Low Bedside Tables

Who needs a low one

The rule that matters is simple: the top of the table should be within about 5 cm of the top of your mattress. Reaching up for a glass of water in the dark is what a mismatched table feels like, and it is the one thing a photograph never shows you.

A divan puts the mattress top around 55 to 65 cm off the floor, and the standard 57 cm table suits it. But a platform or low-profile bed frame lands nearer 40 to 50 cm, a futon lower still, a floor bed or a Japanese-style frame lower again. Against any of those, a normal bedside table stands over the bed rather than beside it.

The other case is a child's room. A toddler bed sits low, and a table the child can actually reach from the mattress is the one that gets used. Every one of these is described by the maker as 100 % solid mango wood, so there is no glass top and no veneer to chip. On the rest we can only tell you what we know: the maker states no anti-tip fixing and cites no children’s furniture standard for them, so treat them as ordinary furniture and anchor anything free-standing to the wall in a child’s room.

Measure this, not the box

Measure from the floor to the top of the mattress with the mattress on the bed, not from the frame. A thick mattress changes the answer by 10 cm or more, and it is the surface you reach from that counts. The height guide sets out the full distribution and where the often-repeated "61 to 71 cm" figure came from — it does not match the catalogue we recorded.

If height is fine and it is width that is tight, start from the narrow range instead, or see every bedside table we sell.

Questions

What height bedside table do I need for a low bed?
Measure from the floor to the top of the mattress with the mattress on the bed, then choose a table within about 5 cm of that figure. A platform or low-profile frame usually lands between 40 and 50 cm, which is well below the 57 cm median of the 262 UK bedside tables we recorded.

Why are most bedside tables too tall for a platform bed?
Because they are built for a divan. A divan puts the mattress top around 55 to 65 cm off the floor, and two thirds of the tables we recorded stand between 55 and 65 cm to match it. A platform bed sits 10 to 20 cm lower, so the standard table stands over the bed instead of beside it.

What bedside table suits a futon or a floor bed?
Something in the 40 cm range, or lower if you can find it. On a futon or a Japanese-style low frame the mattress top can sit under 30 cm, and at that point a conventional table is nearly twice the height of the surface you are reaching from. Reaching up in the dark is the complaint, not the look.

Furnishing a child's room? The kids bedside tables are the low and narrow ones with rounded edges, most of them 40 cm tall.