Buy the All Wool Mattress and other Shepherd’s Dream products with confidence!
We get it—we’re a bit different. Making mattresses and bedding with all-natural materials like wool and organic cotton sets us apart from mainstream conventional bedding options. We definitely like it that way, but sometimes it can be a big leap for customers to click the “Purchase” button not knowing what to expect when their bedding arrives, especially for those who have never slept with wool-based products before and don’t have the opportunity to drop by our showroom in Ashland, Oregon.
Never fear! We’ve been helping customers find their perfect sleep set-up for over 25 years, and there’s an underutilized feature we provide—our Sample Bedding Kit. The kit contains an assortment of items you’re considering, from the All Wool Mattress setup to pillows, comforters and more.
While the Sample Bedding Kit requires a bit of extra work and time, it’s such a great way to ensure that you’re making the best purchase possible. So let’s learn more.
Why Try the Sample Bedding Kit?
Not sure which weight of comforter you need? Considering trading out your conventional mattress for our All Wool Mattress system? Wondering which pillow to commit to? Worried about how wool bedding may smell wooly or feel scratchy?
The Sample Bedding Kit can help you answer all these questions. When it arrives, you get to feel (and smell!) it for yourself. We send a smaller, but adequate, sample to help guide your purchasing decision so you can sit on it, touch the fabrics, see the tufting, give them a squeeze, and get a sense of our materials and craftsmanship. This is especially important when it comes to choosing the layers for your All Wool Bed mattress system.
Given the shipping involved, we recommend our Sample Bedding Kit for those who are at least 80% certain they’d love to purchase our bedding, but need that extra assurance from having it in their hands first.
So What’s in the Sample Bedding Kit?
Well, that depends on which products you’re interested in! Currently, we offer samples of:
- The All Wool Mattress, along with its system components
- Toppers— Snuggle Mate Topper & Travel Mate Topper
- Comforters— All Seasons, Summer Weight, Winter Weight
- Sleep Pillows— Soft, Medium, and Firm
- Wool Mattress Protector
- Merino Wool Blanket
Where Do I Sign up?
Ready to try us out? All you have to do is either fill out our online request form or give our customer service staff a call. Someone will guide you through the process and configure the kit for your needs.
Then we ship it out to you and you try it out for a little while (up to two weeks). When you’re satisfied and ready to commit, just send it back in its original packaging with the shipping label we sent with it. Easy!
Then here’s the cool part—the money you spend on the Sample Bedding Kit is automatically applied to your purchase. So there’s really no reason not to try it out!
About Those Returns…
We live in the age of Amazon, and online shopping has trained many of us to order things to try at home and simply send back if we don’t like it. While this may work for clothing and other products, it unfortunately doesn’t work well for bedding or mattresses, especially those that are handmade to order.
And yet, the mattress industry gave it a go. Mattresses were traditionally purchased at a showroom so folks could try them out first. But as shoppers became more comfortable with online shopping, and then the global Covid pandemic hit, online mattress-in-a-box shops popped up everywhere offering impossibly generous one year trial periods.
The dirty secret about those returned mattresses is that they often go to landfill. There are claims that mattresses get donated, but many of those are damaged and can’t be donated either. It’s important to understand that over 50,000 mattresses A DAY reach our country’s landfills, and while there are efforts to recycle mattress components, it’s still a massive ecological issue, and these mattress-in-a-box companies added to it.
Federal law prohibits the sale of used bedding and mattresses, but aside from that, we would never. We want everyone to have a new, handmade item from us and love it.
The sad reality is that nearly every item sent back to us for return or exchange is unsellable. We do our best to donate used products when possible, but unfortunately, there are a lot of lost materials, labor, and money that occur when we’re unable to place the correct product with someone. In addition, there are serious sustainability issues with shipping products needlessly and all the cardboard and plastic that get used in that process.
Our Sample Bedding Kit aims to remedy all of this by helping our customers make the best possible decision for themselves and the planet.
Sampling the Best Nature has to Offer
When it comes to mattresses and bedding, we know we’re a bit special. But when you commit to an all-natural bedroom with wool, we think you’ll be an instant convert. So give our Sample Bedding Kit a try before you buy.
Thanks so much for stopping by! If you’d like to learn more about our products and services, check out some of these Counting Sheep blog posts:
- Our Flagship Product: The All Wool Mattress
- The Natural Choice: 6 Amazing Benefits of Wool Mattresses and Toppers
- 6 Reasons to Choose a Wool Topper Over a Featherbed
- Unlocking the Power of Dream Points: Your Guide to Our Points Program
If you haven’t already, be sure to sign up for insider deals with our newsletter sign-up below, and give us a follow over at Instagram. In the meantime, we wish you sweet dreams!
