i am very interested in a more natural substitute for the $600 "Simmon's" matress that my wife & ijust bought! this includes the bed frame as well. though i am a cabinet-maker i have found little info. regarding "olde" means of getting good sleep in past times. all help is welcome!! after this matress is finished & done for we would like to have a more practical home-spun option,...if it is not a step backwards that is.>>>brian hull & greatfull!

-- brian hull (masterjoiner@webtv.net), December 30, 2000

Answers

Our bed was made in 1836 in Roanoke, Virginia. It had been converted from a strap web and feather mattress system to a queen mattress and deck board system. Recently my wife discovered a hand made feather mattress at a store in Roanoke, named "Waccamaw", for 450.00. Than she showed me a blueprint for making the web system and how it attached to the bed from a "Foxfire" book that she checked out of the local library. I'm going to Roanoke today and I'll get you a manafacturer name for the feather mattress. Take Care !

-- Joel Rosen (Joel681@webtv.net), December 30, 2000.

We have a feather bed on top of our regular mattress, and it has two problems. It shifts on top of the mattress, so we regularly have to pull it back up, and the feathers shift within the mattress. Every so often we *attempt* to fluff it back up and re-position the feathers more evenly, but without much success. I wouldn't mind having a better quality one if the feathers would stay put, but get tired of the lumps and thin spots in this one. Unfortunately, my husband insists he needs it for a good nights sleep. I've been thinking of one of those "pillow-topper" mattresses, as our mattress is getting old and we are thinking it's time to replace it. Any recommendations?

-- Kathleen Sanderson (stonycft@worldpath.net), December 30, 2000.

Joel, the old timers used a straw tick maatresss under the feather one, esp. if you are thinking about a rope bed. It kept the feather matress from "gushing" between the ropes.

-- Leann Banta (thelionandlamb@hotmail.com), December 30, 2000.

Kathleen, I used to have a down mattress topper. It was very nice, but too soft for me after the break in period was over. I know I got a good deal on it, if I recall correctly it was right around $100 for a queen size and was not all shifty or lumpy at all. I think I bought it fromm Sportsman's Guide, of all places. They do have a web site if anyone's interested.

-- Doreen (animalwaitress@excite.com), December 31, 2000.

Kathleen, have you tried sewing across the feather bed at intervals? Some of the older mattresses were stitched so that there were actually 3 or 4 compartments with the feathers in them so they wouldn't shift and bunch so much.

Brian, I don't know where you live, but I would think that any of the better museums in your area would have an older bed from the 1800's. If you explained to them that you would like to look at it to see how it is built so you could build one, the people there might let you look at it up close. Many of the beds of the time were rope beds. They had a series of holes drilled into the frame and the rope was strung through them. When the ropes stretched, they had to be retightened with a special tool. My grandmother grew up sleeping on rope beds and straw or cornhusk filled ticks. She apparently didn't like them much. She said the ropes always separated and left the person hanging down between the ropes. It may not have been a very well made bed, though. They didn't have very much.

-- Green (ratdogs10@yahoo.com), December 31, 2000.

I do believe I have seen plans for just such a bed in books devoted to building Shaker furniture. I found these books in a bookstore at the Canterbury Shaker Village in Canterbury, NH. (I didn't purchase them at the time) I am sure you can find some titles through the on- line bookstores, or even Interlibrary loan.

-- Sandie Thompson (SThompson@greatpoint.net), January 05, 2001.