For caravan and motorhome owners
Why does a serious van come with a throwaway mattress?
You sorted the diesel heater, the solar panel and the tow setup, and you still spend every night of the trip on the foam slab the manufacturer threw in. It fits the floor plan and nothing else. A proper mattress cut to your exact size, corner cuts and island bed included, is easier to get than most van owners think, and this page shows you how.
You know this routine
The trip was great and your back disagreed
You wake up on day two of the trip and your hip has gone numb on one side, the way it always does on that bed. You roll over carefully, the way you have learned to, because rolling over fast on that mattress means waking up properly. By the third morning you have started calling it the holiday recovery week, the seven days after you get home spent undoing what the trip did to your back.
You have probably told yourself it is just how van beds are. The island bed in the back is a strange shape, the corners are clipped for the walkway, and standard mattresses do not come in strange shapes, so you assumed comfort was the trade off for having a van at all. You paid real money for the heater, the solar, the tow package, every part of the setup that makes the trip easier. Then you lie down on the one part nobody thought to upgrade.
The odd shape was never the barrier, though. A mattress built to your exact measurements, island bed corners and all, is not a workaround or a compromise. It is the ordinary way a family that has built mattresses for sixty years does the job when the shape is not a standard rectangle. Made to measure is not a gimmick invented for caravans. It came first, and the standard rectangle came later.
How caravan mattresses actually work
Made to measure is a solved problem
Three things worth understanding before you write off custom as too hard or too expensive. None of it is complicated once someone explains it plainly.
01
Why the factory bed was never going to be comfortable
When a caravan or motorhome is built, the mattress is fitted to match the floor plan, not to match your body. The builder's job is to get a bed shaped piece of foam into the space before the walls go on, and comfort simply is not the line item they are being judged on. That is why the bed that came with the van feels like an afterthought. It was one.
The floor plan gets engineered. The mattress usually does not.
02
What made to measure actually means
A made to measure mattress starts with your van's real measurements, not a catalogue size. Island beds with walk around space on three sides, corner cuts for a wardrobe or a step, radius corners, bunks, all of it gets built to the shape you actually have. Then you choose your comfort level the same way you would for a mattress at home, because the shape changing does not mean the comfort has to be a guess.
Same process, different outline. Your comfort choice stays yours either way.
03
How the process actually works
You do not need to be a tradesperson to get the measurements right. Our team guides you through measuring the space, or talks it through with the existing mattress as a template. From there it is built to order here in Australia, and it comes to your door from as fast as two weeks, with free delivery to metro areas. No showroom visit, no guessing at a standard size that was never going to fit.
Three steps between the tape measure and sleeping properly on the next trip.
Try it yourself
Four shapes cut to your measurements
These are the bed layouts vans and motorhomes actually come in. Press each one and see the outline change, because every one of them starts the same way, with your measurements.
Walk around space on three sides built to the exact corners of your island bed.
An illustration of the shape rather than a scale drawing. Whatever the outline of your bed actually is, including angles no catalogue size has a name for, it gets measured and built to match.
The buying checklist
What a van mattress needs to actually work
Strip away the brochure language and a proper caravan mattress has three jobs. Take this list to any maker, custom or otherwise, and measure them against it.
Measured twice before anything is cut
Every odd corner, every walkway clearance and every step in an island bed needs to be measured properly before anything is cut. Our team checks your measurements with you before the build starts, so the bed that arrives actually matches the space you have, not the space a standard size assumes you have.
A comfort level you actually chose
Custom shape should never mean a fixed comfort level you did not ask for. The same choice you would make buying a mattress at home, firmer or softer, still applies when the shape is an island bed or a corner cut, because the two decisions are separate.
A bed that matches home
If the van bed is a completely different feel to the bed you sleep in every other night, your body spends the first two nights of every trip adjusting. A mattress built around your usual comfort means the trip stops costing you your back before it has even properly started.
That checklist is not hypothetical. Made to measure has been the family trade for sixty years, custom vans included.
Sixty years in the trade
Made to order is the original trade
Mattress Crafters is an Australian family business, and three generations have built mattresses here for over sixty years. Long before anyone was measuring up caravans, this family was building beds to whatever shape and comfort a customer actually needed, because that is simply how mattresses used to be made. Here is what that experience means for a van build.
FEATURE 01
Your exact size and shape
Island beds, corner cuts, radius corners and bunks are all built to your measurements, not squeezed into the nearest catalogue size. If your van's bed is an odd shape, the mattress is built around that shape, not the other way round.
Answers the strange shape you thought was unavoidable
FEATURE 02
Your choice of comfort level
A custom shape does not mean a fixed feel. You choose your comfort level the same way you would buying a mattress for home, so the van bed can match the way you actually sleep.
Answers the sore hip at the campsite
FEATURE 03
Australian made to order
Every custom mattress is built to order rather than pulled off a shelf, using the same standards the family has built house mattresses to for sixty years.
Answers the worry that custom means corners cut on quality
FEATURE 04
Delivered from as fast as two weeks
Custom does not mean a long wait. Builds are delivered from as fast as two weeks, with free delivery to metro areas, so you can plan the next trip around it.
Answers the fear that custom means months of waiting
Being upfront with you
Why this page ends with a conversation
Every custom mattress is quoted person to person, because no two vans are exactly the same and the price depends on the size, the shape and the comfort level you choose. That is why you will not find an Add to Cart button on this page, and why we have not put a review rail here either. A star rating cannot tell you anything about how well a particular island bed shape was matched to a particular van, and we would rather be straight about that than dress up a generic quote as something it is not.
What we can offer instead is a real conversation with the team who builds these. Send through your measurements or a rough sketch, and you will get a straight answer on shape, comfort and price before you commit to anything.
Custom is quoted not listed
How getting a quote actually works
There is no fixed price list for a custom shape, because the price depends on the size and the comfort level, not a single dollar figure that fits every van. Here is the whole process in three steps.
Ready when you are
Get your exact size quoted
Send through your measurements, get a straight price back, and sleep properly on the next trip instead of counting down the days until you get home.
While you are here
The bed at home could use a look too
The van is sorted, but if the mattress you sleep on every other night of the year is doing the same throwaway job, seven quick questions about how you sleep will match you to the right one from the Mattress Crafters range.
Here for the van bed? Get a quote instead