Getting a custom mattress for your campervan
After travelling and living in our van full time for over 4 years, our original foam mattress had well and truly had its day. Permanent dips, uncomfortable spots, and the kind of wear that only comes from a mattress that doubles as your sofa, your office, and your bed every single day. Unlike a mattress in a bricks and mortar home where you mainly lie flat to sleep, a van mattress takes a hammering from every angle. We decided it was time to invest in something properly made to fit our space.
What are your options
When we started looking into replacing our mattress, we found there are broadly three routes most vanlifers end up considering.
The first is buying something off the shelf. Standard mattresses come in fixed sizes and shapes which rarely match the layout of a van conversion. You can make it work with some creative cutting or by accepting gaps around the edges, but those gaps are more than just cosmetic. Things fall down the sides, you lose usable sleeping area, and it never quite feels like a proper fit. For a weekend van this might be fine, but for full time living it became a compromise we didn't want to keep making.
The second option is buying foam and cutting it yourself. This is the cheapest route and we've seen plenty of people go down this path. The challenge is getting clean, accurate cuts on thick foam, especially around corners and cutouts. The foam quality can also vary hugely depending on where you source it, and you're generally limited to basic foam. You won't find pocket sprung or layered memory foam options that you can cut at home. You'll also need to cover it yourself, which unless you're handy with a sewing machine and know your way around fabric types, is easier said than done.
The third route, and the one we went with, is having a mattress custom made to your exact measurements and shape. We were actually quite surprised with the costs, and that there were companies doing custom for less than some off the shelf products. You get the precise shape for your layout, proper materials, and a choice of firmness and depth. For something we use every single day and that directly affects how well we sleep, we felt the investment was worth it.
Why we went custom with Mattress Made
We came across Mattress Made whilst researching custom mattress options for campervans and motorhomes. They're a UK based company that hand build mattresses in any shape you need. You can find them on Facebook and Instagram. What stood out to us was the simplicity of their process and the range of options they offer. Their mattresses range from foam only through to 3000 pocket sprung versions, with prices starting around £240. Depending on which version you go for, depths range from 5 to 10 inches. They also offer CoolGel options with a temperature regulating gel layer, which caught our attention given how much temperatures can fluctuate in a van, especially during warmer months in southern Europe.
Prices as of March 2026 include free delivery to England, Wales, and the south of Scotland. The ordering process is straightforward: you send them a drawn diagram with your measurements and they manufacture the mattress to your exact specifications. It doesn't need to be a professional drawing, just clear enough for them to work from with all the dimensions marked. We built the tool below so you can skip the scrap of paper and put together a proper diagram with your exact measurements, then download it as an image to send over.
What we went for
We'd originally planned to go for the hybrid pocket sprung mattress, but the depth of those options didn't work with our bed frame and window placements. The clearance just wasn't there. So instead we went for the CoolGel memory foam in the firmest option they do, and bumped the depth up by an inch from our old mattress to 7 inches. That came in at £280.
We dealt with Ben who was super helpful and very responsive throughout. Once we'd confirmed the style and dimensions he sent over an invoice for us to pay, and we received our custom mattress about a week later which was much faster than we initially expected.
First impressions are good. As with any new mattress your body needs time to adjust, so we'll update this post down the line once we've had a few months of sleeping on it full time.
Design your mattress shape
To help you get started, we built a tool that lets you mock up your mattress shape and dimensions. Adjust the overall size, toggle corner cutouts on or off, and enter your measurements. Once you're happy with the shape, download it as an image to send to Mattress Made or any custom mattress company.
Discount code
If you decide to go with Mattress Made, mention the code MATTRESSMADE20205 when ordering and you'll get 5% off. They don't have a website so you'll need to get in touch directly via Facebook or Instagram.
