Coir as a mattress filling

Coir is a fibre that has been around for thousands of years whether it is been used in matting, upholstery or textile making. We’ve been using it for years now in our Natural Fibre hand-made mattresses and thought it best to explain why this wonderful fibre should be more well known when choosing a new mattress!

What is Coir Fibre?

Coir fibre comes from coconuts and is a natural resource. The coconut fibre is collected from the coconut husk and due to the high amount of trees it’s a bountiful resource. Coconut palms grow on 10 million hectares of land throughout the tropics. Currently, only a small number of huge quantities of coconuts are collected for industrial use. The food industry is the main consumer focuses on the coconut meat and water for food products. Meaning quite often that the fibres are a bi-product. By using Coir you are helping reduce waste and CO2 emissions compared to man-made fibres.

How does Coir feel in a mattress?

Coir is super tough and robust fibre making it excellent to help firm up a mattresses upholstery layers or providing an excellent insulator on top of a spring unit.

Coconut fibre has a very high lignin content which is why it is so tough. However, is also very elastic making it a great alternative to horsehair in terms of offering a springy support layer. The fibre hardly deteriorates at all over time. To make the fibre resilient and to make it possible to create very open and ventilating structures, the fibres are spun like horsetail into ropes before they are then turned into the upholstery pads. We use Coir in our Artisan Latex Vegan mattress and our Artisan Bespoke 003.

Coir as a Vegan mattress alternative

As Coir is plant-based it makes it an excellent mattress material in Vegan mattresses such as our Artisan Latex Vegan model. In this model, it is used alongside Hemp as the spring insulator layer directly on top of Calico encased pocket springs. The issue with the majority of Vegan mattresses is retailers are passing off cheaper polyester models as Vegan-friendly as they are entirely man-made. However, our model shows that just because you are a Vegan you shouldn’t settle for cheaper upholstery. Coir is the a true 100% Natural Plant-based fibre meaning you too can select a natural fibre mattress without animal hair.