the great mattress hunt

The Great Singapore Sale is a great chance to stock up on all sorts of wedding-related items, from jewellery to furniture and appliances or clothing.

We went to Takashimaya to look for little knick knacks and find a cheap bottle opener for our new house so that I can start using it now. Along the way, we stumbled into the world of luxury mattresses and got kind of, well, sucked in.

We are taking quite an economical approach to our first home, since we figure we might not stay there very long. So there's no point splurging on expensive leather sofa sets that might not match our next abode. But one thing we are absolutely agreed on is that sleep is important - and therefore the bed and mattress are probably the most important and exciting purchase we will make towards to our new house.

After spending an hour or more carefully testing all the mattresses in Takashimaya, we soon became highly skilled in discerning the attributes of each mattress. Pillow or latex tops, determine how quickly you sink into the mattress when you first apply weight. Continuous springs are more plush, but pocketed springs offer more support and prevent the tossing on turning on one side of the bed from affecting the other. Most importantly, some matteresses are divided into three or five different zones of stiffness, and this ensures that it wraps to your body contours when you sleep on your side. A good mattress will allow your shoulder to sink in, while supporting your abdomen and head, preventing a sore shoulder in the morning.

We finally came to the unanimous conclusion that Serta would be our choice. Serta mattresses offer us the best balance of comfort and support, and they come with a free sheep. It also comes with a pretty nice bed and foot bench, which saves a bunch of money.


There are places for trying mattresses, and places for buying mattresses. Good places for trying include Takashimaya, Courts (we were at Toa Payoh outlet) and The Furniture Mall @ Parkway Parade. Mattresses we tried include Simmons, Sealy, King Koil, Dunlopillow, Lady Americana, and many others. Big branded shops have lots of variety to try, and nice price tags to go with it.

The best places for buying mattresses are the smaller neighbourhood shops. Two good ones that we visited are Ackerman & Smith @ Toa Payoh Hub and Hommage @ Serangoon Central. Ackerman still has some semblence of a showroom and a pretty good range of Serta to try. Hommage only has a catalogue from which they will order the mattress for you ... but they have the lowest prices of all.

So for anyone else who decides on Serta ... check these out.

Ackerman & Smith Pte. Ltd.
Blk 190 Lor 6 Toa Payoh #03-510 Singapore 310190
Tel : 6255 5575

Hommage Furniture
Blk 263 Serangoon Central Dr #01-65 Singapore 550263
Tel : 6282 6264

17 Jun 07 Update:
We finally went back to Hommage this week to order out mattress, and to our great distress were told that Serta has cancelled his distributor license. "Kena complain too much," he said ruefully. Dammit, it just happened 2 days ago some more. So we went to Ackerman to buy instead.