I’ve always had a bed with a boxspring, but I’m thinking of lofting my bed to get more floor/storage space. What will I miss out on if I ditch the boxspring? What does it contribute to my comfort?
It supports the matteress, mainly. If you put the mattress directly on slats, the way the boxspring is, it will eventually sag between them–the mattress needs to be completely supported. You could rest it on a plywood base; in that case I imagine the only real difference will be a loss of bounciness. I’ve slept on mattresses which were on the floor and it’s not uncomfortable, IMO, but it is a noticeably different experience. As always with this sort of thing, YMMV.
Once, when it was raining in my bedroom, I had to sleep on the floor out in the living room. I piled 5 or 6 blankets down to provide softness but without the boxspring there was no global bounce. I suppose it’s something you could get used to but it could be a little harder on your joints at first.
It’s less bouncy, sure, but if you make or buy the loft with a Euro slat design, you won’t miss it. Most premade lofts already have this in place, to minimize the thickness and maximize your head room, such as it is.
This is very similar to the loft bed my son used for years (great design, I highly recommend it. We got ours at Ikea), and it had a grate which supported the mattress so no box spring is used. Same idea as Euro slats.
IMHO, box springs have their uses but none of them relate directly to sleeping. Without a box spring (e.g., on a good quality foam mattress over slats) you save on space and money, and when one person moves the other doesn’t get bounced around and awakened.
We replaced our waterbed mattress with a California King mattress. There’s no need for a box spring, since the mattress fits within the frame of the waterbed.
I guess it depends on the type of support you want for your mattress.
Where can you buy a mattress without a box spring? I’ve tried looking in the past – I hate box spring – but everyone sells “complete sets” only, and the wasteful box spring is money worth saving. Yeah, some warranties say they’re void if you don’t use a box spring, but how many mattresses fail? They’re not complex machinery.
In one of my college apartments, I lofted my bed >10 feet off the ground (we had huge vaulted ceilings) and I kept the boxspring. It was a twin size bed, and we attached the frame for the loft directly to the boxspring.
Is there an Original Mattress Factory near you? My platform bed doesn’t need a box spring, and OMF was the only place I could get just the mattress. And it’s the best one I’ve ever slept on.
Boxsprings must be an USA thing. Over here, in the Netherlands (and in my hotel experience, in France, Germany and England as well) matresses are quite common. They go usually over a sturdy springy lattice work like this one. Or simply over wooden planks or plywood.
No-one is cOmplaining, AFAIK.
Here in Colombia, most beds including mine use only the mattress. Under the mattress are a series of 20-25 slats that support the mattress. They work just fine and I am satisfied with them. They are, however, starting to sell box springs which I think is just to get more money.
You want to be looking for a ‘platform bed.’ I had a platform bed for years and never noticed a difference between having a box and not having one. Of course I’m only 140# so I’m not really abusing the matress here.
Ikea , of course! Their mattresses aren’t half bad, and since they sell European style furniture with Euro slats (they call them slatted bed bases), they sell lots of mattresses alone.
We’ve had ours for 8 years now, and it still sleeps like new. It was their next-to-cheapest model at the time.
I’ll chime in and say that most of the mattress retailers WILL sell you just a mattress. Call around. I went into several stores looking only for a mattress and the prices are very much negotiable. Walked into Sleep Train saying “X Store right across the parking lot says they’ll sell me X mattress for $500 out the door. Can you beat that?”
They did. Honestly, if you don’t negotiate the price on a mattress you might as well light a match to your hundred dollar bills. They have lots and lots of room to come down in price.
I suppose you could raise both the mattress and box spring, but you’d better have a sturdy step ladder on hand. I’m actually thinking of buying a bed with drawer space under it. My bedroom isn’t much bigger than a prison cell.