There should be nothing that gets in the way of you enjoying a good night sleep. So if you're contemplating buying a new bed, mattress or even a sofa bed for that matter, you firstly need to know how big you can go. It's probably even more important to make sure that you can get it into the chosen room, and successfully navigate the bed up the stairs and through any awkward doorways. Therefore, knowing the measurements of your rooms and the spaces that your bed needs to go through is essential. So, within this guide, we provide all the advice and information that you'll need to make sure your bedroom or spare room is fully equipped with no scraped walls or dilemmas come delivery day.
How to know if your bed will fit in your room
Find the dimensions of your chosen bed
To know whether or not the selected bed that you wish to have will fit in your room, you firstly need to know how big the bed is. If you're ordering a bed or mattress online, then make sure to check the measurements of the bed by looking at the dimensions tab on the product page and noting these down. If you're wanting to know if a new bed or mattress will fit, then you'll likely only need to know the width and length measurements. However, if you prefer a certain height for your bed or you need a certain height to meet your needs, make sure that you also consider these measurements.
If you're buying a second hand bed that doesn't come with the dimensions, then you'll need to measure these yourself. To get the width dimensions, measure from side to side of the bed frame; for the length dimensions, measure from the bottom of your bed frame to the top of the frame; and for the height dimensions, measure from the floor up to the top of the middle section of the bed frame. You'll then want to consider adding the mattress height to the bed frame height.
A good tip is to note down the dimensions of the product whilst still in its packaging because you'll need to be sure that it can fit through your home and into the selected room.
Standard English Bed Sizes
- Small Single Bed - 2'6" x 6'3", 76cm x 190cm, 30" x 75"
- Single Bed - 3'0" x 6'3", 90cm x 190cm, 35" x 75"
- Small Double Bed - 4'0" x 6'3", 120cm x 190cm, 48" x 75"
- Double Bed - 4'6" x 6'3", 137cm x 190cm, 54" x 75"
- King Size Bed - 5' x 6'6" 150cm x 200cm, 59" x 79"
- Super King Size Bed - 6' x 6'6", 180cm x 200cm, 71" x 79"
Check the current measurements of your room
So you now understand the size of your new furniture and how much room it will take up. Now it's important to understand the measurements of the space that you're intending to put your new piece of furniture in. Specifically, you'll want to understand whether this space is suitable to cater for your new furniture.
So you'll need to measure the width and length of your spaces, taking into consideration any alcoves or alternative room shapes that may impact whether or not your room will be suitable for the size of bed you are wanting to opt for.
An important consideration to note is that you'll need to check your selected furniture dimensions at its maximum width and length. For example, if you are wanting a sofa bed, then you'll need to check its size once fully extended rather than just its dimensions as a sofa and make sure that it can adjust within the room. This also applies to beds built in with drawers and making sure that the drawers can fully extend outwards.
One more key tip is to consider the skirting board and how this may impact the fit of your new furniture. For example, if you are wanting to place a single bed in an alcove, then you'll need to measure the width of the alcove from skirting board to skirting board instead of measuring from wall to wall. This slight difference in measurement could mean that your bed frame doesn't sit within the alcove space.
How Much Space is Necessary Around a Bed?
If you're wanting to know how much space is required around a bed, then there is no right or wrong answer. It just depends on what is deemed comfortable and acceptable for you. It might be that you want to maximise your sleeping space by putting a double bed into a small bedroom and this is completely common and acceptable.
However, we have some guidelines that may help you if you are still unsure but just remember these are only recommendations and its also important to consider the shape of your room, personal preference and required sleeping space that are important factors.
| Bed Type | Minimum Room Size |
|---|---|
| Single Bed | 7' x 7' (2.13m x 2.13m) |
| Small Double Bed | 9' x 9' (2.74m x 2.75m) |
| Double Bed | 9' x 9'6" (2.74m x 2.79m) |
| King Bed | 9'6" x 10' (2.9m x 3.05m) |
| Super King Bed |
9'6" x 11'6" (2.9m x 3.51m) |
How to Maximise Bedroom Space
If you have a bedroom that you're struggling with for space, then there are some good tricks and ideas that you need to consider. They'll ensure that even with the smaller sized rooms, you can make space by using every bit of space you have.
These include:
Buying a Bed with Built-in Storage: Having a bed with built in storage is a great option and could very possibly mean that you don't need to fit wardrobes or drawers in the room.
Use Wall Space for Storage: Adding shelves to your bedrooms is a great idea and allows you to make use of additional storage place in area that are often not considered enough. Using shelves will mean you have more floor and drawer space.
Think Through your Layout Carefully: Thinking about the layout of your bedroom in detail is really important and a step that is often neglected. You need to make sure that you're thinking through each placement of furniture so that it's in the right space to maximise space.
Measuring your Access Routes to Your Rooms
Now we briefly mentioned this earlier, but knowing just the measurements of your bedroom space to see if your new furniture is compatible won't suffice. You need to measure your doors, hallways and home space that your new furniture will have to navigate through in order to reach the selected room. Heres how you might do this.
Doorways
Measuring your front door is probably a good starting point because you'll need to ensure that you can get your new bed furniture into your home to begin with. Therefore, measure the height of the door from the bottom to the top of the frame and also the width of the door from one side of the frame to the other. You can then compare these measurements to the furniture dimensions to ensure that you can get your new bed furniture through. Remember that if the measurements are tight, then the furniture can be tilted diagonally to ensure that it fits.
Halls and Internal Doors
Next on the list is to check your hallways and internal doors. You'll want to measure the width of your hallway and specifically the narrowest point to ensure even then it can pass through. Take into consideration any obstacles that might get in your way such as shelving, railings or radiators whilst measuring the route to the selected room. Measure the width of all the internal doorways that the furniture will need to pass through also and if these measurements exceed the height of the furniture, then it is very likely that it will fit through.
Stairways and Staircases
Understanding whether your bed furniture will fit through and up your staircase needs a little bit more planning. As well as understanding the width measurements, you'll also require the height and depth. This is to ensure that you can successfully manoeuvre the piece of furniture by tilting and manipulating it up and around the corners and bends of the staircase. If your staircase is straight, then this will make this process a little easier.
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