Small bedroom layout ideas, measured

In a small bedroom, put the head of the bed against the longest wall with no door or window in it, and keep 75 cm clear along each side you need to walk. A double bed (135 cm) then needs a room 285 cm wide to sit centred. Below that, push one side against the wall.

This guide works through small bedroom layouts with the numbers that decide them: bed sizes from the National Bed Federation, the 75 cm clearances that the Building Regulations use for accessible homes, and the 40 cm bedside table that both those regulations and our own measurements point to. Every room size below is simple arithmetic on those published figures, so you can redo it with a tape measure in your own room.

Updated 12 October 2026 by Serge.

The numbers that decide a small bedroom layout

Three published figures do most of the work.

The bed. UK bed sizes, as listed by the National Bed Federation: a single is 90 × 190 cm, a small double 120 × 190 cm, a double 135 × 190 cm, a king 150 × 200 cm and a super king 180 × 200 cm. Those are mattress sizes; a bed frame or a headboard can add to them, so measure the frame you own or the one you are about to buy.

The space beside it. Approved Document M, the part of the Building Regulations on access, sets out what an accessible and adaptable home needs (category M4(2)). Every bedroom has a clear route at least 750 mm wide from the door to the window. The main double bedroom has a clear zone of 750 mm along both sides and the foot of the bed; other double bedrooms need it along one side and the foot; single bedrooms along one side. These rules only bind new homes whose planning permission asks for them, but 75 cm is a sound working figure for any room, because it is the width the regulations treat as enough for a wide range of people to reach and use the bed.

The room. The nationally described space standard, which councils in England can apply to new homes, asks for a double bedroom of at least 11.5 m², with one double bedroom at least 2.75 m wide and any other at least 2.55 m wide. A single bedroom is at least 7.5 m² and 2.15 m wide. The government is clear that it is not a building regulation and has no other legal use, so treat it as a benchmark, not a test your room has to pass.

Room width needed, by bed size

Add the bed width to the clear space you want beside it. With 75 cm on each side, or with one side pushed against the wall and 75 cm on the other:

Set those against the space standard. In a 2.75 m room, a centred double leaves 70 cm on each side, 5 cm short of 75; a king leaves 62.5 cm. In a 2.55 m second bedroom, a centred double leaves 60 cm a side and a small double 67.5 cm. So a double bedroom built to the minimum width works with the bed centred, but the walkways are tight, and that is before radiators and skirting.

Five small bedroom layouts that work

1. Centred on the wall opposite the door

The default for a main bedroom, and the best one when the width allows it: both sleepers get their own side, each with a bedside table, and nobody climbs over anybody. It needs the bed width plus 150 cm for two 75 cm walkways, so 285 cm for a double and 300 cm for a king. Choose the wall opposite the door if you can, so the door does not open onto the side of the bed.

2. One side against the wall

When the room is narrower than the bed plus 150 cm, push one long side of the bed against the wall. A double then needs 210 cm of width for a 75 cm walkway on the open side, and a 240 cm room leaves 105 cm: enough for a bedside table at the head and a comfortable path. The cost is real. Whoever sleeps on the wall side climbs over the other to get out, and there is room for only one bedside table. For a guest room or a single sleeper that is a small price; for a couple who get up at different times, consider a narrower bed first.

3. Across the short wall, so a wardrobe fits at the foot

Which way round the bed goes decides what fits at its foot. With the head on a short wall, the bed runs down the length of the room and leaves the most floor beyond it. The furniture schedule in Approved Document M uses a double wardrobe 600 mm deep. A wardrobe facing the foot of a double bed, with 75 cm clear between them, needs 190 + 75 + 60 = 325 cm of room length; for a king, 335 cm. If the room is shorter than that in both directions, the wardrobe goes on a side wall, and the walkway on that side has to be measured from the wardrobe front, not from the wall. Hinged doors also need their own width to swing open. Sliding doors do not.

4. Head under the window, only if no other wall works

Sometimes the only unbroken wall is the one with the window in it. A bed there can work, but you lose the clear route to the window that the access rules ask for, the curtains or blind sit behind the headboard, and if the radiator is under the window, the bed covers it. Try every other wall first, and if the window wins, use a low headboard and a blind you can reach from the side.

5. In the corner, for a single bed

A single bed in a corner uses two walls and leaves the whole remaining floor open, which is why it suits box rooms and children's rooms. The access rules only ask for clear space along one side of a single bed, so the corner costs nothing against them. Our guide to box room ideas works through that arithmetic for the smallest bedrooms.

Bedside tables in a small bedroom

The furniture schedule in Approved Document M allows for two bedside tables of 400 × 400 mm in every double bedroom. That 40 cm matches the median width of the 262 bedside tables we recorded for our height study, where half sit between 36 and 45 cm wide. The same document allows bedside furniture inside the 750 mm zone, so a table at the head of the bed does not count against your walkway: you walk past it, not through it.

What decides the table is the strip between the bed and the wall. Measure it at its narrowest point, skirting and radiator valves included, and take off 2 cm so the table goes in without scraping:

Within the 32 to 41 cm band, subtract 2 cm from your own measurement before choosing: a 32 cm gap allows a 30 cm table, and a 36 cm table needs at least 38 cm. Check your exact measurements.

In the centred layout above, a 75 cm strip takes a 40 cm table with 33 cm to spare beside it. In a 2.55 m room the strip is 60 cm and the same table still fits. With one side against the wall, the table goes on the open side; the wall side has no room for one. If the two sides of the bed differ, the tables can too: what matters is that their tops sit within about 5 cm of the mattress. The size checker works out the width, the depth and the height from three numbers.

Doors, windows and radiators

A door sweeps a quarter circle as wide as its leaf. Internal doors in the UK come in standard leaf widths that include 686, 762 and 838 mm, so mark the arc on the floor before you place anything near the door: a bedside table or a wardrobe inside it means a door that will not open fully. The access rules also ask for a 750 mm route from the door to the window, which is a useful check in any small bedroom. If you cannot walk to the window without edging sideways, something is in the wrong place.

Radiators are the other fixed point. A bed or a bedside table pressed against one blocks the warm air it gives off, and a radiator under the window makes that wall a poor choice for the bed. Where a radiator, a socket or the skirting takes the floor beside the bed, a wall-mounted bedside table keeps that floor clear.

Awkward small bedroom layouts

Most awkward rooms come down to one of four problems, and the same numbers solve them: the bed size and 75 cm to walk.

A long, narrow room

Try the bed across the room first. With the head on a long wall, the room has to be as wide as the bed is long, plus 75 cm at the foot: 265 cm for a single, small double or double, 275 cm for a king. If the room is narrower than that, turn the bed to run along the length. It then needs 210 cm of width for a double with one side against the wall, or 285 cm to centre it. The rest of the length is free for the wardrobe and a desk at the far end.

A chimney breast with alcoves

Put the head of the bed against the chimney breast and the bedside tables in the alcoves either side. Measure each alcove across at its narrowest and take off 2 cm: that is the widest table that fits. Then measure how deep the alcove is. A table deeper than the alcove sticks out beyond the breast, and two different alcoves may need two different tables. Narrow alcoves are where our narrow bedside tables, from 20 cm wide, earn their place.

A door in the middle of a wall

It splits the long wall in two, and often neither half takes the bed. Put the bed on the wall opposite, or on a short wall with its foot towards the door, keeping the door's swing clear (see doors, windows and radiators).

A box over the stairs

The bulkhead over a staircase takes floor that looks free but is not, because nothing tall stands on it. It suits a low chest or the foot of a raised bed. Our box room ideas work through this case in centimetres.

Small bedroom layout with a desk

The furniture schedule in Approved Document M includes a desk and chair of 500 × 1050 mm in every double bedroom, and a table and chair of the same size in every single bedroom. So a desk is part of what a bedroom of that standard is expected to take, not an extra. Keep the same 75 cm working figure in front of it to pull the chair out and walk past, and a desk takes 125 cm from the wall.

It usually goes under the window, where the bed should not go anyway, or at the foot of the bed if the room is long enough for the bed, 75 cm and the desk.

Small double or double?

A small double is 120 cm wide, 15 cm narrower than a double, and the National Bed Federation describes it as suited to guest rooms and smaller bedrooms. Two people in a small double get 60 cm each, against 67.5 cm in a double and 75 cm in a king. That 15 cm can be the difference between a bedside table and none: in a 240 cm room with the bed against the wall, a small double leaves 120 cm on the open side instead of 105 cm. For a bed that is mostly used by one person, or by guests, it is worth it. For two people who share it every night, look for those 15 cm somewhere else first.

If you are shopping for the space beside the bed, our small bedside tables are all 20 to 40 cm wide, sorted by width.

Sources

Bed sizes: National Bed Federation, Bed sizes UK. Clear access zones and furniture schedule: Approved Document M, volume 1, paragraph 2.25 and appendix D. Room sizes: Technical housing standards: nationally described space standard. Door sizes: Designing Buildings Wiki. Bedside table widths: the published sizes of 262 tables we recorded. For storage in the same small room, see small bedroom storage ideas, and for what to put beside the bed, bedside table ideas.