Stearns & Foster Lux Estate Medium Tight Top Mattress Review

Michael Magnuson

Founder of GoodBed, Leading Mattress Expert

Read our take on the new Medium mattress in the Stearns & Foster Lux Estate Collection.

If you’d prefer to watch rather than read, check out our full Stearns & Foster Lux Estate Medium Tight Top video review above.

Table of Contents

Nobody does more in-depth mattress reviews than GoodBed — which means there's a lot of information here! Use the links in this table of contents to quickly jump to the sections of this review that interest you most.

Summary: Is the Lux Estate Medium Tight Top a Good Mattress?

The Stearns & Foster Lux Estate Medium Tight Top is a quilted pocket spring mattress with a balanced blend of features and comfort. It builds on Stearns & Foster’s extensive history of quality and hand-crafted design and updates this with new fabrics and a few unique details.

First and foremost, the Lux Estate Medium Tight Top is an independently-encased pocket spring mattress with a quilted cover. This is a style of construction that some brands call a “hybrid” mattress although we generally do not (we reserve the term “hybrid” for smooth-top mattresses with some amount of memory foam or other specialty foam). Despite this, the Lux Estate Medium Tight Top is very close to a hybrid design and uses both Tempur-Indulge memory foam and latex under the quilted cover. This construction creates a sense of surface softness at the quilt with pressure relief and resiliency at deeper levels of the mattress

The Lux Estate Medium Tight Top also uses a unique “coil-in-coil” pocket spring exclusive to Stearns & Foster. This nests a thin, narrow-diameter coil inside a much wider coil effectively creating two coils-in-one. This unique design allows for a soft initial contact followed by reassuring support. It also means that Stearns & Foster mattresses generally have very high coil counts - there are typically in the 1500 to 2000 count range.

We found the Lux Estate Medium Tight Top to be about a Medium firmness with a slightly deeper than average sense of overall Cushioning Depth. This makes it a great option for a wide range of sleepers and sleeping positions. We think that most average-sized sleepers will do very well on this mattress regardless of their sleeping position. It also had good overall pressure relief thanks to the layer of Tempur-Indulge Memory Foam.

We also found that it performed very well on an adjustable base, and performed slightly better than most other pocket spring models in terms of motion isolation. The quilted cover is also cool-to-the-touch and made from a blend of Tencel and high-density polyethylene fibers. If you're unfamiliar, polyethylene fibers are a kind of high-density yarn with an inherent coolness that are often found in luxury mattresses.

On the whole, the Stearns & Foster Lux Estate Medium Tight Top provides an excellent blend of features (including high-quality fabrics, Tempur-Indulge Memory Foam, and latex) and comes in at a crowd-pleasing Medium overall firmness. We think that it'd be an excellent fit for most average-sized sleepers looking for a Medium firmness. It could also be a good fit for heavier individuals that might prefer a slightly softer feel. The only people we'd steer away from the Lux Estate Medium Tight Top would be heavier individuals who are exclusively stomach sleepers, as they are likely to need a firmer sleep surface.

Bottom Line: Who is the Best Match for the Stearns & Foster Lux Estate Medium Tight Top?

BEST if you:

• Prefer a medium overall feel
• Are an average to slightly above average-sized person
• Are looking for a mattress made with luxury materials
• Are a side or combination sleeper

NOT IDEAL if you:

• Are a heavier stomach sleeper
• Are looking for a mattress with a lot of memory feel

Comfort & Feel

These are the "preference-based characteristics" of a mattress. No classification here is better or worse – they are strictly a matter of your personal preference.

Back Support (by Sleeper Type)

No mattress will provide equally good spinal alignment (a.k.a., back support) for every sleeper. Here's what to expect in terms of spinal alignment on this mattress – by sleeper weight and sleep position.

Pressure Relief (by Sleeper Type)

The pressure relief offered by a mattress – especially important for side sleepers – will vary based on a sleeper's weight and body shape. Here's how we size up the pressure relief capabilities of this mattress.

Other Features

These are the "priority-based characteristics" of a mattress. Ratings here indicate where this mattress has strengths or weaknesses – however the importance of these features will depend entirely on your personal priorities.

Key Facts

Materials & Construction

What's in the Stearns & Foster Lux Estate Medium Tight Top Mattress?

The Lux Estate Medium Tight Top is a pocket spring mattress comprising roughly six overall layers.

• 2" quilted cover (w/ "Tencel and Cooling Fibers")
• 0.75” HD memory foam ("Tempur-Indulge Memory Foam")
• 2" poly foam ("Premium Soft Gel Foam")
• 1” latex ("Supportive Latex Comfort Layer")
• 8” pocket springs (1504 count "IntelliCoil" innersprings) w/ coil edge
• 1" base foam ("Premium Firm Foam Base")

The Lux Estate Medium Tight Top is a tight top, pocket spring mattress with some unique features.

At the top mattress we have a two inch quilted cover made from Tencel and high-density polyethylene fibers. This means that the quilt layer should be both breathable and cool-to-touch. Just beneath this, there's a 0.75" layer of Tempur-Indulge Memory Foam. This is what we'd call an "HD" or "high-density" memory foam. Because this is beneath the quilt, this isn't necessarily felt strongly by a sleeper, but it still contributes to the overall sense of pressure relief in the mattress. Just beneath this we have about two inches of soft poly foam and then an inch of latex. Much like with the memory foam above, this layer of latex isn't necessarily felt strongly by a sleeper (and the Lux Estate Medium doesn't feel anything like a pure latex mattress), but it adds a bit of resilience and long-term durability to the construction. We think it's a thoughtful addition.

Underneath the upholstery layers, we have Stearns & Foster's proprietary "IntelliCoil" pocket spring. This is a unique "coil-in-coil" design that effectively places a narrower coil inside a wider-barrelled coil. This allows for both surface softness and a deeper sense of strong support. As discussed above, it also means leads to very high overall coil counts (and a very heavy mattress). Finally, the fabric pockets that contain these coils are also perforated to allow for additional airflow. This works in combination with the air vents at the side of Lux Estate Medium to keep air moving through the mattress and create a cool night's sleep.

Comfort & Feel

There are three aspects that make up our assessment of comfort and feel. We call these "preference-based characteristics" because no rating here is better or worse – rather, the attributes that are most desirable to you will be determined solely by your personal preferences. We apply the same classification standards to each mattress so you can more easily compare apples to apples.

Softness ( what’s this )

Keep in mind that what mattress companies call “firm” or “soft” is relative and varies between manufacturers. Mattresses are designed to be supportive and promote healthy spinal alignment, however, different people tend to have different preferences for overall softness.

We found the Lux Estate Medium Tight Top to be a solid Medium. The combination of soft comfort materials and the coil-in-coil pocket spring balances pressure relief and underlying comfort.

Not sure what softness is best for you? Take our Mattress Match Quiz and find out.

Cushioning Depth ( what’s this )

Cushioning depth refers to how deeply you sink into the mattress. Some brands will talk about a feeling of "sleeping-on" a mattress vs a feeling of "sleeping-in" a mattress, and this typically refers to cushioning depth. More cushioning depth means more conformance and more of a cradled or "hugged" sensation.

We actually thought the Lux Estate offered slightly deeper than average Cushioning Depth.

Memory Feel

Memory feel refers to how quickly a mattress recovers its shape after being compressed. A mattress with a lot of memory feel will have a much slower recovery after compression. This is often noticed by sleepers in repositioning.

We'd describe the Lux Estate Medium Tight Top as having a Medium-High amount of Memory Feel. There is some memory foam in the upholstery layers of the mattress, however the feel of this is muted somewhat by the soft overlying quilt and the use of other resilient foams (like latex).

Bounce

Responsiveness also translates into bounce, and with most innerspring mattresses, you'll get a good bit of it.

The Lux Estate Medium Tight Top has a pleasant, but not overwhelming, amount of bounce on account of its pocket spring design.

Back Support & Pressure Relief

The two things that you should always be sure to get from your mattress are spinal alignment (commonly thought of as "back support") and pressure relief. Unfortunately, no mattress will deliver these two things equally well for all sleepers. In particular, spinal alignment and pressure relief capabilities will vary across sleepers with different weights, body shapes, and sleep positions. To help you determine how this mattress will perform for you, we break down our spinal alignment and pressure relief assessments by sleeper type.

In our evaluations, the Lux Estate Medium Tight Top performed very well for our tester in most sleeping positions.

Spinal Alignment

The key to good back support is maintaining proper spinal alignment while you sleep. This means that the mattress should hold your spine in roughly the same position it's in when you're standing. The ability of a given mattress to do this will generally depend on your weight, sleep position, and body shape.

Here is how we break down the spinal alignment of the Lux Estate Medium Tight Top:

Back Sleepers:

Our tester really enjoyed the Lux Estate Medium Tight Top in this position. The soft quilt and underlying memory foam provided the right mix of pressure relief and support.

Side Sleepers:

We also thought the Lux Estate Medium Tight Top was very good for side sleeping. We wouldn't expect any issues in this position.

Stomach Sleepers:

Our tester also felt well-supported on his stomach, though we'd likely advise much heavier stomach sleepers to be cautious here.

Pressure Relief

Other Factors to Consider

Delivery

• Free in-home delivery and setup
• Free removal of old mattress

Stearns & Foster offers free white glove in-home delivery and setup with removal of your existing mattress.

Returns

• 90-Night Trial period

Stearns & Foster offers a 90-Night Trial period when purchased through their website. In the event of a return, a $175 shipping fee will apply.

Warranty

• Warranty Length: 10 Year Limited Warranty
• Indentation Coverage: 1.5” and above with some exclusions

One of the biggest, if not THE biggest complaints about any mattress from consumers regards body impressions — the inability of a mattress to spring back, eventually creating a low spot/sinkhole in the mattress. As such, mattress warranties all contain a term defining how big a sag or ‘body impression’ (measured when no one is on the mattress) is considered a defect, and thus covered under the warranty.

The industry standard for hybrid and innerspring mattresses is 1.5". This is exactly what Stearns & Foster has chosen to cover as well, although be aware that this warranty is contingent on using a proper foundation for your mattress.

You read the fine print on this here: Stearns & Foster's Warranty Policy.

Bottom Line: Who is the Best Match for the Lux Estate Medium Tight Top?

The Stearns & Foster Lux Estate Medium Tight Top is a pocket spring mattress that balances luxury and comfort.

It uses high-quality materials (like Tempur-Indulge Memory Foam and latex), and Stearns & Foster's proprietary "coil-in-coil" IntelliCoil pocket spring. We think this is the kind of mattress that'd work well for most people. It is not too firm and not too soft and blends conformance with solid underlying support. The only people we'd potentially steer away from the Lux Estate Medium would be those looking for something at the extreme end of the firmness spectrum or people that are heavier stomach sleepers. In those cases, they might be better served by Stearns & Foster's other collections.

BEST if you:

• Prefer a medium overall feel
• Are an average to slightly above average-sized person
• Are looking for a mattress made with luxury materials
• Are a side or combination sleeper

NOT IDEAL if you:

• Are a heavier stomach sleeper
• Are looking for a mattress with a lot of memory feel