Small bedroom layout: UK bed sizes, clearances and three plans in cm

A small bedroom works when three things are right: the bed's size, the wall it goes on, and the gaps round it. This page gives all three in centimetres. It starts with UK bed sizes, then the space each side of a bed needs, then three plans drawn to scale for the room sizes we see most in UK homes: 3 × 3 m, 3 × 3.5 m and 3 × 4 m.

Every number names its source. Most are designers' rules: conventions that work in real homes, not results from a study. Where a building standard exists, we say so.

UK bed sizes, in cm

The mattress is not the whole bed. A frame or divan is usually a few centimetres wider and longer, and a headboard adds more, so check the listed outside size before you measure. In our plans we draw each bed 5 cm wider and 10 cm longer than its mattress. Beds from IKEA and other European makers can differ too: their king is often 160 × 200 cm.

From those sizes and the gaps below, here is the smallest floor each bed needs. This is our own arithmetic, with 75 cm beside each open side and 75 cm at the foot, on the mattress size.

The space to leave round a bed

The figures agree more than they differ. Approved Document M, the building standard for accessible new homes in England, uses 750 mm, right in the middle of the designers' range. It is a rule for new builds, not for the room you live in now, but it is a good test: 75 cm leaves room to walk beside the bed, make it and reach the bedside table.

The wardrobe is where small rooms go wrong. A hinged door needs its own width of free floor to swing, 50 cm on an IKEA PAX door, plus space for you to stand in front of it. If the gap in front of the wardrobe is under about 90 cm, choose sliding doors, which need only the space to stand.

Where to put the bed

Work through the walls in this order. The first wall that passes every step is usually the right one.

1. Find a solid wall. It needs no door in it, ideally no window, and enough length for the bed plus 60–75 cm on each side you get in from. For a double that is about 2.7–2.9 m.
2. Check the door. The door must swing fully open without touching the bed. In a floor-plan study, most people chose a spot where they could see the door from the bed, so the wall opposite or beside the door often beats the wall the door is in.
3. Check the foot. Leave 75–90 cm past the foot. If the wardrobe goes there, leave about 90 cm in front of hinged doors.
4. Check the window and the radiator. A bed under a window is possible, but you lose the sill and easy reach to the curtains. Keep 20 cm between the bed and a radiator.
5. Place the storage last. Put the wardrobe where its doors open into free floor, often in the corner past the foot of the bed.

Plan 1: the 3 × 3 m room with a double

A 3 × 3 m room is common as the second bedroom of a semi, or the main bedroom of a flat. A double fits well. With its head centred on one wall, the bed leaves 80 cm on each side and 100 cm at its foot.

The wardrobe goes in the corner past the foot of the bed, 100 cm wide with two 50 cm hinged doors. Its doors swing into the free floor, not into the bed, and the same floor is the route from the door to the window. A bedside table on each side, about 40 cm square, sits at the head end and leaves the 80 cm walkway along the rest of the bed.

A king in the same room? It fits, at about 155 × 210 cm with its frame. That leaves about 72 cm on each side and 90 cm at the foot, and the wardrobe in the corner shrinks to about 75 cm wide. If you need more storage, choose a bed with drawers or a lift-up base: Silentnight notes that an ottoman bed needs room to open, so keep the foot clear.

Plan 2: the 3 × 3.5 m room with a king

A 3 × 3.5 m room is a typical main bedroom in a new-build house. Here a king takes the 3 m wall, with 70 cm on the window side and 75 cm on the door side. The door is on the right wall and swings clear of the bed.

A 200 cm sliding wardrobe runs along the bottom wall, 80 cm from the foot of the bed. With hinged doors that gap would be too tight: about 90 cm is the guide. With sliding doors, 80 cm is plenty to stand in, and the wardrobe holds twice as much as the one in Plan 1. Sliding doors add a few centimetres to the depth, so check the listed size.

Prefer a double? Swap the king for a double and you gain 15 cm across and 10 cm at the foot. Centred on the wall, it leaves about 80 cm on each side and 90 cm at the foot, enough for hinged doors.

Plan 3: the 3 × 4 m room with a king and a desk

At 3 × 4 m, there is room for a desk as well as a king. The king keeps its 70 and 75 cm sides, and the foot of the bed now has 130 cm before the wardrobe. That is enough for hinged doors and someone standing at them.

The desk, 100 × 50 cm, sits under the window on the right wall, where it gets the daylight, and its chair stands in the free floor past the foot of the bed. The door, in the corner, swings clear of both. A 160 × 230 cm rug turned across the bed runs about 40 cm past each side of the mattress. Our rug size calculator works out bedroom rugs for your own bed and room.

The trade-off: with the desk in the bedroom, the walkway from the door to the bed bends round the chair. Push the chair in under the desk and the route is clear again.

How big is a double bedroom in the UK?

For new homes in England, the Nationally Described Space Standard (2015) gives the sizes. Councils apply it where their local plan adopts it, so it is not a rule for every home.

So by the standard, a 3 × 3 m room (9 m²) is a large single, and a 3 × 4 m room (12 m²) is a double. Many older homes call a 3 × 3 m room a double, and as Plan 1 shows, a double bed fits it well. When you read "small double bedroom" on a listing, ask for the measurements in metres.

Small bedroom ideas that save floor

• Sliding wardrobe doors. They save the 50 cm or so a hinged door sweeps. In a narrow gap, they are the difference between a wardrobe that works and one that hits the bed.
• A shallow wardrobe. IKEA's PAX comes 35 cm deep as well as 58 cm, which wins back over 20 cm of floor. Check how a shallow wardrobe hangs clothes before you buy.
• Storage under the bed. Drawers or a lift-up base hold what a chest of drawers (about 45 × 75 cm) would. Drawers need room to open beside the bed, and a lift-up base needs nothing in its way.
• Wall lights or a narrow shelf instead of bedside tables. A 40 cm table becomes a shelf 20–25 cm deep, and the walkway grows to match. Our warm white or cool white guide covers which bulbs bedrooms usually get.
• The TV on the wall. A TV unit takes floor, and a screen on the wall takes none. If you watch in bed, the TV height and distance calculator works from your eye height sitting up against the headboard.
• Art above the headboard, not a shelf. We use the same 15–25 cm gap above a headboard that designers use above a sofa. The picture height calculator turns it into a hook height.

Six mistakes we see in small bedrooms

• Measuring the mattress, not the bed. A frame and headboard can add 10 cm or more to the length.
• Hinged doors in a tight gap. If the wardrobe doors hit the bed, you open them halfway every day.
• The door swing forgotten. A door that opens only partway onto the bed makes the room feel cramped before you are in it.
• A double pushed against the wall for two people. It frees floor, but one person climbs over the other.
• A bed tight to the radiator. Leave 20 cm, and keep the valve within reach.
• Forgetting the way in. The most common internal door in England and Wales is 762 mm wide (Howarth Timber), and bed frames and mattresses also have to turn on the stairs. Check before you order.

Working with a very small room? Our box room ideas show three layouts for a 2.4 × 3 m room, drawn the same way.

Try the layout in your own room

Paper plans show what usually works. Snuug, the iPhone room app, shows what works in your room. You walk once round it with your iPhone, and Snuug rebuilds it in 3D to within about 3% of its real size in our tests of ten homes. Then you can move the bed to every wall in 5 cm steps, open the wardrobe doors and watch the walkway, and paste a shop link to see that king-size frame in your room before you buy it. Our team checks every room by hand before it reaches you, and your first room is free.

Questions

What is the best layout for a small bedroom?

Put the head of the bed on a solid wall, keep a walkway of 60–75 cm on each side you get in from, and keep the door's swing and the wardrobe doors clear of the bed. Then fit the wardrobe where its doors open into free floor, often past the foot of the bed.

Where should a bed be placed in a bedroom?

On a wall with no door or window in it, where it leaves 60–75 cm on both sides and 75–90 cm at the foot, and where you can see the door from the bed. In small UK rooms that is often the wall opposite or beside the door, not the wall the door is in.

How much space do you need around a bed?

Designers use about 60–75 cm (24–30 in) on each side and 75–90 cm (30–36 in) at the foot. Approved Document M asks for 750 mm to both sides and the foot of the main double bed in new accessible homes. In a single or a child's room, one long side can go against the wall.

Can you fit a king size bed in a 3 × 3 m room?

Yes. A UK king is 150 × 200 cm, about 155 × 210 cm with a frame. With its head centred on one wall it leaves about 72 cm on each side and 90 cm at the foot. The catch is storage: a wardrobe in the corner past the foot can only be about 75 cm wide.

What size is a small double bedroom in the UK?

For new homes, the Nationally Described Space Standard (2015) says a double bedroom is at least 11.5 m², at least 2.75 m wide for the main bedroom and 2.55 m for any other double. A single bedroom is at least 7.5 m² and 2.15 m wide. Many older homes have smaller 'doubles'.

Should a bed go against a wall?

In a single or a child's room, yes: pushing one long side against the wall frees 60–75 cm of floor. For a double that two people share, keep both sides open, or the person on the wall side climbs over the other.

Editorial notes

Written by the Snuug team and checked on 1 November 2026. A number with no source beside it is a designers' rule of thumb, not a study.

1. Silentnight, Mattress and bed size guide (UK sizes in cm and feet; no date on the page, read 31 Oct 2026)
2. Wikipedia, Bed size (UK sizes converted from feet and inches; US sizes; read 31 Oct 2026)
3. HM Government, Approved Document M, Volume 1, 2015 with 2016 amendments: 2.25 (750 mm access zones and route) and Appendix D (furniture schedule), read 31 Oct 2026
4. Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (27 Mar 2015, PDF of May 2016), Technical housing standards: nationally described space standard, paragraph 10
5. Homes & Gardens, An expert guide to bedroom clearances, measurements and spacing (18–36 in each side by bed size). The page came back cut short; figures from search summaries, checked 31 Oct 2026
6. Livingetc (Cunningham, 28 Jan 2026), 10 measurement rules for a better bedroom layout (a designer: two feet each side, about three feet at the foot). The page came back cut short; figure from search summaries, checked 31 Oct 2026
7. Simba, How much space do you need around a bed? (about 90 cm in front of hinged wardrobe doors, about 60 cm for sliding). The page returned HTTP 429; figures from search summaries, checked 31 Oct 2026
8. IKEA, What sizes do PAX wardrobes come in? (frames 35 or 58 cm deep; hinged doors 25 or 50 cm wide), read 31 Oct 2026
9. IKEA UK, How to choose the right rug size (about 50 cm of rug beside a bed), read 31 Oct 2026
10. Spörrle and Stich (2010), Sleeping in safe places: an experimental investigation of human sleeping place preferences, Evolutionary Psychology 8(3). We read search summaries of the abstract only
11. HOFOR (1 Jan 2021), Let the heat spread throughout the room (at least 20 cm from a radiator)
12. Howarth Timber (Green, 14 Sep 2026), UK door sizes (762 mm is the most common internal door in England and Wales)