For over a year, me and my husband had been in mattress hell. Our existing 10 year old mattress was a disaster (apparently you're only meant to have the same mattress for 8 years max anyway?) The springs were pushing out everywhere (no doubt not helped by a toddler who loved jumping on it multiple times a day). Obviously, it wasn't a dream to sleep on. You can see for yourself without even needing to lay down on it that the mattress had seen better days.....

THE 'BEFORE' MATTRESS - HOW BAD WAS THIS!!???!

Obviously we had tried to rectify this situation. Deciding we had slept on the old mattress for too long, last year we decided to part with a vast amount of cash for a premier-make mattress. We waited in for the delivery, and the giant mattress was dragged upstairs by two burly delivery guys who managed to mark all the walls in the process. We cut open the packaging and spent two weeks on the new mattress before we had to face up to the fact that we both hated it. We were waking up with back, neck and leg ache as the mattress sucked us in each night. So back came the old lumpy mattress, while we spent another week fighting with the mattress company about returning the mattress and getting a refund. A few more weeks later (with the mattress blocking up our hall the whole time), the same burly men came and dragged it down our stairs (at a cost to us), causing even more marks over the paintwork.

This whole escapade repeated itself a month later with another mattress (from a different company) that just didn't live up to expectations.  Feeling defeated, we brought a £20 mattress topper for the time being, and climbed back into our bumpy old bed and tried to get comfy around the bulging springs. Night after night we just suffered with a bad nights sleep, it became the norm to be tired and ache in the morning.

Someone out there must have felt sorry for us, as in a bizarre twist of fate eve contacted me at the start of the year and asked if I wanted to try out their memory foam mattress. To be honest, even though we desperately needed a new mattress, the thought of going through the mattress debacle again horrified me. I'd re-painted the hallway to cover up all the marks, and the thought of fighting to return it if it didn't work out (yes, I'd pretty much lost hope) exhausted me just thinking about it. However, eve then informed me of two things. Firstly, the mattress comes vacuum-packed in a box for easy access (AMAZING). Secondly, they do a 100 night money back home trial. If I hated it, I could return it no issue.

So a day later our new eve mattress arrived, as promised, in a box! Yes the box is heavy, but it was so compact! So great if you live in a block of flats, or access to your place isn't that good. My husband and my dad got it up our winding stairs a treat, with not a scuff mark in sight to the walls:

We pulled the mattress out the box, laid it across our bed as instructed and cut open plastic. The mattress immediately began to inflate, which was actually pretty fascinating.

A few hours later and the mattress was ready for use and I was pretty excited. How inviting does this mattress look? (Especially when compared to the shit-show of a mattress we had in the 'before' pictures.)

I have to say I like the eve branding. As well as the distinctive yellow mattress sides, inside the box were all these quotes:

So, how have we found the eve mattress in the past few weeks? One word. GLORIOUS. And before you think "oh yeah, she was obviously paid/bribed to say that" (which is what I would think), there is no way I could actually say it was good if it wasn't. After the disappointment and aggravation we had with our other mattress purchases I wouldn't wish that on anyone. Also, due to the 100 day night trial policy I would have sent it back rather than give it a good review.

So - what did I like about it that made it better than the others? For me, it is the perfect balance of soft and comfy vs supportive for your body. I don't want to lay on a hard bed, who does, right? At the same time, after carrying round a very heavy baby for 9 months my lower back is completely shot-to-pieces, so support is required. The eve design team have this completely covered. I wake up with that "oh God I'm so comfy I don't want to get up" feeling, while at the same time my back doesn't ache at all (which it always does staying in hotels with beds that are far too soft.)

I have to give major props to the 'it comes in a box' idea. That is just genius, and is so much more convenient for modern living.

If you want a negative, then the mattress once inflated is really thick, so invest in a fitted sheet that's a size bigger than your purchased mattress size. It's a struggle trying to get our old fitted sheets on the eve!

Overall, I'm so happy with our eve mattress I'm thinking of also investing in the pillows. If you are currently in mattress hell like we were, I would highly recommend checking out eve what with their 100 night trial policy. The super nice people at eve have also given me an exclusive discount code for 10% off for my readers! Just type MELANIE10EVE in the voucher code box.

Have you got an eve product? What do you think? Let me know if the comments section below...

* Eve let me have this mattress in exchange for an honest review. As stated in the post, after the nightmare I have had with mattresses in the past I would NEVER recommend a dud mattress to my readers, so this review is 100% my honest opinion! This post also contains affiliate links for eve, which basically means that if you purchase an eve product via my blog, I get a small comission.