It is likely you will find this article if you are searching for information on building your own mattress, creating your own latex mattress or making a DIY do it yourself mattress. Welcome! 

We live in America, and that means we are pretty free to do most anything, as long as it hasn't been deemed illegal of course. There are many great laws in our country, put in place to keep us living free and safe. There are other laws that were foisted on us because someone or some entity with money and an agenda was able to influence a local or federal legislator to bring legislation to introduce new regulations. One of those laws is the federal fire retardant laws for furniture and mattresses. These regulations were brought forth from pressure from the Tobacco and Chemical companies, under the auspices of fire safety. If the chemical companies had their way, everything in your home would be coated with chemicals to prevent fire. And what a great argument, right? Who would dare advocate making things unsafe around fire?

However, coating everything in your home with chemicals which can lead to a myriad of health issues is the height of folly. Yet, here we are in 2012 and we are stupid enough to allow the government to give permission, no, to federally mandate, that companies subject us to harmful chemicals. 

One way around these laws is to build your own mattress. Now, as a mattress store we cannot tell you that you can take the components in our store and build your own latex natural mattress. However, we can tell you that people have used our components to build a mattress, and that the individual components may or may not be fire safe. Any company advertising on the web "mattress making kits" or "Build Your Own Mattress Kits" is just asking for trouble. Technically, they are providing a mattress that is not fire safe. 

Do you burn candles on your bed, smoke in bed, or keep fire in your bedroom? If you do, I would recommend one of our fine latex natural and organic mattresses with wool as the natural fire barrier, or one of our non-toxic Bed In A Box memory foam mattresses. Neither use toxic fire retardant chemicals to pass the regulations. But, if you are not keeping open flames around your bedroom, you can consider buying mattress components and construct your own mattress with whatever materials you darn well please. 

We offer kapok, millet hulls, buckwheat hulls, wool, cotton and other materials for consumers who want to construct their own sleep system. Some of these materials can catch fire if you light them on fire, so I would recommend not buying them if you plan on lighting your mattress on fire. Silly? You would be surprised.

So, if you are interested in making your own vegan mattress or latex organic natural mattress, at a price which is less than regular latex organic natural mattresses you find around the San Rafael San Francisco Berkeley San Jose areas, consider the best materials you can find.

If you are interested in making a vegan mattress, look for covers made without wool. Latex foam is a great material for making your own mattress, and kapok, millet hulls and buckwheat hulls make for a great cooling layer or comfort layer. Wool toppers work wonders at creating the soft feel of memory foam without the typical toxic material.