Our Mattress Project

May 30, 2020 (Saturday) 

On Thursday, May 28th, we started working on the project of our new v-berth mattress.  This project had started quite a while ago when we first started researching the best “bed in a box” 6-inch foam mattress.  About five years ago we cut new foam for our v-berth and we increased the foam size by two inches (from four to six inches).  We kept the original shape of each piece of foam, but modified the covers to accommodate an extra two inches in thickness.  Over the years we learned which parts of our mattress construction took away from the comfort level, and we began to think about how it could be done differently.  The quality of the foam that we used last time was not that good, and it had been gradually flattening.  In combination with doing research for a good mattress we also redesigned the way that we wanted our cushions to be cut.  We decided that instead of having the cushion cut in two pieces lengthwise down the middle of the bed, that we would instead cut it horizontally in one place, roughly between our hips and shoulders.  We figure that this would still keep the pieces of foam to a manageable size within the boat, and it would also get rid of having the separation down the middle. 

After figuring out what we wanted in a mattress, the hardest part became finding a place that we could order one from.  Delivery to Ocean Falls from most suppliers is marked up to the extreme, and we were looking at delivery costs of one to two hundred dollars.  Luckily we figured all of this out before Ken, our boss, went out to Vancouver Island and he gave us the mailing address of someone in Campbell River who we could have it shipped to for free from Amazon.  Ken then picked it up for us, and it worked out great!

We pushed four tables together in The Shack, gave them a good scrub with hot soapy water, and opened up our box. 

Out came an amazingly tightly vacuum packed mattress, and as soon as we laid it out it started to expand.  It then needed time to fully expand and breathe so we left it be. 

Back on board we started to take measurements and mapped out the dimensions of our mattress.  Because the new mattress is six inches thick, and because the walls of the v-berth not only angle inward the further forward you go, but also angle outward the higher up you go, we had to take very detailed measurements both at base level for the bottom of the mattress and also up six inches; the difference being about 5.75 inches.  We were then ready to start transferring the many measurements onto the foam.  

On Friday, May 29^th, we worked at transferring all of our measurements onto the foam.  We had sixteen measurements for the bottom width and sixteen measurements for the top width, as well as length measurements that had to be carefully mapped out onto the foam.  We worked carefully and methodically checking each measurement off of an arbitrary straight centre line (keep in mind that nothing on a boat is truly square).  We worked only on the measurements for the largest main piece of foam because we wanted to get it cut and into place before taking the final measurements for the remaining two pieces.  

Once we got all of our lines marked and we were ready to cut we let it be.  We wanted to give the mattress one more day to be sure that it was fully expanded before we started cutting.  

On Saturday, May 30th, we started the daunting task of cutting our foam.  Many people talk about using a bread knife to cut foam, but we found that our 9” fillet knife worked the best, and in fact it worked perfectly.  Because our foam was 6” thick and also had to have an angle on each side we had given it a lot of thought to figure out the best way to cut the foam and still maintain a perfect angle.  

The idea that we came up with ended up working great. We cut the largest, top, measurement first at a straight up and down 90-degree angle.  We then put the top side of the mattress down onto the table and lined this line up to the very edge of the table.  With our smaller, bottom side measurement line drawn on the bottom of the mattress we put a straight edge along this line.  We were then able to touch the knife to the outer table edge and the inner straightedge edge and cut with the knife held at a perfect angle for the whole length.  It worked quite well. 

When we got the first and largest piece of foam all cut out we took it down to the boat and set it in place.  It fit perfectly! 

Then it was on to the last two and smaller pieces.  With the main piece of foam sitting snugly in place we were able to take exact angle and length measurements to draw out the dimensions of the last two pieces.  Because the left over pieces of foam that we had were not quite big enough for either of the last pieces we had to put two pieces of foam together for each one.  We knew we would have to do this, and that it would not be an issue because it would only be in the furthest corners of the mattress. 

These pieces came together well, and we cut the appropriate angles and brought them down to fit.  Snug as could be.  Yay!

Our mattress cutting was finally complete and we would now be able to sleep on it.  The only part still remaining to do, and it’s not a small piece, is to modify our cushion covers to fit the new layout.  I would also like to try converting one of our sheets to be a fitted sheet.  We use a large top sheet as our bottom sheet and tuck in all of the extra, of which there is a little at the back end, but a lot at the narrow front end.  So, it would be nice to make it into a fitted sheet.  

As I write this I can’t wait to get into bed!