I've been fortunate enough to sleep in a few luxury hotel beds in my time, and I've always been struck by how well I sleep on them, especially considering that I don't tend to sleep well on an unfamiliar mattress.
In fact, returning to my regular bed after a few opulent nights on a five-star mattress can feel like a real disappointment. Or rather, it did until I recently acquired a mattress that boasts the same feature that you'll find in hotel beds and in other premium mattresses, but that you'll rarely find in the average mattress in a box or even in several of the entries in our guide to the best mattresses of the year (with the hand tufted Saatva Classic being a notable exception.)
This feature is the big reason why five-star hotel mattresses remain super-comfortable and hold their shape for ages, and once you know about it you're going to want to find a mattress that features it in the Labor Day mattress sales. So what's the big secret? It's called tufting, and I'm here to tell you all about it.
What is mattress tufting?
Tufting is a tried and tested technique that's been used by traditional mattress makers for generations, and it's a foolproof way of ensuring that all the layers in a mattress stay firmly in place, no matter how much you toss and turn in the night over the years.
Ever looked at a hotel mattress (or maybe your grandma's ancient mattress) and noticed that it has a dimpled top surface with lots of wooly buttons sunk deep into it? Those mark out where the mattress has been tufted: thick ribbon or cord has been threaded through the mattress body to hold the layers in place, and secured with a pom-pom or rosette.
It's actually a little more involved than that. As traditional mattress makers at John Ryan explain, once a mattress has been assembled and stitched together, it's compressed in a mattress compactor and the tufts are added by hand, using a large, sharp needle, then when the mattress comes out of the compactor and expands again, the tufts take up the strain and keep everything tightly aligned. It's a skilled, time-consuming process, which makes it easy to understand why tufting is mainly found in luxury mattresses these days.
What are the benefits of tufting?
I've tested a few mattresses in a box in recent years, and one thing I've noticed over the longer term is that their fillings don't always tend to stay in place brilliantly, particularly when there are lots of layers of springs, foam and other materials.
The layers, which are usually held in place by glue, shift around ever so slightly over the months and you end up with a less even surface than when you originally unpacked your new bed.
With a tufted mattress, however, everything is held tightly in place at multiple points throughout the mattress body, so there's hardly any danger of the layers shifting around or clumping.
The experts at John Ryan point out that as you move around in the night, the weight of your body can push your mattress filling around in any number of directions, and compare it with a feather pillow that needs fluffing every month to regain it's shape. You can't fluff an entire mattress, and tufting is the most effective way of preventing it getting out of shape in the first place.
Tufting doesn't just mean long-lasting comfort and support. With the layers held in place there's less likelihood of internal wear and tear as layers rub together, so tufting can also mean that a mattress will last much longer (it also helps, though, that tufted mattress tend to be made using premium, longer-lasting materials).
Where can I get a tufted mattress?
As I've already mentioned, most beds in a box aren't tufted, but there is one notable exception, and if you're now set on acquiring a tufted mattress but don't want to break the bank, it's one that I can strongly recommend.
The Avocado Green Mattress is tufted by hand but also comes delivered in a box, and we rate it as the best organic mattress that you can buy. It's also a bit of an investment; the queen size has an MSRP of $2,099, although if you wait for an Avocado mattress sale you'll get a lower price. At the time of writing there's 15% off for Labor Day, with a queen coming in at $1,784.
As a rule, though, if you buy a tufted mattress it'll be delivered flat, which has its ups and downs. On the plus side, this means that a flat-packed tufted mattress will often arrive fresh from the factory, and if there's any foam in it you're unlikely to be subjected to any off-gassing because it hasn't been compressed.
However flat mattresses can be harder to maneuver (fortunately many come with free White Glove delivery), and you'll probably have to wait longer for them to be delivered as they're often made to order.
The other downside to a flat-packed tufted bed and all the benefits that come with it, you'll have to pay for the privilege. For example, the Avocado Luxury Organic Mattress starts at $3,999 for a twin XL in its standard configuration, and you'll have to pay even more for a plush pillow-top or ultra-plush box-top. There's 20% off at Avocado right now, though, which means a queen size is reduced to $3,839 (was $4,799).
A less expensive (though still luxury) flat-packed tufted mattress is the Stearns and Foster Lux Estate. It has a medium feel and features Tempur-Indulge memory foam as well as a cooling cover and deep springs. You can enhance the feel by adding a firm, medium or soft pillow top, but this costs extra; the standard mattress in a queen size has an MSRP of $3,199, but in the current Stearns and Foster sale you can get $400 off, bringing the price down to $2,799.
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