Warren Evans Organic Natra Mattress Full Review
Posted: 16 April 2008 by Rikke Bruntse-Dahl
"Our bedrooms can be one of the most toxic places in our homes with the average conventional mattress containing more toxic chemicals that a 50-gallon oil drum." So we're told by Walter Bader, author of Toxic Bedrooms: Your Guide to a Safe Night's Sleep. Sounds sceptical, but researchers at the Environmental Working Group discovered fire retardant chemicals (from mattresses) in breast milk, which can harm babies.
We didn't detect a single chemical smell on our first night sleeping on the Natra Organic mattress. Instead there was a whiff of sheep's wool, which is not normally a pleasant scent if you ask us. But in this case, it reminded us that we'd be breathing in organic dust-mites that night instead of all sorts of chemicals -- and that made us sleep well.
The mattress can hardly be more organic than it is, being certified by the Soil Association. It's made from 100 per cent organic Welsh sheep's wool, 100 per cent organic unbleached cotton from India and 600 individual metal springs made from UK-sourced steel that hasn't been treated with any chemicals, either.
What's more, the mattress is handmade in Carmarthen in South Wales. In addition to supporting the one and only organic mattress-making business in the UK, we can also rest assured that no kids -- or adults -- have worked in a toxic environment putting this thing together.
In the ten weeks we've been sleeping on the Natra Organic mattress, we've slept better than ever. It's not too firm and not too soft and the wool gives it that old-fashioned, non-springy feel -- and if you share the bed with somebody else, you don't roll anywhere when the other person moves, which caused many sleepless nights previously. We also used to sweat quite a lot when sleeping, but the breathable materials have solved that problem. Warren Evans advises to turn the mattress regularly, which we found tiresome in the beginning. We soon got used to it, though, and it eliminates the fear that there'll be two dents roughly in the middle come next year.
We admit that £845 feels like a lot of money to fork out for a mattress. But it's worth saving up for and with a ten-year guarantee, you can't go completely wrong. That's about 2p per night, which we think is a bargain for a good, chemical-free night's sleep.
The manufacturer of this mattress, Warren Evans, is a British company with a very impressive track-record, both in terms of green and ethical issues. (We tested the mattress on a Warren Evans FSC-certified pine bed, which we will be reviewing soon.) All its beds are handmade in the company's London workshop and all of them are made from FSC-certified pine. The building is heated by a biomass boiler, which is fed wood chips and sawdust from the workshop. We certainly like this efficient way of dealing with waste.
So is there anything that would make the Natra Organic mattress more desirable? Well, the cotton could be certified Fairtrade, too, and a price reduction would make it more easily available. Except for that, we think it's as good as it get. We hope we're just as happy with it in ten years' time.
Quality
Value
Ethics
Green
