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Will the bed fit in the bedroom — and can it even get in there?

Allow 70 cm of clear floor along each side of the bed and 70 cm at the foot end: a 180 × 200 cm double bed therefore needs a bedroom at least 3.20 × 2.70 m.

Bed sizes — and the figures people mix up

Bed sizes vary from country to country. In continental Europe the common ones are 90 × 200 cm (single), 120 × 200 cm (a size and a half), 140 × 200 cm (the classic double), 180 × 200 cm (two 90s side by side, the usual choice for an adjustable base or divan) and 180 × 210 cm for tall people. Britain uses its own names and its own numbers — single is roughly 90 × 190 cm, double roughly 135 × 190 cm, king roughly 150 × 200 cm, and super king roughly 180 × 200 cm — but a name doesn't guarantee a measurement anywhere. Always check the actual dimensions in centimetres rather than trusting a size name to travel between suppliers or countries.

The figure on the mattress isn't the bed's actual size. The bed frame is typically 2-10 cm wider and longer than the mattress, and a headboard adds 5-12 cm to the length. A bed sold as "180 × 200" can easily take up 188 × 212 cm of floor once the headboard is on. That's enough to make a niche you'd worked out too short. Always measure the bed's outer dimensions including headboard and feet, not the mattress size.

The sum for the room's size

The clear floor area the bed needs is the bed's outer dimensions plus the clearance on each side. The clearances are:

• 70-75 cm along a side you get in and out of. Enough to stand up, sit on the edge of the bed and pull the bedding straight.
• 60 cm along a side you only need to pass by. It's tight, but it works.
• 0 cm if the bed sits flush against the wall. Then only one person can use that side, unless the other has to climb over.
• 70 cm at the foot end if you need to walk past it. 90 cm if there's a radiator or a door swinging into the room there.

Example 1 — double bed with access on both sides. Bed: 180 × 200 cm. 70 cm on each side, 70 cm at the end.
Width: 180 + 70 + 70 = 320 cm. Length: 200 + 70 = 270 cm. Clear floor: 3.20 × 2.70 m = 8.6 m².

Example 2 — a 140 bed in a small room. Bed: 140 × 200 cm with headboard, outer size 146 × 210 cm. 70 cm on one side, 60 cm on the other, bed flush against the wall at the head end.
Width: 146 + 70 + 60 = 276 cm. Length: 210 + 70 = 280 cm. A room of 2.80 × 2.80 m is therefore just barely enough — and there's no room left for a wardrobe.

Example 3 — a single bed against the wall. Bed: 90 × 200 cm, long side against the wall. Only 70 cm on the free side.
Width: 90 + 70 = 160 cm. Length: 200 + 60 = 260 cm — the 60 cm at the foot end is enough to pass by, not to stand in. A child's room of 1.60 × 2.60 m fits a bed — and nothing else.

The wardrobe is what upsets the sum

A wardrobe is 55-65 cm deep, and the doors need to be able to open. So add to the bedroom's dimensions:

• Wardrobe with hinged doors: wardrobe depth + 90-100 cm of clear floor in front. A 50 cm wide door swings 50 cm out into the room, and you need to stand behind it. A 60 cm deep wardrobe therefore needs 150-160 cm of the room's width.
• Wardrobe with sliding doors: wardrobe depth + 60-70 cm of clear floor in front. Sliding doors don't take up room space, but only half the wardrobe can be open at a time, and the wardrobe ends up 8-10 cm deeper inside than the doors suggest.
• Drawers inside the wardrobe: add 20 cm on top in front of the section where the drawers sit. A drawer 50 cm deep needs to be pulled all the way out.

Practical consequence: a bedroom 3.20 m wide with a 180 bed has exactly zero room left for a wardrobe along the side wall. The wardrobe either has to go at the end, in a different room, or the bed has to be pushed to one side so that one side of the bed only has 60 cm.

Can the bed even get into the room?

This is where many people get caught out, and it's worse for beds than for most furniture, because the bed's critical dimension is the 200 cm length. A bed is rigid once assembled, and most divan and adjustable bases are delivered in two 90 × 200 cm halves, which can't be folded.

Through the door: a 90 × 200 cm, 35 cm high divan base is carried on its side. Then the doorway only needs to fit the smallest dimension — the 35 cm — and any ordinary door does that. The door is rarely the problem for a bed.

Round the corner: this is where it gets stuck. A rigid object 90 cm wide can, at a corner between two 100 cm corridors, only be 103 cm long. If both corridors are 90 cm, the limit is 75 cm — shorter than the bed is wide, so nothing gets round at all. A 200 cm long bed base therefore cannot be turned flat around an ordinary corridor corner.

The fix is to tip it up on its edge. Stood on end, the bed base's footprint on the floor is only 90 × 35 cm, and the corner stops mattering. In exchange, the ceiling height needs to be greater than the bed's length plus manoeuvring room: at least 215-220 cm of clear height for a 200 cm bed base. Most homes have that, but not every basement, loft room or stairwell does. Measure the clear height in the corridor and over the stairs before delivery day — not on the day itself.

Sloped ceilings: in a loft room it isn't the room's area that decides where the bed can go, but how much headroom there is exactly where the bed will stand. Plan for being able to sit up in bed: measure the clear height 60-70 cm in from the sloped wall, at the head end of the bed, and make sure there's at least 90-100 cm there.

Check it on the plan before you order

Every figure in this article is an internal measurement: the room's clear width, the corridor's narrowest point, the door's clear opening and the ceiling height. None of them appear in the official building register, which typically states the home's area measured to the outside of the external walls.

Scan the bedroom with the iPhone's LiDAR in HouseSense, and you get the internal measurements room by room and a measured plan you can place the bed on and see how much floor is left along the sides. But when the margin is a few centimetres — and with a bed it almost always is — check it on site with a tape measure. The drawing can be pretty; the numbers can't.