Our Bailey caravan bed gets a new lease of life

We have particularly noticed, over the past few months or so, that the

My waste-not-want-not cushion 

mattress on our fixed double bed was starting to show definite signs of wear. I suppose it isn't surprising considering that we have slept on it every night for over eighteen months in total - far more wear than many caravan beds would ever have! However, given the cost of a replacement and the length of time I would expect a household mattress to last, I was disappointed that it hasn't remained in good condition for much longer. Essentially the fixed bed is a standard sized double that has just had one corner chopped off. Otherwise there is nothing special about it that I can see, yet Bailey want to charge £361 plus shipping for a new mattress. Eeek! As you can probably guess, we didn't want to pay that much for something that doesn't last!

When we stayed at Carrie's flat in London recently, she had a very comfortable mattress topper on her bed and we remembered that our Ikea one at home had been great too. We didn't have an Ikea near to our Avignon campsite, but did have a Conforama which is where we bought our first Claitron electric hob (the good, powerful one we really liked!). One quick trip to Conforama later and we are the proud owners of a Bultex memory foam mattress topper. We had to buy a slightly larger size than our bed which meant my removing the foam pad from its posh padded cover to trim ten centimetres off both the top and one side. I didn't throw out those ten centimetre trimmings either. (In a burst of waste-not-want-not creativity I coiled them together and crocheted a pretty cushion cover!) For the time being we haven't removed the triangle for the cutaway and fold that under the mattress. The extra weight does pull the topper a little away from the wall towards the floor during the night and I have rectified this with a few tape ties and Dave's bed-remaking every two or three nights. However, even with all the extra faff, the topper is well worth the effort and its £121 cost and has given our bed a whole new lease of life. We can't feel those uncomfortable metal springs at all any more!

After a week, I think the only real downside is that the memory foam does hold heat incredibly well so I am aware that I am sleeping much hotter than usual. The weather is beautifully warm here in Massane though so I am not sure how much is caused by the topper and how much is balmy French nights!