Floating & Wall Mounted Bedside Tables & Shelves

Not sure? Put your three numbers into the size checker — gap width, depth available, and floor to the top of your mattress — and it will tell you exactly which of our tables fit.

Everything below fixes to the wall and leaves the floor clear underneath. All but three are solid mango wood; the three Wey pieces are oak wood, as their maker describes them. We publish the width, the depth and the height of the carcass in centimetres on every one. We do not publish a “total height”, because there is no such thing on a piece that hangs.

Three size bands: 30 to 35 cm, 40 cm and 45 cm

Coln and the Medway 35 have rounded corners: they are also in curved bedside tables.

Where to fix it

Measure from your floor to the top of your mattress, then set the top surface of the table within about five centimetres of that number. On a divan that usually means somewhere around 55 to 65 cm. On a platform bed it is more like 40 to 50 cm.

Those figures come from the published sizes we recorded: the width, depth and height of 262 floor-standing bedside tables for our height study and found a median height of 57 cm, with two thirds between 55 and 65 cm. Wall-mounted units were deliberately left out of that study, precisely because their height is a decision rather than a specification — which is why the study is the right thing to read before you pick up a drill. The height guide is here, with a chart you are free to reuse.

Should a bedside table be higher or lower than the bed?

Level with the top of the mattress, or very slightly above it. A surface more than about ten centimetres below the mattress means reaching down for a glass of water in the dark, every night. More than about five centimetres above and it is in the way when you sit up. A wall-mounted table is the only kind where you get to hit that number exactly.

Are floating bedside tables sturdy?

That depends almost entirely on the wall and the fixing, not on the table. Plasterboard, solid brick and dot-and-dab all behave differently and all need different hardware.

Where the maker publishes a load, the tops are rated for 10 to 20 kg and the drawers for 0.5 to 2 kg; ask us for the figure of the table you are looking at. Fixings are not included, because the right fixing is the one that suits your wall. Tell us what your wall is made of and we will help you choose before you buy.

Bedside shelf, floating nightstand, wall-mounted table — what is it called?

All the same thing, and the name usually tells you who wrote the listing rather than what the piece is. Bedside shelf is what people search for; floating nightstand is the American term; wall-mounted bedside table is what the trade calls it. Most of the pieces below have an open shelf or niche, on its own or with a drawer, so both words are literally true of them; a few have drawers only.

One thing worth separating, because the search results mix them up: a clip-on bed shelf is a tray that clamps to a bunk or bed frame and holds a phone. That is a different object and we do not sell it. Everything here fixes to the wall and carries a lamp, a book and a glass.

What can I use instead of a bedside cabinet?

If the floor space is the problem, a wall-mounted piece is the honest answer: it takes the same top surface and gives the floor back, which also makes hoovering and radiator access easier. If you would rather keep something standing, our narrow bedside tables go down to 20 cm wide.

Beyond furniture, people genuinely use a wall shelf, a stool, a stack of books or a small chest of drawers. All of those work. What none of them do is give you a published width, depth and height in centimetres before you commit — which is the part we can help with. Put your three numbers into the size checker and it will tell you what fits. We measured each of those alternatives in bedside table alternatives.

Which fixing for which wall

This is the part that decides whether a wall-mounted table is solid or not, and it has nothing to do with the table. Most bedroom walls in Britain are one of four types.

Fixings are not supplied with these tables: the maker's specification lists no screws. That is no loss, because a single set of screws cannot be right for four different walls, and the wrong one is worse than none.

For the pieces where the maker has not given a load, we do not publish one. We could copy a number from a competitor and you would never know, but it is the one figure you would actually be relying on with a lamp on the thing. If you are unsure what your wall is, or you want to put real weight on it, ask a joiner or a builder. It is a ten-minute job for someone who does it every week.

Tell us what your wall is made of and we will tell you what we know before you buy — including when the honest answer is that we do not know.

What you are buying

Solid mango wood, not veneer and not vinyl wrap, except the three Wey pieces, which their maker describes as oak wood without saying solid. Grain, tone and knot pattern differ from one piece to the next, which is how solid wood behaves and not a fault. Finishes are named as finishes: a table described as California walnut is mango wood with a California walnut stain, and we say so rather than filing it under walnut.

Free delivery everywhere in the UK, dispatched from a UK warehouse: three working days to the mainland. Fourteen days to change your mind, as the Consumer Contracts Regulations 2013 require.

If the floor space is the problem but you would rather keep a normal table, look at the narrow bedside tables instead — they start at 20 cm wide.

Short of storage everywhere, not only beside the bed? Our guide to small bedroom storage ideas gives the floor each option takes and what it holds.