The “BedMaker”

Aylmer woman “going to the mattresses” with her invention

Local inventor Lisa Wall will be exhibiting her new product, "The BedMaker," at the INPEX Invention Trade Show in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, June 7 through 9. The BedMaker is a device that props up a mattress corner, so the person making the bed has both hands to make the bed and tuck in the sheets.  Ms. Wall was inspired to create the BedMaker after she watched her grandmother struggling to change the bedsheets. “With one hand on her walker, and fingers riddled with arthritis, she faced a monumental task,” she says. “I invented this for her, but quickly realized that she was not the only one who found this task a challenge. Younger, able-bodied people with heavy mattresses also recognize its benefits.”

The idea percolated for a long time, Ms Wall told the Bulletin. “I watched my grandmother struggling (and) the seed of the idea was planted.” With a young family, “I didn’t act on it right away.”  However, in 2012, she started to make prototypes with wood, but quickly faced challenges. “For a long time, I ran up against so many barriers. How do you make something with plastic at home? I talked with plastic injection molding companies in Ottawa and explained my idea with my wooden mock-up. They said, ‘Oh yes, we can do that.’ They make it sound so simple. It seemed to lend itself well to plastic.”

However, the cost was yet another barrier. “It has to be very strong, because of the weight of the mattress.”  In the end, she says, “I didn’t go for it.  The cost of the mold, which has to be made overseas, is comparable to the down payment on a house.” The companies could not even tell her whether or not a plastic BedMaker would be strong enough or would bend under the pressure. “It was just too expensive and too risky. I couldn’t justify the cost.” So, Ms Wall and her husband, who is a talented woodworker, continued working with wood instead of plastic and eventually found the perfect type of wood, Baltic, or Russian Birch. “It’s a beautiful wood.”

She relied on feedback from friends and family to perfect the design and plans on bringing her prototype to the trade show in Pittsburgh, where she will meet with people who will be able to help her bring her product to market on a wide scale.