UK Bed Sizes: The Complete Guide

British bed sizes are still spoken about in feet and sold in centimetres, which is the first reason people order the wrong one. This is every UK size, in both measurements, with the room clearances we would want in our own homes. We make beds to all of these sizes — and to measurements outside them — so we have no interest in persuading you upward. Buy the size the room can carry.

UK bed and mattress sizes

Mattresses match these dimensions exactly — a double mattress is the same 135 × 190cm as a double bed. A bed frame is always larger than both: allow for the headboard depth and, on storage designs, clearance for the base to lift.

Width per person — the comparison nobody publishes clearly

This is worth sitting with. Two adults in a double bed each have less width than a child in a single. It is the honest answer to why couples who "sleep badly together" often sleep perfectly well apart — the bed is usually the cause, not the relationship. A super king is the first shared size that gives each person a full single bed's width.

Will it fit the room?

The mattress is not the constraint. The space to walk, to open a wardrobe, and to make the bed is. Allow 60–75cm to walk down a side, 90cm if a wardrobe opens into it, and 50cm at the foot.

Two things people forget. A strutted headboard adds 8–12cm to the bed's footprint, where a wall-mounted headboard adds almost nothing — which is how a tight room sometimes takes the next size up. And a doorway, stair turn or landing may not pass a made-up frame at all: measure the narrowest point of the route before you order, not after.

Double or king?

A king is 15cm wider and 10cm longer than a double — and the length is the part that decides it. At 190cm, a double is short for anyone approaching six foot. At 200cm, a king is not. Choose a double if the wall run is under 2.6m, if it is a guest room, or if floor space matters more than sleeping space. Choose a king if either of you is over 5ft 10in, if you sleep restlessly, or if the room can carry it. The full double-vs-king comparison is here.

King or super king?

A super king is 30cm wider — the largest single step between any two UK sizes — and gives each person the width of a single bed. It needs a 3.1m wall run to sit comfortably, and super king bedding is dearer and less widely stocked. Take it if the room is genuinely large; a super king in a small room reads as a mistake rather than a luxury.

UK sizes are not EU or US sizes

A UK king (150cm) is narrower than an EU king (160cm) and roughly a US queen. European mattresses are also usually 200cm long where UK doubles are 190cm — so EU bedding will not sit correctly on a UK double, and a UK double mattress will not fill an EU frame. This is the single most common measuring mistake we are asked about.

Duvet and bedding sizes

There is no separate small-double duvet — a double duvet is used, with more overhang. Check the mattress depth when buying fitted sheets: a deep mattress with a topper can need a 35–40cm skirt, which is the usual reason a sheet will not stay on.

When no standard size fits

Standard sizes exist for the convenience of warehouses, not houses. Older properties, loft conversions, box rooms and chimney breasts routinely defeat them. We build to measurement — a frame cut narrower to clear a breast wall, a shorter length for a room under a slope, a base split so the bed can make the turn upstairs. If you have measured a room and no standard size fits, that is a normal request here rather than an exotic one. Orders generally take 2–4 weeks.