Best Customizable Mattress

Amerisleep AS Lineup Overview

If you’re looking for customizable firmness that offers a lot of options without requiring you to build a whole mattress, check out the incredibly versatile Amerisleep AS lineup. This lineup allows you to choose from a wide range of firmnesses without overwhelming you with other decisions about your mattress’s interior.

Every Amerisleep mattress, regardless of the model you choose, comes with free shipping, 100-night sleep trial, and a 20-year warranty.

Brooklyn Bedding Custom Mattress Overview

If you want a hybrid mattress that defies convention by allowing you to feel like you’re building a mattress from scratch without the hassle of actually building a mattress, consider the Brooklyn Bedding Custom. This custom mattress lets you make choices about your mattress’s material, firmness, and cover material without making you do everything.

Mattress Insider Custom Mattress Overview

Those who want a customizable mattress that’s customizable in every conceivable aspect, especially it’s length and width, should check out the Mattress Insider Custom Mattress. Not only do they do more traditional customizable mattresses, but they think outside the box as well. Mattress Insider will do virtually any size and shape you want!

Mattress Insider ships their custom mattresses for free and guarantees them with a 10-year warranty. Due to the high degree of customization that this mattress entails, there is no sleep trial period offered.

Nolah Evolution 15 Overview

Another great customizable mattress that offers you some choices without forcing you to make too many overwhelming decisions, the cooling and pressure-relieving Nolah Evolution 15 offers three firmness options without all the fuss.

The Nolah Evolution 15 comes with a lifetime warranty and a 120-night sleep trial. Shoppers who wish to save more can remove the sleep trial before checking out.

Saatva Solaire Overview

Those who want a mattress to really mean “adjustable firmness” when it says “adjustable firmness” should consider the Saatva Solaire. This mattress doesn’t just offer you a few firmness options. It allows you to change your firmness while lying in bed at the touch of a button.

Saatva won’t just ship your mattress for free, but also arrange for free in-home setup with a delivery appointment. Plus, it comes with a 365-night sleep trial and a lifetime warranty.

Layla Hybrid Overview

While a number of mattresses are flippable, not as many double as two mattresses in one. This is why we suggest checking out the Layla Hybrid, featuring customizable firmness from its flippable design. Plus, if you have allergies to common icky things that occur in mattresses – like mildew and dust mites – the hybrid has copper infusions to fight microbes that can trigger symptoms.

Helix Midnight Luxe Overview

As a mattress company, Helix is devoted to creating a luxury feel in every mattress. That means the Helix Luxe Lineup offers you the ability to customize your mattress’s firmness and interior construction without losing the feel of luxury.

While each mattress option suits a particular sleep style, the stand-out mattress is the medium-feel Helix Midnight Luxe. The Helix Midnight Luxe and other Luxe mattresses ship free and come with a 100-night sleep trial and a 15-year warranty.

PlushBeds Botanical Bliss Overview

Couples who want to share a bed without sharing a mattress should check out the Botanical Bliss by PlushBeds. This customizable mattress allows you to choose a different firmness level for both sides of the bed. So each partner can get what they want by choosing a medium or medium-firm feel and a 9, 10, or even 12-inch depth.

Eight Sleep Pod Pro Overview

Those who want the most technologically advanced customizable mattress on the market should check out the Pod Pro by Eight Sleep. This mattress features dual-sided adjustable temperature control and tells you how it improves your sleep quality.

The Pod Pro ships free and comes with a 100-night trial period and a 2-year warranty.

How to Customize Your Own Mattress

No matter how you choose to purchase a mattress, you’ll need to know what kind of material and which firmness level you need to get the best night’s sleep. However, when you’re customizing your mattress, you need to be even more aware of the ways in which your body type, preferred sleep position, and other factors impact your needs.

Material and Construction

The material a mattress is made of is the factor that impacts its feel the most. Everything from temperature regulation to responsiveness to breathability to durability can change with the type of mattress you choose.

More than this, your mattress’s construction and the ingredients it uses are the main determinant of how much you’ll pay for it. All that means you need to have a rough idea of the feel you want your sleep surface to have before you start selecting materials for your custom mattress.

Memory Foam

Memory foam is a great material for those looking to build an affordable and comfortable mattress with reasonable durability. Memory foam is the most contouring comfort foam on the market. This means a memory foam mattress will cradle your pressure points and prevent pain in your hips and shoulders.

Memory foam’s contouring ability is also perfect for helping keep your spine in alignment. It compresses under the heavier parts of your body and rises to meet the lighter parts to ensure your spine stays in a horizontal line. This is true regardless of your sleep position.

Another fantastic aspect of a memory foam mattress is its affordability. Memory foam costs, on average, around $1,100 for a queen mattress. Budget shoppers can even find hidden memory foam gems among the best mattresses under $1,000.

Factor in the fact that you’ll only have to replace it once every 10 to 20 years due to how long a memory foam mattress lasts, and it’s actually the most affordable mattress material over time – even when you consider latex’s higher durability.

There are a couple of drawbacks to memory foam, but they’ll impact certain types of sleepers more than others. Hot sleepers should watch out for memory foam’s temperature issues. Though gel infusions and open-cell construction have made memory foam cooler than it used to be, memory foam mattresses still retain more heat than others.

Memory foam mattresses are also among the least responsive mattresses out there. Memory foam can take forever to bounce back when you move. There are some infusions that help, but memory foam’s response time is still slower than that of other mattresses. This won’t bother you if you don’t move while you sleep, but active sleepers should beware.

See also our memory foam mattress buying guide.

Natural Latex

Natural latex is one of the best memory foam alternatives for hot sleepers and active sleepers. A latex mattress is much more responsive and breathable than memory foam. That means it’ll bounce back underneath you as soon as you move, and it will also stand up to overheating a lot better than its synthetic counterpart.

Latex is also a fantastic option for those who don’t want to bother with replacing their mattresses too often, due to how long a latex mattress lasts. As a natural foam, latex can stand the test of time. Some latex mattresses have been known to last several decades, and you can expect no less than 20 years of life from almost all of them.

Another great thing about natural latex is the fact that it’s more sustainable and eco-friendly than other mattress materials. Natural latex produces less toxic waste during the manufacturing process, whether it’s Talalay or Dunlop latex. And it’s biodegradable and recyclable.

The biggest downside of natural latex is its expense. Expect to pay an average of just over $2000 for a queen-size latex mattress, though canny shoppers may find them among the best mattresses under $2000. Latex’s durability will offset this initial expense over time, but its upfront price tag will push it out of reach for many shoppers on a budget.

See also our latex mattress buying guide for a full discussion of things to consider.

Hybrid

Hybrid mattresses are another excellent option for active sleepers and hot sleepers. Not to say that they aren’t an amazing option for everyone else, as well. Hybrids’ unique combination of pocketed coils and comfort foams means they have something for everyone. They even make fantastic innerspring alternatives for those who can’t give up coils.

Hybrid mattresses can feature either type of comfort foam in their top layers. Memory foam hybrids will be more affordable, while latex hybrids will be even bouncier and more breathable than memory foam ones.

Regardless of whether you get a latex or memory foam hybrid, it will come with a pocketed coil core. Individually wrapped coils are better than their networked counterparts in several key ways. They can move independently of one another, so they make the hybrid adaptable from top to bottom. They can also handle the movements of an adjustable base.

Pocketed coils are also more durable and will outlast open coils. They come in fabric cases, so they won’t start squeaking and creaking. And the fabric cases also mean hybrids are better at controlling motion transfer as well.

Despite offering the best of both foam and coil mattresses, hybrids do have some disadvantages. They’re more expensive than memory foam and less durable than latex. This makes them the most expensive mattress type over time. Hybrids also don’t stand up to being moved as well as all-foam mattresses.

Read our hybrid mattress buying guide for more information.

Innerspring

Innerspring mattresses are generally best to avoid. They feature older sleep technologies that were innovative for their day but have been superseded by much better improvements.

The main issue with innerspring mattresses is their open coil support core. Open coils have no casing and are wired together with steel cable. This produces a sleep surface that tends to sag under your heavier parts instead of contouring to your shape.

Open coils also wear out much faster than pocketed coils. They can start squeaking and creaking within a couple of years, and they lose tension and sag often within five or six years. It’s rare for an innerspring mattress to make it much past 10. Open coils also transfer motion like there’s no tomorrow.

Even though innerspring mattresses are the cheapest mattress option upfront, their affordability takes a nosedive when you consider how often they have to be replaced. Plus, no amount of affordability can make up for decreased sleep quality. For all these reasons, we suggest hybrid mattresses for those who want coils.

See our innerspring mattress buying guide.

Firmness Level

Mattress firmness level is measured on a scale of one to 10, with one being the softest. Typically, you won’t find a mattress softer than around a three or firmer than about an eight. This is because mattresses on the more extreme end of the spectrum would have either no support or no give.

Your preferred sleep position is the main determinant of your firmness needs. However, your body type also has a lot to do with how soft or firm your sleep surface should be.

Back Sleepers

Mattresses for back sleeping needs to offer a balance of support and cushioning that slightly favors support. This is because sleeping on your back can cause you to sink into an overly soft mattress.

With an overly firm mattress, you don’t get enough contouring, and your spine winds up being bent forward as it collapses onto the bed. Either way, your spine falls out of alignment, leading to back pain.

This means medium-firm mattresses are the best option for most back sleepers. They offer lots of support to keep you lifted onto the sleep surface. But they also offer sufficient contouring to keep your lumbar region supported and your spine aligned.

Combination Sleepers

Combo sleepers like to switch sleep positions from night to night and don’t have a strong preference for a single sleep position. If you regularly sleep in two or more different positions, you’re a combo sleeper. Typically, combo sleepers need versatile mattresses that may not be absolutely ideal for any single position but are adequate for many different positions.

Medium-feel beds usually fit this bill when it comes to mattresses for combination sleeping. Medium mattresses fall right in the middle of the firmness scale, offering an even balance of support and pressure relief. This means these versatile mattresses can keep you comfortable no matter which position you prefer. You can sleep on your back one night and side the next and do just fine on both.

Side Sleepers

Side sleepers usually need beds on the softer end of the spectrum. This is because sleeping on your side exerts a lot of pressure on your hip and shoulder joints. When you sleep on your side, your body weight presses these ball joints into the bed.

An overly firm bed resists your body and exerts pressure on the joints. This sometimes causes significant pain, which is why you need the cushioning that a mattress for side sleeping offers.

This is why medium-soft and soft mattresses are vital for side sleepers. Instead of resisting your body weight and exerting pressure, softer mattresses compress under your weight to absorb pressure. They cradle your hips and shoulders to keep your spine aligned and your pressure points pain-free.

Stomach Sleepers

On the opposite end of the spectrum, stomach sleepers need the firmest mattresses of all. This is because sleeping on your stomach causes your pelvis to sink into the bed. This overarches the spine and leads to lower back pain. A proper mattress for stomach sleepers buoys their bodies, instead.

A firm or even an extra-firm mattress can ensure you don’t wake up in the morning with a sore back by keeping your pelvis lifted and preventing too much bending in the lumbar region.

Body Type

Because mattresses are designed based on the average human weight range, most adults in the world don’t have to worry about their body type impacting their firmness needs. If you fall between 130 and 230 pounds, you can choose a mattress based solely on your sleep style. If you fall outside this range, however, you may need to tweak your firmness.

Those who are lighter than 130 pounds are considered petite sleepers. Petite sleepers often have to go down one firmness level from the one that corresponds to their sleep position. Doing so ensures the ideal amount of pressure relief and compression in a mattress for petite sleepers.

Conversely, those who weigh more than 230 pounds are considered plus-size sleepers. If you fall into this category, you may have to go up a firmness level to get enough lift and support. Having the right mattress for heavy sleeping can counter any sinkage you may experience.

FAQs

Do customizable mattresses come in non-standard sizes?

Customizable mattresses very often come in non-standard sizes, such as Canada sizes, European sizes, RV mattress sizes, and more. The great thing about many custom mattresses is that you can also have a mattress made to fit your specific measurements.

There are many reasons you might want to do this. RVs and boats don’t always come with bed frames in standard RV sizes. You may have a van or other rig that cannot accommodate RV sizes. Or you might have an antique bed frame that doesn’t correspond with the modern-day American size run.

Whatever the reason, there are plenty of companies out there that will simply allow you to send in your measurements, select thickness and shape, and get your custom sized mattress sent straight to your door.

Can I customize my mattress shape?

Just like there are many reasons you might want to customize a mattress size, there are tons of reasons you’d want to customize its shape as well. Maybe you just want a fun, unique look for your bedroom, or maybe your built-in RV or boat bed frame has weird corner cutouts.

Whatever the reason, the good news is there are custom mattress makers out there who can shape your mattress however you want. Just keep in mind if you have a custom mattress shape, you may have a tough time finding custom mattress sheets to fit it.

Is it possible to buy sheets for a custom mattress?

That depends. If you build a custom mattress that’s both within the regular depth range and in the standard size run, you should have no problem finding the best bed sheets for it just about anywhere.

If your custom mattress comes in a non-standard size, things can start getting dicey. Most of the time, you will be able to get sheets for European mattress sizes or common non-standard sizes (think Alaskan king or Olympic queen). Sheets for these mattresses might be a little tougher to find, but they’re out there.

If, however, you get a mattress with a custom shape – especially one that’s very far from the standard rectangle/square – you’re probably going to have to have custom sheets made for it as well.

Will my custom mattress work with an adjustable bed?

That depends on what’s inside it. Nowadays, most common mattress types do work with adjustable beds. Latex, memory foam, and hybrid mattresses are all flexible enough to bend with the adjustable bed and should be compatible with it.

However, if you build yourself a custom innerspring mattress, it will not work with an adjustable bed. Open coil mattresses are stiff and rigid. They cannot bend out of a straight line and thus cannot work with an adjustable base.

Also, be careful when looking at mattresses that use vulcanized air chambers to adjust their firmness levels at the touch of a button. Some of these may be compatible with adjustable beds, but some of them may not. You’ll need to confirm with the manufacturer on a case-by-case basis.

How much should I pay for a customizable mattress?

Customizable mattresses don’t have to cost an arm and a leg. If you build a custom mattress using affordable materials like memory foam and stick with the standard size run, you should be able to do it for a few hundred dollars.

However, if you want expensive materials like latex, a non-standard size, or a custom shape, be prepared to pay more. There’s really no ceiling on how much you can spend when you build a custom mattress, especially from scratch. It all depends on your budget and expectations.

Bottom Line

Custom mattresses can be the perfect solution if you’re a picky sleeper. They allow you to make a lot more choices when it comes to cover and internal materials, and they give you tons of wiggle room on firmness. What’s not to love?