access it from the side, or it might be easier for you to access it from the end when you're shopping around, just keep that in mind like where it's going to go in your bedroom. Yeah, exactly. But yeah, they aren't doing it. Small homeowners, you have to, you just have to. There's no it's such waste of it.

Kate: 19:01

That's a lot of dead space otherwise, and you can get all these boxes and whatever, but they never fit, like you said, a quarter as much as you could fit under there. And that big like it is that one big uninterrupted kind of area or space lets you store long things or whatever. I think you said you cross-country skis in there or something at one point.

Jenny: 19:18

I've got ski, I've got touring skis in there, I've got downhill skis in there, I've got a blow-up paddle board in there, I have a tent under there, and that isn't even that is a small fraction of the amount of story. It's unreal. I can't believe how much fits under there. Yeah. All my Christmas decorations are under there. I have very frames.

Kate: 19:33

I've always, at least in recent years, I've always had bed frames, just because I suppose maybe the style of the room or whatever. My last house, I had a four-poster.

Jenny: 19:41

I do prefer the look, I do prefer the look of a solid wood bed frame, yeah or even a very sleek kind of brushed metal bed frame.

Kate: 19:48

So I got my last remember my last house, I had the four-poster. Now I had to get rid of that when we moved because I just didn't have the ceiling height in this new house. So I got rid of that, but I loved that bed. I saw it on my thinking like a Soho House Hotel, they had something similar style. So I scoured the internet and found a place called Get Laid Beds. So if you're into wood frame beds, could they? Yeah, they're great, they're good quality. You can customize everything, you can customize the stain colour, the size of the frames, the legs, the side tables. You can attach side tables if you want. All that there's so much customisable, they have loads of different frames. So I got it from there. If you're going for wood bed frames, I would say go decent quality because if you don't, they're so creaky. Just through an example, I got a toddler bed for my eldest Matthew, and it's an IKEA one, right? It was cheap. I didn't know what the situation was, and we're going to be um moving back in here, whether we do built-in joinery and stuff like that.

Jenny: 20:39

And they grow out of them too. Yeah, I could see.

Kate: 20:42

But I figured by the time we move back in here after the renovations, he might have a built-in bunk or something like that. But anyway, it's new, like he's only had a few, but it's still creaky and he's not heavy, you know what I mean? So I think sometimes cheap wood bed frames can be creaky. So make sure that the fittings are good and stuff like that, and you're not just screwing into wood, you know, that there's metal fixings that hit metal fixings and stuff like that. So I would always earn the side of caution if you're going for a wood bed frame, and then more recently, my current bed is a steel bed, not like a road iron kind of bed. It's a Danish company called Moebi, very minimalist. Our room is quite small at the moment, and I just didn't have space for kind of a big bed frame and a big high headboard, so I have just a headboard on the wall, which I'll talk about in a minute, but like the bed frame is thick steel, essentially, powder-coated steel. Love. And it's two little half-moon-shaped kind of cantilevered bedside tables because I didn't really have the space for lockers either. And I honestly think lockers you just fill with shit when you have them. I just don't think anyone needs bedside.

Jenny: 21:41

Almost as strongly about bedside lockers as I do about bathroom vanities. I think they are an absolute racket. Yeah, it's really hard to find nice ones. They're too big. What are you putting in there? Like you just rubbish.

Kate: 21:52

Like, all you need is like your water, a book, and maybe charging your phone or something. Like, other than that, you're just collecting craps on your bed. So I love just the little side tables, and yeah. And then everything else, I think, when we move back in here after renovations, we'd probably build into a headboard, I think.

Jenny: 22:08

Yeah, I love those headboards, the kind of ones that extend wider than the bed, maybe curve around a small little bit, and then have a shelf built into them. Yes, I think that's cozy and elegant looking. Yeah, it's slow.

Kate: 22:22

And everything in everything there accessible to your table, yeah, maybe a reading light or something like that. Like everything right there is just so nice. Yeah.

Jenny: 22:30

I love that too. Yeah. Failing that, I like wall lamps. I don't love bedside laps, like sitting on the shelf if you like the team. It's not too much space. I just like a really neat little lap.

Kate: 22:38

If you have a huge room of big grand bedside lockers in that kind of style, but any normal size bedrooms, I think lamps are just messy.

Jenny: 22:46

There's something about the trailing wire of it as well that just pisses me off. And then you're always fiddling around for the switch, which is so annoying. Yeah. So I love it, but yeah, I just have a built-in wall light with a wall switch. Uh it's something to consider when you're a tricky kind of electrical plan, isn't it? Yes, big time. Yeah, because you need to know where your bed going, what size bed you have.

Kate: 23:06

Because you'll probably be putting sockets there anyway, it's there's going to be power to it. So consider maybe wiring for bedside lamps as well. I currently have one of the rechargeable LEDs there. Oh, that's a good idea. So there's no wiring then. I can actually read with it, it's decent enough. And I just have the charger somewhere else, so I charge it whatever, once a week or once every two weeks. So whenever it dies, but it's great, yeah, to have no cables and stuff.

Jenny: 23:33

Yeah, I love that. That's a very good idea. One thing back to mattresses, this is not about outside lockers, but if you are sleeping with a partner and you have different sleeping styles, you can get like separate kind of mattresses. So and actually, so one additional benefit that we didn't cover of the pocket sprung is that you don't necessarily feel somebody moving around on the other side of the bed. It's a very contained movement. Like if someone sits on the side of the bed, it doesn't drag the whole thing down. Yeah. So that's really good. But if somebody likes things warm or somebody likes things cooler, like you can get separate mattresses that have separate levels of firmness on them.

Kate: 24:08

I always wonder what's the join like in those.

Jenny: 24:11

I don't know.

Kate: 24:11

Is there I don't know, is there a join? That's the that's what I'm wondering. Is it like the kind of hotel mattresses in the US where you can you have your sleep button on it? Do you ever stay in those hotels and sleep? No. Um what's it's one of the big chains of hotels in the States. I've definitely stayed there for work before, and it's like your sleep number, it's branded as your sleep number, and you can adjust the firmness or something.

Jenny: 24:32

You can do it's a really, really good idea.

Kate: 24:33

Yeah.

Jenny: 24:34

There's also this thing I haven't seen it for sale in Ireland, but I know friends of mine in the States who have it, and it's called an ooler. And it's basically this fancy, it's like a very fancy hot blanket or electric blanket, but it's filled with this kind of gel and it can go hot or cold, and you can get different ones for either side of the bed. So in summertime, you could have your cool, and then you can decide what level of cool you want, and then you can decide what level of hot you want.

Kate: 24:57

How bad?

Jenny: 24:58

What a time to be alive.

Kate: 24:59

Yeah, what is it? Yeah, it feels like this it's just something else that can break my ass.

Jenny: 25:05

True, true. I think our climate probably doesn't really necessitate that that level of bedtime cooling, but I love the idea of it.

Kate: 25:14

So that that sleep on it when I was there, and it's so nice. That matters. I was just looking up there. It is actually called the sleep number beds.

Jenny: 25:21

Oh, so it's adjustable. So can you do a different number on either side of the beds?

Kate: 25:25

Yeah, I remember from when I was there. I can't remember what it's American though, I haven't seen them over here. What I'm trying to think of what it was one of the big chains anyway, courtyard marriot or one of the marriots or something like that that had them. But I don't know if they're available here yet. But yeah, that's my kind of two cents on mattresses. Invest.

Jenny: 25:44

Yeah, invest big time in the mattress. Think about whether you need storage in the bed and don't get anything that's too creaky or that's gonna freak.

Kate: 25:51

Yeah, I suppose earn the side of caution when you're going for yeah, your timber beds. We did have an issue with our metal bed, I should say. When we got it first, it gets really heavy duty on the steel, but where the wood slats met the metal frame, it was squeaking or creaking because as this wood slats would, as the wood slats would flex, it was rubbing on the metal. So I contacted the company, and in fairness to them, they were back like within the day, and they said, This is actually a flaw on the bed, we have fixed it so far, but we're gonna send you out the parts. So they were just rubbery kind of slat caps. So they sent them out straight away, and they were like, just put these on the ends of your slats and they'll be fine. So they rectified it, but I did have an issue with it, yeah.

Jenny: 26:30

Okay, so if you're listening and you do have an issue with the squeaky ends, like the slats being squeaky or creaky, maybe you can just Google because they're probably a fairly standard width. You could buy to the pretty much.

Kate: 26:40

You can buy the slat caps on Amazon and stuff like that as well. Because I had looked at it, but it was squeaking because I wasn't sure if the company would actually come back about it, but they did in fairness and they came back within 24 or 48 hours with a fixed decent customer city.

Jenny: 26:54

I forgot to them, while I beat hold on.

Kate: 26:56

Yeah, so they're the beds I've had. I do have a bed frame in my guest room as well, and it's from made.com years ago. Now I know made.com is my bed is from made.com. They're gone, but now they're bought over by next, I think. Are they? So I think you can guess made beds, but I've always found made.com beds decent quality, and I'd buy it again.

Jenny: 27:15

Yeah, mine is perfect, yeah.

Kate: 27:17

Yeah, and the fittings are good, never creaks. The slats that came with it were decent, and we've had that bed. Fabric has perfectly held up, there's no fray. Fabrics are actually lovely. The fabrics seem really good quality, and the wood legs are as kind of walnut wood legs, and it's a navy blue tweety fabric, I suppose. But the legs are they look solid wood and they look like a nice finish, they don't look like fake laminate wood or cheap. Yeah, so I definitely why made.com beds again.

Jenny: 27:44

Yeah, they're like overall of the brand, I found them a little bit hit or miss, but mostly hit. And the bed was definitely worth it. Yeah, yeah.

Kate: 27:51

Yeah. So that's all I think on beds.

Jenny: 27:54

I have we obviously have quite strong feelings about it because there's a lot to talk about, but I'm like, no, I know what I like, and that's it.

Kate: 27:59

Yeah, if you disagree with us on the memory, let us know. I know someone who disagrees with me, which is my brother, because he's got a temper bed, and they they absolutely him and his wife swear by it, they love it.

Jenny: 28:08

My cousins, Connor and Krista, uh uh Connor and his wife, Krista, they absolutely rave about they have the mattress and they love it, and they absolutely rave about it. So do my aunt and uncle, they love their animatrice. I for me, I find that too hot. I just don't feel uncomfortable. But there are people out there who was your old one emo?

Kate: 28:23

Can you discover?

Jenny: 28:24

No, it wasn't. No, it wasn't. Okay.

Kate: 28:28

Yeah, because I did actually run a poll before because I'm not a memory phone person, but then I got kind of 50-50 results on that from people on my Instagram. It is very hit or miss, it's very personal choice.

Jenny: 28:38

You just have to try it if you know somebody with an MM address, how can you stop houses for a nice leave in their bed?

Kate: 28:43

You can apparently do the is it 60 or 90 days? Oh, can you? Okay. Yeah, maybe try one from a company that at least do that return first rather than going for one that you can't. Because you can go into a bed shop and lie down the mattress, but it's not the same as what you're sleeping. You're in the middle of the day. Sorry, like there's no way telling, you just can't know.

Jenny: 29:00

No, another one, if you're in a hotel and you've had the best night sleep of your life, then just ask the hotel number one, where do they get their mattresses from? And number two, do they ever sell them on? You might not want to sleep in a used hotel mattress.

Kate: 29:10

Yeah, sometimes they do kind of auctions, don't they? From hotels, yeah, they do auctions. Yeah, but yeah, their mattresses are always really good.

Jenny: 29:17

Yeah, and usually they'll give you the supplier so you can just buy yourself. Yeah.

Kate: 29:21

So anything else? That's it from me. Back to my holidays left. Enjoy the rest of your holidays and we'll see you uh again soon, guys. Bye.

Jenny: 29:32

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