The $50,000 Bed

Is it the cure for insomnia or just insane?

By Timothy R. Schulte
CTW Features

The bed stands alone: A room with a $50,000 bed doesn’t need any other adornments. Image courtesy Hästens

A $50,000 mattress? Check it out,” says the boss. Who am I to argue? I roll out of bed the next morning and head downtown to, well, go back to bed.

Inside the Hästens store, stretched out on the Swedish company’s signature Vividus bed – about a stable’s worth of horsehair and wool upholstered in bold, blue-and-white checked cotton – it hits me: This is what it must feel like to sleep on a cloud. Trying to savor the moment while staring up at the ceiling, it also hits me: I will never own this bed.

I’m not just lying on some run-of-the-mill bed, the company’s exuberant representative informs me. The $50K Vividus, which made its Chicago debut in February and will be in six of Hästens’ U.S. stores by September, takes 160 hours of pure handcraftsmanship to make. And with only four - count ’em, four - of Hästens’ craftsmen on the Vividus assembly line, that’s 20 hours of vigilant detail per hand, per bed.

Another selling point, I’m told: the Vividus is green. Instead of the latex foam often found lurking in other mattresses, only all-natural horsehair, cotton, linen, wool and flax fill this bed. These, of course, are the same materials that fill Hästens’ other high-end beds, but because this model’s got more, it costs more.

Those springs that so gently cradle my body are a patented, barrel-shaped design exclusive to Hästens. There’s no squeaking, either, because they are enveloped with flax.

Flax, horsehair and wool make this bed sound a bit bucolic, but the mattress has a royal pedigree. Hästens has been the bed supplier to Swedish sovereign King Carl XVI Gustaf since 1952. The company’s goal for the Vividus, in the words of CEO Jan Ryde, was “to create the ultimate bed … with absolutely no compromises.”

My mattress guide doesn’t tell me how many of these beds Hästens has sold so far, but she fills me in on Hästens’ high-profile clientele. David, Donna and Donatella (as in Geffen, Karan and Versace) are Hästens enthusiasts. Designer Jonathan Adler just purchased five Hästens beds. The company expects its distinctively patterned $50K bed will find its way into many more homes of people with deep pockets, a longing for a superb night’s sleep and a yen for the best.

Me? I head back to work thinking about what else $50,000 could buy. One-half of a Porsche Cayenne Turbo, which would make this drive a lot better, or half the cost of my journalism degree from Creighton University, my license to operate. Or 200,000 cans of Diet Mountain Dew, which I’ll need a few of to get through the afternoon. Perhaps 50,000 small Frostys… or small fries … or Jr. Bacon Cheeseburgers … well, 50,000 of anything on Wendy’s Super Value Menu. It’s almost noon; I must be hungry.

“I’ll file my story after lunch,” I tell the boss. “And, hey, about that raise … ”

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