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When king-sized just isn't big enough
By ED QUIOCO, Times Staff Writer In its 71 years in business, Clearwater Mattress has built its share of unusual beds. A customer once asked for a 7 1/2-foot-long, heart-shaped bed. Another ordered a round bed 9 1/2 feet in diameter. The company even made a queen-sized, cross-shaped mattress. But the company's latest custom job tops them all. Clearwater Mattress recently finished an 8- by 10-foot mattress to go in the megamansion that former NBA center Matt Geiger is building in East Lake.
"This is the biggest," said Clearwater Mattress president Bill Marginson. "No two ways about it." By comparison, a standard king-sized bed measures 6 feet, 4 inches by 6 feet, 8 inches. But this creation is not only big, it's also the Cadillac of mattresses. From the best springs that the industry has to offer to top-of-the-line latex and damask fabric, no expense was spared, Marginson said. The Geiger mattress has more than 1,800 individual coils and about 20 yards of fabric, and took five people about four hours to build. In comparison, a top-of-the-line, full-sized bed has about 660 coils, about 7 or 8 yards of fabric and can be built by one person in about 30 minutes. The mattress and box springs are waiting to be delivered to Geiger's 26,000-square-foot mansion on Keystone Road. Geiger, a Countryside High star who played professional basketball for 10 seasons, has been putting the finishing touches on his mansion. Geiger had hoped to move into his new home by his 33rd birthday Sept. 10, but construction delays put the schedule a few weeks behind, said his attorney, Robert Eckard of Palm Harbor. Geiger now hopes to move into his home by the third or fourth week in September. In the meantime, Geiger is doing the things anyone does when moving into a gigantic mansion: buying artwork and furnishings; hand-picking exotic orchids and palm trees from South Florida for his atrium, complete with its own waterfall; and buying fish for a huge tank. He's also waiting on the custom-built bed frame for his new mattress. "He was really a hands-on person when it came to the design and choosing of certain things in his house," Eckard said. "It's like a resort up there." In 1999, Geiger signed a six-year, $52-million contract with the Philadelphia 76ers, but he retired last year because of an arthritic condition in his knees. While still playing, he began building the mansion, where he keeps dozens of animals such as bison, long-horned cattle known as Watusi, a donkey, a miniature horse and a cow. Geiger ordered the bed about three weeks ago after he stopped by one of the company's stores on U.S. 19 in Clearwater. Marginson said the 7-footer tried out the top-of-the-line, king-sized Legacy mattress and "fell in love with it." There was just this one minor issue: His feet were hanging off the bed. So the solution was to make him a custom-built Legacy mattress big enough for him and then some. That task fell to company production supervisor Carlos Espino, a 15-year industry veteran. "If you come in and tell me you want a triangular bed, I can do it," Espino said. "I'll make any kind of bed." Marginson, the Clearwater Mattress president, wouldn't say how much the Geiger mattress cost, only that it was reasonably priced considering all the effort that went into it. Along with making odd-shaped mattresses, the company also makes custom-built beds for boats, trailers and antiques. "It's always a little bit art and a little bit science," Marginson said. -- Ed Quioco can be reached at (727) 445-4183 or quioco@sptimes.com.
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From the Times North Pinellas desks Letters |
