How much would you spend for a good night’s sleep?
Some people might say $33,000. That’s the price of E.S. Kluft & Co.’s hand-tufted, king-size Palais Royale mattress and box spring, currently the most expensive American-made mattress set on the market. The company says it has sold about 100 since introducing it in 2008.
European shoppers will pay even more. At $69,500—roughly the price of a Porsche Cayenne S hybrid SUV—there’s the Vividus king-size mattress set from Hästens Sängar AB, of Sweden. Hästens says it takes 160 hours to assemble this mattress entirely by hand, which has a Swedish-pine frame with thick layers of horsehair, cotton, flax and wool inside. The company says since introducing the mattress in 2006, it has sold 250 of them world-wide.
Fidel Lecer, manager of a Mancini’s Sleepworld store in San Francisco, says the most expensive mattresses sell themselves. Just a few days ago, he recalls, a woman walked in looking to spend less than $1,000 on a mattress-box spring combination; she walked out with a set that cost her $8,000.
“There’s no one, in 95% of the cases,” Mr. Lecer says, “that comes in and says ‘Oh, I’m here to spend $15,000.’ “
