The Swedish sleep experts at Hästens have been crafting the world’s premier mattresses since 1852. Today, it would be no exaggeration to say that their mission is to make getting a good night’s rest into an art form all its own. 

That message seems to be catching on in the U.S. “We are on fire,” said Linus Adolfsson, a former art gallery director who has become a kind of sleep evangelist for Hästens. “Our sales are up 260 percent this year.”  

Adolfsson, a native of Sweden, currently runs two bicoastal Hästens sleep spas and stores, one in Los Angeles and a newly launched space on Madison Avenue in New York, where Adolfsson invites people to learn about the “the art of sleep.” He says that the company’s banner year undoubtedly relates to quarantine and a reconsideration of what’s really important. 

In the U.S., sales of the Hästens mattresses are up 260% in 2020.

“The bedroom is the heart of the home—the space of intimacy, the essential place from which your life flows,” he said via phone. “In Sweden, the bed is considered the most important piece of furniture—an object that you respect and value.” 

Americans have typically thought of a mattress as something disposable, but he says that’s being reconsidered. “Americans might joke ‘I’ll sleep when I’m dead,’ but during this crazy time, many of the distractions have been stripped away and we’ve come back to the basics of the home. How you’re sleeping is one of the key elements of that. Sleep is among the best things you can do for your body.”

Earlier this year, the company made headlines after the rapper Drake invited Architectural Digest to tour his Toronto mansion for its April cover story. The $400,000 Hästens mattress stood out, even alongside Drake’s bespoke Bösendorfer grand piano with designs by Takashi Murakami and a closet full of unused Birkin bags.

This, in fact, was Hästens’s ultimate mattress creation: the Grand Vividus. Nicknamed the “Birkin Bag of Beds” and debuted earlier this year in collaboration with luxury designer Ferris Rafauli, it’s made of burnished leather, suede, and metal, along with horsehair and Swedish pine. 

Linus Adolfsson.

The Grand Vividus (which now has a waiting list) is a museum-quality piece, Adolfsson notes—but Hästens offers mattresses starting from just under $10,000. While a mattress that costs tens of thousands of dollars might not seem like a purchase targeted at the general population, Adolfsson thinks it might have a bigger audience than you might expect.

“In Sweden, we might buy one mattress for our entire life,” he explained. “When people come to us, we are responsible for their sleep for the rest of our lives.” Every bed is built to last from 25 to 50 years. The company sends teams to examine and maintain its beds three times a year for 30 years, at no cost. 

“A mattress is not a dead piece of foam, but an instrument for sleep,” Adolfsson continued. “People will spend tens of thousands of dollars on an artwork or a watch. I’m here to educate people about the importance of viewing your mattress as a work of design.”

Hästens mattresses are certainly a labor of love. Each one takes up to 600 hours to create and is built by hand in Sweden, at the family-owned and operated factory.  As Adolfsson puts it, “in the end, the mattresses are the epitome of design—an art piece with a function.” 

What’s more, customers can expect to be personally guided in customizing the details of their mattress by Adolfsson himself, with the result tailored for them in a wide variety of ways. “I’m holding their hand for the process, guiding them, and then placing them into the right model.”

Exactly because of this level of detail, Adolfsson notes, many of Hastens’s customers are artists and collectors. “We have some of the most interesting people in the world coming into our sleep spas to learn about sleep—and with our dedication to craftsmanship, many times these are the same people who understand the beauty of art. If it’s the most important object in your home, it should also be visually arresting as well. I think that clicks for collectors: the bed should be a masterpiece.” 

Contact Linus Adolfsson at [email protected] or (212) 628-8022.