Interview with:
Naturalmat Organic Mattresses
The foundation to a good night’s sleep is a great mattress! We caught up with our friends at Naturalmat, the specialists who have been hand making children’s organic mattresses for over 20 years, to find out why their mattresses are so unique and why they make the perfect base to create a cosy organic sleep space for your little one...
Why should parents think about organic materials in their child's bedroom?
When you choose organic, you choose products that promote a better world. This means higher levels of animal welfare, lower levels of pesticides, no manufactured herbicides or artificial fertilisers and more environmentally sustainable management of the land and natural environment.
Organic Cotton has the following benefits for your baby:
Kinder to babies skin: Organic fibres are grown without using harmful pesticides and have no allergenic, carcinogenic or toxic chemicals, making them ideal for babies sensitive skin and those with allergies such as eczema or rashes.
Comfortable: Pure 100% cotton is soft to the touch keeping babies comfortable all through the night.
Breathable: Natural fibres are more breathable which makes them ideal for mattresses and bedding. When it is warm they help to disperse heat and when it is cool they trap it. This helps to avoid your baby overheating and waking up in the night.
Durable: These natural fabrics last well especially after machine washing.
Better for the environment: With no harmful manufacturing chemicals in organic textile production, it’s better for wildlife and workers. Social conditions are high in organic textile factories, and organic cotton production can help farmers find a way out of poverty. This helps to create a better world for your baby to grow up in.
How are Naturalmat mattresses made?
Naturalmat mattresses are made by hand by skilled craftsmen, at our headquarters in Devon, on the banks of the River Exe. They are made using natural, organic and sustainable materials which are sandwiched and carefully bound together to create a mattress that is unrivalled in comfort and quality, which will last a very long time, and which can be deconstructed and will biodegrade at the end of it’s use.
Each mattress is created by hand by highly skilled people who have been making mattresses for years. Starting with the cotton casing, long bolts of fabric are cut to size and sewn together. This fabric is then passed along to the next workstation, where it is filled with coconut coir and wool from local Devon sheep who have been raised and farmed organically, shorn in season when it is required for their health and comfort. We work directly with each farmer, to ensure that they get the best price and we get the best quality, and so we support the Devon farming that has been going on around us here for many generations.
Finally the mattress is wrapped in a protective film that feels like plastic, but is in fact made from potato starch and entirely biodegradable, and then sent to the customer.
Why do you use wool and coconut coir?
Our award winning Coco Mat’s central ingredient is coir, the husk of a coconut, which is a naturally supportive and breathable fibre. A breathable mattress is essential for babies as they cannot easily regulate their own body temperature. Organic lambswool surrounds the coir to provide softness and insulation. Ideal for babies with allergies or asthma, the naturally antimicrobial lambswool is bathed in essential oils of lavender, lemon and eucalyptus to remove dust mites.
Can you tell us a bit more about the wool?
Windout Farm, nestled between Exeter and Dartmoor and just a half-hour drive from our Topsham HQ, is where the father and son team David and Samuel Ursell family have spent the last decade organically rearing beautiful North Country Mules (that’s a breed of sheep, for the uninitiated) who very kindly provide wool that can be found in everything from our cot mattresses to our duvets.
Why do we only work with organic sheep farmers? Simple - because the strict standards required for Soil Association organic certification means better conditions for the animals, which in turn means better quality wool. Everybody wins!
What's the story of Naturalmat?
Founders Mark Tremlett and Peter Tindall both sail and hated the synthetic mattresses found on most yachts. So they started hand-making natural fibre products that wouldn’t sweat and would fit in a boat’s awkward spaces.
But after the birth of Mark’s first child, we had a light bulb moment. Why not devote the same clever thinking to baby mattresses? After all, little ones deserve a good night’s sleep too – not to mention the lovely, breathable qualities of an entirely natural product. And with that, Naturalmat was born.
Fast forward to today. Boy, have some things changed. We now produce a huge range of baby and adult mattresses, as well as bases and toppers, and sell to customers across Europe and the USA.
But other things have stayed the same. We still only use natural materials like organic lambswool from local sheep. And we still make all our products by hand in a factory surrounded by green fields and mooing cows.
Some days, when there’s a quiet moment, we like to think about all those babies and grown-ups out there who are, thanks to a Naturalmat product, sleeping in blissful comfort. Who knows? Maybe, once in a while, they dream about a field in the middle of Devon.
Naturalmat organic mattresses come in all sizes for baby and children, including made to measure and specifically to fit popular branded cribs and cots. They can be ordered online at https://www.naturalmat.co.uk/ or at any of Naturalmat’s three stores, including their dedicated baby boutique in Notting Hill, London. We think they make a great partner for Kabode’s organic bedding, and will create a comfy, healthy sleep space for your child as they grow.