If your mattress is showing its age and giving you a less than comfortable night's sleep, then you may be thinking about getting a replacement. This usually doesn't mean that you need a whole new bed — replacing the old mattress with a new one often does the trick. Before you decide which mattress to choose, you need to know what size of bed you're dealing with. If you've had your bed for years and can't remember what kind it is or inherited it from the previous owners of your home, then you need to check this out before you pick a mattress.
Measure the Mattress
The easiest way to make sure that a new mattress fits your current bed is to measure your existing mattress. This should tell you what kind of bed you have and what kind of replacement mattress you need.
If you have a double bed but don't know if it has a regular double, a queen or a king size mattress, then measure the mattress length first. Typically, regular doubles have the smallest lengths of all double beds coming in at around 188cm. If your mattress is about that length, then you're likely to need a standard double mattress. If your mattress width is about 138cm, then you're definitely working with a regular double.
Queen and king size mattresses are both longer than regular doubles, however. These mattresses usually have an average length of around 204cm. The difference between these two mattresses is width. A queen tends to measure 153cm across; a king typically measures 183cm. Once you've matched up length and width measurements, you should know what size of mattress you need. However, in some cases, this may not be as straightforward as it seems.
What if Your Mattress Doesn't Measure Up?
While king and queen-sized mattresses are often the most popular choice for larger double beds nowadays, you may have a bed that is wider or even longer than the norm. For example, if your mattress width comes in at a whopping 204cm, then you may have a super king bed.
Plus, if your bed came with your home, and the people who bought the bed needed to upsize the bed for some reason, say because one of them was very tall or they simply wanted as wide a bed as possible, then you could be looking at a non-standard sized bed. Some oversized beds can add a few centimetres to both the length and width of the mattress you need to fit the bed. While a few centimetres may not seem a lot, remember that you need the mattress to fit the bed frame snugly, so you should be looking for as close a match as possible.
If you're dealing with standard sized bed, then you shouldn't have a problem finding a replacement mattress. Buying mattresses for oversized beds may be a little trickier as there aren't necessarily as many options out there for you. If you have problems finding a mattress to fit your bed, ask a bed specialist at your local furniture store for advice.
