No way in hell I would buy a bed online. The prices at most mattress/bed places are completely negotiable. They love people who buy their $300 mattress at $600. Man up, go in prepared and destroy the salesman when he pitches you crap. This is something you will use for the next decade... so don't scrimp, hold your ground and let them know you know plenty of other places to buy beds. They would rather make $100 off you than nothing.

Looking to get a new bedset for ~$1000. Suggestions?
 

Looking to get a queen-size bedset. I'd need everything: Mattress, box spring, frame. Looking to spend around $1000 and preferably no more than $1300 total. Any suggestions?

I was looking at tempur-pedic mattresses but their prices are pretty outrageous.

I have a tempur-pedic, it's wonderful but I agree that they are over priced. Sealy Pillow Top matresses are quite comfortable and should be right around your price range.

Try increasing your budget, beds, and especially mattresses, are freaking expensive!
You could put a couple of blankets on the floor as a mattress ans sleep on them - may be a bit firm for you, but some of my best sleeps were like that, as a poor student!
Otherwise, perhaps get a good mattress first and look for the rest later?

He does have a point. Two things you should probably never skimp on are your mattress and toilet paper. My Tempur-Pedic was one of the best investments I ever made.

I'm not sure I agree. I have had a £100 mattress and a £1000 mattress in my time and there definitely wasn't £900 worth of difference.

$1300 is about £800. You should easily be able to find a bed and mattress for that which will give you a very good nights sleep.

I use an Aireloom Hybrid Bamboo and I have never slept better in my life. Throughout college I had a cheap matress and it got the job done but it didn't even begin to compare to the quality of sleep I get on my current mattress. The mattress is highly supportive even if you don't like them firm. Almost feels like you are floating on top of it because it offers such good body support with no sag.

They are over $1,000 but I was able to talk down the salesman in the mattress store to a price closer to your budget.

My wife and I went looking for mattresses and had our minds set on a $400 queen. We ended up walking out with a $1300 Serta pillow top. I always had trouble sleeping, would take me about an hour to fall asleep. Since that mattress I'm usually out in about 3 minutes. I'd love to get a tempur-pedic, hoping within the next 5 or so years to buy one.

Just go to a showroom and try them out. You will immediately see the difference between a cheap mattress and a good mattress.

Well, I found a really helpful site, with 15,000 real user reviews and ratings, and there's apparently a ton of off-brand memory foam mattresses that have just as high or higher approval ratings then the tempur-pedic brand. I then went to overstock.com and found a really nice Comfort Dreams queen-size memory foam mattress for ~$520. I matched that with a nice, minimalist, low to the ground platform bed for ~$250, a pair of memory foam pillows for ~$60 a piece and a comforter set for ~$90 all for a little under $1000. I think I'm going to be quite satisfied.


I haven't made the purchase yet, as I went to read into it a bit more and maybe hear some other opinions here, but this is what I'm looking at:

Mattress:
http://www.overstock.com/Home-Garden...4/product.html


Bed:
http://www.overstock.com/Home-Garden...6/product.html


Pillows:
http://www.overstock.com/Home-Garden...1/product.html


Comforter Set:
http://www.overstock.com/Home-Garden...9/product.html


What do you think?

Is there any place near you that you can try that bed out? I'd really hate to buy something like a mattress without seeing it first hand, even if it had positive reviews. Everyone's preference for beds seem to vary wildly. One person may think their mattress is the most comfortable, while another person may think it's an absolute POS.

Looks great to me. If you like reading in bed though I'd suggest a frame with a backboard. You can rest pillows on the wall but it ends up messing up your wall after a few months.

Apparently overstock now ship to the UK. Who / what are they?

Agreed, it is very important to go into the store and try it out for yourself.

One of our clients is a mattress manufacturer and retailer. Here are a couple things I've learned from this particular manufacturer:

1) The only real differences between their super cheap models and the expensive ones are the number of spring coils in the bed and the amount of bedding material (layers) on top of it. Otherwise, they're not much different quality-wise. If you can find a cheaper brand with a similar coil count and layer materials (and it feels okay when you test it out), then you'll probably be fine and will save some cash. Also, the big brand name mattresses usually aren't built any better or with better components than the cheaper off--brand ones.

2) Avoid beds with any sort of "edge support." The salesmen will try to pitch it to you as a feature (they might have you sit on the edge and show you how it won't collapse under your weight), but it's actually a way for manufacturers to save money. They place a cheaper foam edge around the inside of the bed, and that allows them to remove coils (coils are more expensive than foam). The foam actually reduces your sleep area significantly, but they don't want you to know that.

3) Memory foam is another good bullet point for the salesman to use, but a surprising number of people end up not liking the way it feels after they bring their bed home. It's uncomfortable for a lot of people to sleep on (some say they feel like they're sinking into quicksand), so don't buy a Tempur-Pedic just because their advertising sounds really convincing—be sure it feels okay to you.

Everyone here brought up some very good points. I know it may seem tempting to save some money and buy online, but as others have said mattresses vary wildly in stiffness and comfort, so it should be a very personalized experience. I'd rather save up a few extra months and get the bed that really suits my needs rather than order online and have the possibility of not liking the product (not to mention an expensive return).