Article: sun-sentinel.com, June 5, 2014

“We stay pretty much busy year-round,” Blair Schrader said. The company makes about 8,000 to 12,000 beds and mattresses a year and prices for its custom bedding can ran range from hundreds of dollars to up to $36,000 depending on the level of customization.

The company’s attention to detail and quality craftsmanship has earned it a loyal following among interior designers.

“They bring [customization] to a whole other level,” said Jamie Standridge, owner of JKS Interior Designs in Fort Lauderdale, who has worked with the Schraders for about 15 years. “The service is phenomenal and they deliver good quality.”

Others agree.

“We use them on every single job we can unless the client already has his or her own mattress already,” said India Foster, interior designer for Leta Austin Foster & Associates in Palm Beach, and long-time customer. “They are so meticulous and it shows in the quality of the work.”

Although the majority of business — 60 percent — comes through interior designers, more individuals are now making direct contact through the Internet, Diane said. About 75 percent of the business is residential; the rest is marine and transportation related.

While the Schraders declined to disclose company revenues, Diane said 2013 was its best year for sales and net profit since 2005, Diane said. And 2014 is already seeing record months over last year.

“That’s telling us the economy is coming back,” she said.

The company’s ability to thrive over the decades and through the last recession is due partly to its employees, Diane noted. “We’ve got a fantastic crew, and that’s very important.”

E. J. Schrader beds and mattresses are made mostly by hand, and can take anywhere from a few hours to several days to complete, depending on the specialization.

“We get to do a lot of crazy things,” Diane said.

Unusual requests have included outfitting the back seat of a Bentley with a removable mattress; round and pear-shaped mattresses shipped to Las Vegas and round mattresses for adult tree houses.

Probably the strangest request it has received over the decades came recently from the television show Inside Edition, which ordered a mattress with a large indentation in it for a Broward County reality TV star who was undergoing plastic surgery to enlarge her buttocks.

Schrader built the mattress to accommodate the woman’s oversized breasts as she had to lie on her stomach during recovery. Her bottom could also fit in it if she needed to roll over.

Inside Edition featured that customer last month in a segment of its news magazine program, Diane said. The woman identified as Lacey Wildd is seen trying out the custom-made mattress as some of her children look on.

asatchell@tribune.com, 954-356-4209 or Twitter@TheSatchreport.