I love days I just get to experiment with mattress fillings and to discover new ways to make your own organic, chemical free mattress.
Yesterday I was working with hemp fiber. The one thing I don’t like about hemp fiber is that when you pull it apart the fibers become airborne and well, it just feels dusty. Not something you would think to fill your mattress with.
We sell hulls infused with tree rubber (aka natural latex). This encapsulates the hulls so they never can get dusty. You can even machine wash them once they are coated. So I thought “hmm, could I do the same with hemp fiber?”.
Turns out the answer is yes! But the result was unexpected. It felt springy and bouncy, just like foam. The pods compressed into discs that gripped to one another but could still be pulled apart if needed.
I ended up making loose balls of fiber and rolling them around in natural latex. You can buy natural latex in small bottles as non toxic, Bish’s Tear Mender. Each pod used just one ounce of hemp. That is pretty economical!
I thought if I made a pile of these quick and easy “natural latex and hemp pods” I could simply fill a mattress cover and make my own Natural Latex mattress.
The beauty of individual latex and hemp pods is they can rotate and your mattress would never wear out in the main sleeping zone. It also would solve the problem with it being hard to move heavy latex mattresses.
Latex does have a distinctive smell that should dissapate over time and there are some people who are highly allergic.
I think this may make a great base layer for a hemp sand mattress that needs a forgiving base layer.
Please comment below if you have a material to add!
(remember it must be all-natural, nothing manmade or synthetic unless it is upcycled. Air and water are omitted as they need to be encased in a synthetic material for example)
Wool Batting
Buckwheat Hulls
Hemp Hulls (aka) hemp sand
Natural Latex
Spelt Hulls
Millet Hulls
Rice Hulls
Sphagnum Moss
Straw
Horsehair
Human Hair
Coconut Coir
Rubber Infused Seaweed
Cotton Batting
Kapok
Rope
Short Hemp Fiber
Long Hemp fiber
Sea Sponge
Luffa
Pine Straw (very flammable)
Feather (not lived plucked)
Upcycled plastic bags
Wood (yes, possible, we have been thinking about this one!)
Luckily in the United States mattresses and upholstered furniture laws pertain only to the manufacturer. This is how Martha Stewart and This Old House can legally create tutorials showing how to make our own rag rugs, upholstered benches, wall coverings, pillows, mattresses, and headboards while skipping the step of having the end product meet the standards of flammability. “Ideas, concepts, and how to’s” are not regulated unless they are sold in kit form containing the instructions plus the materials.
How did the laws pertaining to mattresses come about? An opportunity presented itself that the chemical companies could not ignore. That opportunity was a court case against Big Tabacco accusing that their products were a fire hazard. People were smoking in bed and on their sofas, falling asleep resulting in the lit cigarettes igniting the untreated foam fillings in upholstered furnishings. The Tabacco Industry’s defense was clever. They claimed it was not the cigarettes that were the problem but the highly flammable, petroleum-based foams inside our furnishing. The Chemical companies took notice of this case and saw an opportunity to exploit it to create a new, incredibly large market for their flame retardant products.
The Chemical Industry had the money and now an agenda. With this money, they were able to influence federal legislators to bring legislation to introduce new federal regulations for furniture and mattresses, disguised as fire safety. They even made up fake news and fake websites pretending to be citizens fighting for safer home furnishing. With this clever marketing spin, nobody could advocate against protecting children from fire while they slept. The Chemical Industry won. Flame retardants are still added to children’s pajamas unless they are 100% cotton and form-fitting.
Honestly, I agree with the chemical companies. Foam is a real problem. It is so incredibly flammable that is should be outlawed for use in mattresses altogether especially in children’s mattresses. What I don’t agree with is to keep the foam but douse it with cancer-causing flame retardants.
The cheapest chemicals that most manufacturers choose won’t adhere to the foam but simply lay on top of it. Foam is a great device for spreading flame retardant chemicals around our home. Every time you sit on foam the air is forced out of it. This propels the chemicals all over our homes landing on the floor where our pets lie and babies crawl. Babies consume most of these chemicals because they put everything in their mouths. If these flame retardants actually protected us from fires it would be one story but it is becoming common knowledge that the health risks from the chemicals completely outweigh the tiny margin of fire safety that chemicals offer.
At Open Your Eyes Bedding we recommend that you rid your home of flame retardants altogether. We recommend replacing the foam in mattresses with naturally flame-resistant materials such as buckwheat hulls. Are you ready to make your own mattresses? We are here to help.
Have you been searching online to see how to fix a dip in your mattress that rolls you into the middle every night?
Welcome to the solution! How to fix a sagging mattress with hemp hulls! AKA Hemp sand due to the fact that you mattress will feel like a soft sandy beach that you can control, that can never dip, sag, or wear out!
This is the answer to mattresses burdening landfills because (1) hemp hulls are 100% organic and biodegradable and (2) you will be upcycling your old mattress instead of throwing it out.
The only way to truly know what your mattress contains is to make it yourself.
This is a no-sew DIY mattress project! Rated: EASY / FOR EVERYONE
Softer, sweeter, warmer or cooler, depending on which type, millet hulls seem to make a perfect sleeping surface!
Last night I slept with both a millet hull pillow and a buckwheat hull pillow. In the middle of the night I switched from my new millet hull pillow to my old buckwheat hull pillow. I LOVE my buckwheat hull pillow but guess what I did to my surprise? Yep, I switched right back to the new millet hull pillow! I still believe my Twist buckwheat hull mattress is very important to me, and will stay a buckwheat hull base layer, but I am considering my new friends, millet hulls, for an even softer, top layer experience!
I will do more experimenting with this material and I will keep you posted.
Lets talk more about fillings! 100% wool is a popular industrial material and I was excited to find this sample batch of 100% natural wool scrap in my mail box last week.
Small parts are die cut from wool and used in many different industrial applications. Look here what is left over!
That is a lot of waste, don’t you think? I currently found a source willing to sell me their scraps (shown above). They told me that the scraps are collected in large bins under the die cut machines, never touching the floor, they are bundled and kept very clean wrapped in plastic.
I can buy this waste, as a wholesaler, by the 100 pound bale. It makes a great support layer but may be a bit bumpy as a topper layer. If anyone has an idea on how to shred this wool scrap up finer, it may make a great topper layer too. I will do more research on the shredding and I will share pricing per pod once I get my quote back on the shipping (should be a very low cost option). Good find I think.
I hope to have more filing ideas in the future but if you have any ideas, please share them in the comment area.
Coconut coir is a coarse, sturdy filler. This material would make a great base layer to add some spring. I am on the hunt for rubberized coconut coir as I would imagine that it would preserve the coir from drying out and breaking down too fast. Plain coconut coir might make a great temporary filing (by temporary I mean a year or two – best guess as I have not tested). For example this material would mix well with the horse hair 50/50 to reduce the cost per pod significantly.
The sample I received was quite dirty so I actually washed it by hand today. It washes out very easily and dries quickly (I just spread it out on my patio table). I do like how natural feeling it is; reminds me of a birds nest.
Lets talk about fillings Part 2: Please feel free to contact mehere at my Etsy shopif you have any questions or if you would like to order a sample fillings kit ($10 plus shipping).
Horse hair is a traditional upholstery filing. It is still used today in high end upholstery shops and in some luxury car seats. It was hard to find a US supplier (I have only one so far), but the1 pound box I ordered contained a generous amount. I have to say this will be a pricey option, but it would be like sleeping on a cloud. So far it seems the horse hair is very resilient, and would not loose it’s spring over time. One con is that the ends of each hair are sharp and they poke through the wool fabric. This may need a liner if you plan on using it in a topper pod.
My choice would be the layer under the buckwheat hull topper layer. I tested this combination and it was heavenly. I do not know if this would be enough support to be the entire mattress, I would probably consider another base layer for more spring.
The smell is pretty neutral and it appears very clean.
Make Your Own Mattress Forum 