This is one of our favourite projects yet! Our customer was looking to outfit their aft cabin in a new, comfortable mattress. Because they sleep hull to hull, they wanted to reduce the number of pieces and make sure there was no divide in the mattress where their hips hit like there was on the original cushions.
Original cushions:
There was just one problem to overcome. The insert piece, which they don't remove, is surrounded by rails.
We had a couple of ideas that we didn't love and then we realized that we could channel the bottom of the mattress to accomodate the rails and, if we did it right, they would never even know those rails were there.
It took some ingenuity and a special knife, but we pulled it off!
The new mattress is in two pieces. The larger piece, on the left, is notched in the bottom to accommodate the insert rails. The smaller piece, on the right, is far enough down that they won't notice the separation between the cushions. Once they put their new mattress protector and sheets on, they won't even know it's there!
Here you can see the notch under the larger piece:
The client is upholstering the two side pieces to create seating space rather than incorporating those pieces into the mattress. This creates a sleeping space that is more functional and easier to make up with bedding, while adding an additional seating area at the two sides of the berth.
Our client was thrilled to receive their new mattress, and we were thrilled by how well it turned out.