Filling the New Twist with other materials or need help with a personal DIY project using our materials?

Can you recommend other fillings for the New Twist Mattress? Would wool batting work? Is there any benefit to mixing buckwheat hulls and millet hulls?

We have experimented other materials (wool, coconut coir, horse hair, shredded foam, shredded cotton) and found none of these materials compare to how well hulls work in the New Twist Mattress. We found most natural materials compact and become hard over time.

Hulls were found to be the most resilient mattress material, offering the most support and comfort (and the most economical too!). We have designed our kits for our buckwheat hulls only and therefore we cannot recommend any other mattress fillings. Buckwheat hulls are also naturally flame resistant, so based on that fact alone, we do not recommend using any another filing other than our non roasted buckwheat hulls.

We have had some reports of customers sourcing hulls from "dubious" sources to save money and having many problems with their New Twist Mattress due to inferior hull quality. Please consider your source carefully if buying hulls locally. All inexpensive, imported hulls will most likely be roasted causing them to become so sharp and brittle that the tails of the hulls can tear right through fabric. We cannot guarantee our kit will work with any other hull source except for ours and our recommended, Canadian hull supplier.

Can you help me calculate the amount of hulls I would need for my personal DIY project?

We love hearing about your ideas for other uses of our materials and it would be wonderful to help each one of our wonderful customers with their projects but unfortunately, there are only so many hours in a day and we have to devote our time to helping our mattress customers.

Each bulk box of our millet (20 lbs) and buckwheat hulls (35lbs) fills a volume roughly 5,616 square inches (bulk box size = 26 X 18 X 12).

To calculate the amount of buckwheat hulls or millet hulls for your project simply calculate the square inch volume of the item you wish to fill (see helpful volume calculator links below) and divide the result by 5,616. You will most likely get a number with a decimal point. Round that number up and that will equal the number of boxes to add to your cart!

Enter your project dimensions in inches into these calculators for the following shapes:

• Volume of a rectangle
• Volume of a cube
  
• Volume of a cone
  
• Volume of a cylinder
  
• Volume of a sphere
  
• Volume of a hexagonal pyramid
  

A note about bean bags:

We often get asked about filling bean bags with hulls. Keep in mind that hulls are much heavier than synthetic bean bag pellets so you will end up with something that may be hard to move around.

If I was to make a hull filled bean bag (which we have not tried yet), I would probably fill a smaller inner case with a lighter material (maybe with a wool blanket or kapok) and then anchor it to the bottom of the outer case. Then perhaps fill the top and sides with hulls to enjoy a surface that molds like a bean bag.

Is there any benefit to mixing buckwheat hulls and millet hulls?

Not that we can see. There are health claims out there saying millet hulls can boost your immunity although we have not discovered any scientific information on this. If this was proved to be true, we could see the benefit to mixing hull types. We have tried mixing hulls for a pillow filling, and it does not change the feeling of the pillow. Laye millet hulls and buckwheat hulls within their own separate compartments (in a double sided pillow) for the best of both worlds!

We have tested mixing lavender in with millet hulls and it will keep your pillow and even the case, extremely fresh smelling.

Try lavender millet hull pillows in your guest bedrooms too, your visiting friends and family members will be sure to notice this luxurious addition!