What’s the Point of Decorative Patterns on Mattresses?

When you get home, you cover those fancy patterns up with a sheet. But those graphics are there to catch your eye in the showroom, not at home. The mattress business is extremely competitive and very confusing for the average consumer.

Ever notice, for example, how many stores exhort you to find a better deal on a certain mattress, and they’ll beat it?  Mattress manufacturers make a very limited, basic number of different mattress styles, then dress them up in hundreds of different decorative covers (called “ticking” in the industry) and names (“Do-Not-Disturb Royale,” “Granite Plush Nighty-Night”, etc). That way, companies can sell more mattresses to a larger number of merchants in a small geographic area, while allowing each merchant to have an “exclusive” line.  This also eliminates pricing wars—one store’s Magni-Rest may be the same as another’s Comfort-Snooz, but you can’t prove it and force their hand to price match.

The experts agree that the best way to decide on which mattress is best for you is to disregard the fancy ticking (do you really require Belgian Damask with a rose petal design?) and simply lie down and stretch out on it in the showroom. You’re going to spend approximately one-third of your life on this contraption, so you want it to be as comfortable as possible.