Brook + Wilde Ultima mattress review – we put this luxury mattress to the test

Our Brook + Wilde Ultima mattress review puts this luxury mattress through its paces to see if it's it's worth the investment

Brook + Wilde Ultima mattress on grey bed against white panelled wall
(Image credit: Brook + Wilde)
Ideal Home Verdict

For the ultimate great night’s sleep and a real sense of luxury, the Ultima mattress can’t be beaten. Comfortable, supportive and cooling, we couldn’t fault it

Reasons to buy
  • +

    Extremely comfortable 

  • +

    Supportive for all sleep positions 

  • +

    Three options of firmness

Reasons to avoid
  • -

    Very heavy 

  • -

    At 30cm deep, might be too high for some 

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    Not available in single size

  • -

    Made to order, so you'll have to wait a few weeks

Why you can trust Ideal Home Our expert reviewers spend hours testing and comparing products and services so you can choose the best for you. Find out more about how we test.

Looking to invest in a top-tier mattress? If a comfortable, supportive, and cooling night’s sleep is what you’re after, then you'll want to read our Brook + Wilde Ultima mattress review.

The Ultima is the next level of indulgence up from Brook + Wilde's Elite and Suprema mattresses and promises to deliver the 'ultimate sleep experience', with a whole host of upgrades compared to the brand’s other premium products. 

We couldn’t wait to find out if it lived up to the hype, so we tasked our trusty reviewer Ellen Finch with getting some shut-eye on this top-end mattress. She and her partner slept on the mattress for five weeks – and through two heatwaves – so they've been able to test out everything from temperature regulation and motion transfer. 

For the purpose of this review, they tested out the double Ultima mattress with a Medium firmness level – handily the Ultima lets you choose from a Soft, Medium, or Firm sleeping surface to best suit your sleeping preference. Read on to find out if our reviewers felt this luxury mattress lived up to the marketing, and whether it deserves a place in Ideal Home's round-up of the best mattresses.

Brook + Wilde Ultima mattress review

Why you can trust Ideal Home Our expert reviewers spend hours testing and comparing products and services so you can choose the best for you. Find out more about how we test.

Specifications

  • Type: Hybrid
  • Construction materials: Pocket springs, foam, memory foam
  • Number of springs: 6000
  • Memory foam: Yes
  • Sizes: Double, King, Superking
  • Comfort level: Soft / Medium / Firm
  • Height: 30cm
  • Side handles: Yes
  • Flip or rotate?: Rotate
  • Manufacturer sleep trial: 200 nights

The Brook + Wilde Ultima mattressproduct badge

(Image credit: Brook + Wilde)

How I tested

Headshot of Ellen Finch
Ellen Finch

I'm Ellen, I'm now deputy editor of Livingetc magazine, but my love affair with interiors begain when I was working for sister publications Real Homes and Ideal Home. There, I enjoyed taking a peek inside beautiful homes and discovered a love of design and architecture. I'm a huge fan of a good night's sleep (who isn't?) and can't function on less than seven and a half hours of sleep per night. My partner and I tested the Brook + Wilde Ultima mattress for five weeks before writing this review. Read on to find out our thoughts.

Construction

The Brook + Wilde Ultima is a hybrid mattress with an impressive ten layers, consisting of a mix of memory foam and 6000 nano and pocket springs. The brand describes it as 'the ultimate sleep surface' and 'temperature cooling'. So what do you get in those ten layers? 

First up, it's the thermic fabric cover. Brook +Wilde says this can cool your temperature by 2°C, and contains 'microcapsules which proactively manage body temperature by storing and releasing any excess heat'. Underneath that there's another protective cover.

Next, there's a memory foam layer with 'zonal perforations', followed by a second memory foam layer crafted from 'open cell' foam that allows four times the airflow of regular memory foam. 

Then there are the first springs, with a 'twin blanket of 2000 nano-springs, ergonomically designed to evenly distribute your weight'.

This is followed by a 'support layer', which is the section that can be crafted to your bespoke preferences, with either soft, medium, or firm support. 

A 'dynamic airflow' layer allows space for air circulation to aid with that cooling promise, and then there's a twin layer of 4000 taller pocket springs, this layer 'provides the perfect level of push-back and bounce'.

Lastly, there's a high-density foam support base and non-slip finishing layer. Phew!

This mattress is a significant investment, and due to those bespoke firmness options, there's an average 8-10 week wait for your mattress to be made. So is it worth the money, and the wait? We aim to find out.

Diagram showing different mattress layers

(Image credit: Brook + Wilde)

Delivery

While this mattress normally arrives in a box, ours came rolled but wrapped only in plastic, which actually helped with portability. The delivery drivers dropped it off in our porch but we opted to take it upstairs ourselves, which might have been a mistake were it not for the fact that my partner and my dad were there to haul it up for me. It's heavy, but not so much so that it's impossible to move – you just need two fairly strong people to do it.

We were prepared to cut the tape and have the whole thing spring open on us, but the unravelling was surprisingly low-impact and easy. You're supposed to leave it overnight to let it expand, but it was deep enough to sleep on after a couple of hours. One thing to note: with a depth of 30cm, this mattress does feel quite high when you first sit on it. As a 5’8” tall(ish) person, this wasn’t an issue and I soon got used to it, but if you’re of a smaller stature, it might feel a bit unusual to start with. We had to buy new sheets to fit, but they were easy enough to find.

Rolled up mattress in plastic packaging with Certificate of Quality

(Image credit: Future PLC)

Comfort

It took a few nights to get used to sleeping on the Brook + Wilde Utima mattress compared to our (very) old one, but our first impressions were good. Before we got to sleep, we took it in turns flopping onto the bed to test out the motion transfer and marvelled at the fact we could roll to the edge of the bed without immediately falling off. Then it was time for a more serious test. Here’s what we found.

Both myself and my partner sleep on either our backs or sides, and we both only had good things to say about the comfort levels of this mattress. We tried a medium firmness and would say it’s pretty much exactly that, offering the perfect flat surface with a bit of give to support our backs. On my side, there was no discomfort on any of my joints. I often suffer from lower back pain (I blame sitting at a desk every day), but the day after sleeping on the Ultima, I woke up with no pain whatsoever. My colleague over at Livingetc also tried the mattress while eight months’ pregnant and found it relieved all her aches and pains, which is pretty impressive.

Temperature regulation

We tested this mattress through June and part of July, and so found ourselves in a couple of heatwaves during the period. I’m always a little on the warm side when I sleep, but I have to say that even when the temperature stayed upwards of 20 degrees at night, I slept all the way through, and wasn’t overly hot when I woke up either. That’s an even more impressive feat considering our house is essentially a furnace, and we were sleeping with the door shut and one measly fan between the two of us.

Motion isolation

In our initial test, before all the bedding went on, we could hardly feel each other getting onto the bed, so we were rightly pretty confident that it would be a dream to sleep on. Neither of us are particularly fidgety, but we do have slightly different bed times, and I didn’t feel a thing when my partner came to bed an hour or two after me. Sadly it didn’t help with his incessant snoring, but you can’t win them all, motion transfer at least is almost non-existent.

Edge support

Rolling onto the edge of the Brook + Wilde Ultima mattress is no problem thanks to the excellent tension in the product. I find myself sleeping close to the edge of the bed most nights, and when I woke up I felt secure – there was little to no sagging at the edge. Likewise, sitting on the edge of the bed is a much more comfortable experience.

A close up of the navy side handle and quilted upper of the Brook + Wilde Ultima mattress

(Image credit: Brook + Wilde)

Verdict

This mattress is seriously impressive and lives up to its claims, and I’ve had plenty of great nights’ sleep over the past month and a bit. Aside from being a tad heavy to lift and rotate, and a bit taller than most mattresses, there’s really not a bad thing to say about it.

Ultimately, it comes down to how much you’re budgeting for your mattress, but if you’re erring towards the pricier end of the scale anyway, this mattress is 100% worth paying an extra few hundred pounds. 

It’s the first luxury mattress I’ve tried and I could really tell the difference; my colleague, who’s reviewed plenty of mattresses, said it’s one of the best she’s ever tried. So yes, if you have the money to spend, I wouldn’t hesitate to invest in the Ultima – for the ten-plus years you’ll be sleeping on it, you won’t regret it.