Bed Sizes UK: Bed & Mattress Size Guides

Need to know the standard UK mattress sizes before committing to a new bed? You’re in exactly the right place. We’ve put together this complete guide to every UK bed and mattress size so you can shop with confidence, whether you’re looking to upgrade to a king size for the first time, squeeze a super king into a loft room, or figure out whether that antique bed frame can actually be matched with a modern mattress.

This is the guide we wish had existed when we started making mattresses here in Manchester. We’ll cover every size from small single through to extra king, plus zip and link options, Continental sizes, mattress depths, weights, and the questions our bed geeks team get asked most often. If you want to skip straight to a particular size, use the links below.

In brief, the table below shows all the standard bed and mattress sizes in the UK.

Jump To:

1. Standard UK bed and mattress sizes
2. The most popular UK bed size
3. Small single mattress size
4. Single mattress size
5. Small double mattress size
6. Double mattress size
7. King size mattress size
8. Super king size mattress size
9. Extra king size mattress size
10. How to choose the right bed size for your room
11. Zip and link mattress sizes
12. Best mattress size for tall people
13. Best mattress size for couples
14. Does a larger mattress mean better sleep?
15. Continental and European mattress sizes
16. Mattress depths
17. Mattress vs bed base sizes
18. Bed base sizes
19. How are divan mattress bases split?
20. How much does a mattress weigh?
21. Mattress size FAQs

Standard UK Bed and Mattress Sizes

The following are the standard UK mattress and bed sizes for which we make our mattresses and bed bases here in Manchester. Every mattress in our Origins and Artisan ranges is made to these exact dimensions. If you need something non-standard, our bespoke service can accommodate almost any size requirement, so please do get in touch.

One thing worth knowing straight away: in the UK, bed frames take their name from the size of the mattress they hold, not from their own outer dimensions. A king size bed frame holds a king size mattress, but the frame itself will always be slightly larger than the mattress. We cover the difference in detail further down this guide.

What is the Most Popular UK Bed Size?

The most popular UK bed size is the king size mattress (150cm x 200cm / 5ft x 6ft 6in), having overtaken the double bed in recent years. It’s the size we sell most of by a considerable margin, and for good reason. A king size gives two adults genuinely comfortable sleeping space without necessarily requiring a huge bedroom to accommodate it.

The rise in popularity of king size beds has been helped enormously by zip and link mattresses, which allow even houses with narrow stairwells or tight access to take a king or super king size mattress. We offer zip and link versions across our entire handmade range, so access really isn’t the barrier it once was.

What Size is a Small Single Mattress?

A small single mattress measures 80cm x 190cm (2ft 6in x 6ft 3in). Small singles are the right choice for saving space in a box room or for young children’s bed frames, where a standard single would be too wide. They also suit the narrower children’s beds designed for toddlers transitioning from a cot.

Worth noting: small single bedding can be harder to source than other sizes, so factor that in before committing to a small single frame. Standard single bedding will not fit properly on a small single mattress.

What Size is a Single Mattress?

A single mattress measures 90cm x 190cm (3ft x 6ft 3in). Singles are suitable for one person from around four years old right through to adulthood, and remain the standard size for most children’s beds including bunk beds. They’re also the default choice for spare rooms where space is a priority.

If you’re buying a single for a teenager or an adult who is taller than average, it’s worth considering that 190cm (6ft 3in) is not particularly long. Anyone over about 5ft 10in may find their feet uncomfortably close to the end. In that case, a single mattress in a European size (90cm x 200cm) or a custom length may be worth exploring.

What Size is a Small Double Mattress?

A small double mattress measures 120cm x 190cm (4ft x 6ft 3in). Small doubles are sometimes marketed as a “queen size”, but this is actually a different thing entirely. The US queen size is closer to a UK standard double in width, so don’t let that terminology trip you up when shopping online.

A small double is a practical choice for a bedroom that cannot comfortably fit a full double but needs to sleep two adults occasionally, or for a solo sleeper who wants more room than a single without the footprint of a double. The trade-off is a fairly snug fit for two adults sharing, with each person having around 60cm of personal width to work with.

What Size is a Double Mattress?

A double mattress measures 135cm x 190cm (4ft 6in x 6ft 3in). The double was historically the most common UK mattress size, though king size has now taken that crown. The majority of UK bedrooms are designed around the double, so it remains one of the most widely available sizes for both mattresses and frames.

Here’s something worth pausing on, though. A standard double gives each person sharing the bed just 67.5cm of sleeping width. That’s roughly the same amount of space a baby has in a cot. It’s also worth noting that at 190cm in length, a double is only 6ft 3in long, meaning anyone taller than about 5ft 11in will find their feet very close to the edge.

If you’re buying a double for two adults and have any flexibility at all in your bedroom dimensions, it’s worth seriously considering a king size instead. The extra 15cm of width and 10cm of length make a genuine, noticeable difference to how well both of you sleep.

What Size is a King Size Mattress?

A king size mattress measures 150cm x 200cm (5ft x 6ft 6in). This is the UK’s most popular size and our most popular seller. The extra width over a double means two adults each have around 75cm of personal sleeping space, and the 200cm length accommodates most people comfortably, including taller sleepers up to around 6ft 2in.

If you’re asking whether to upgrade from a double to a king, our honest answer is almost always yes, provided your bedroom can take it. The difference in how well you sleep is not marginal. Less disruption from your partner moving in the night, more freedom to change position, and genuinely waking up feeling more rested. We’ve had customers tell us it was the most impactful sleep upgrade they ever made.

Our king size mattresses start from £890 for the Origins Comfort and range through to £5,550 for the handmade Legacy Two. There’s a king size for every budget and sleep requirement.

What Size is a Super King Size Mattress?

A super king size mattress measures 180cm x 200cm (6ft x 6ft 6in). A super king gives two adults each 90cm of sleeping width, which is genuinely luxurious. It’s the right choice for couples who value maximum space, for families who regularly have small children or pets in bed, or simply for anyone who likes to sleep like a starfish without apology.

The main consideration with a super king is bedroom size. You need a decent room to accommodate one without it dominating the space entirely. As a rough guide, allow for at least 60cm of clearance on both sides and at the foot of the bed to move around comfortably. That means your room needs to be at least 3.8m x 3.8m to work well with a super king.

If stairwell access is a concern, a super king zip and link mattress splits into two pieces measuring 90cm x 200cm each, which will get through virtually any access route.

What Size is an Extra King Size Mattress?

An extra king size mattress measures 180cm x 190cm (6ft x 6ft 3in). It’s worth knowing that the extra king is the same width as a super king but 10cm shorter in length. This is a useful size if you have a super king bed frame that’s been built to a slightly shorter dimension, or if your room simply cannot accommodate the full 200cm length of a super king.

How to Choose the Right Bed Size for Your Room

Choosing the right mattress size sounds straightforward, but there are a surprising number of ways it can go wrong. The most common problem we see is people playing it too safe and going smaller than their room can actually take. The second most common is going for a size that physically won’t fit up the stairs. Here’s how to avoid both.

Measure your room properly before you do anything else. Don’t just measure floor space. Check the height of the ceiling at the foot of the stairs, measure door widths, including the frame, note where skirting boards are, and identify any alcoves or obstructions. You want to know the absolute worst-case scenario for getting a mattress into the room, not just whether it fits once it’s in.

As a general rule, allow at least 60cm of clearance around three sides of the bed (both sides and the foot) to be able to move around comfortably, change the bedding without a wrestling match, and keep the room feeling like a room rather than a mattress warehouse. For the king size, that means you ideally want a bedroom of at least 3.5m x 3.5m.

Questions to ask yourself before choosing a size

How tall is the tallest person who will sleep in this bed? The mattress should ideally be at least 10cm longer than the tallest sleeper. That means anyone over 6ft needs 200cm minimum, putting a double bed (190cm) out of the running for anyone tall.

Will the bed be shared? Two adults sharing a double have approximately the same personal space as a baby in a cot. If you share with a partner and currently feel the bed is too small, it is too small. Go up a size.

Is there a weight consideration? All of our bed bases are made to accommodate any mattress in our range without issue. However, some other retailers’ bases have weight limits, so if you’re buying a base elsewhere and pairing it with one of our mattresses, it’s worth checking. Our natural fibre mattresses can weigh up to 78kg, and a heavier filling-loaded model on a base not designed for it is a recipe for a sagging, unsupportive night’s sleep within a couple of years.

Do you have restricted access? If your stairwell is narrow, has a tight turn, or your bedroom door is less than a standard width, don’t assume a larger mattress won’t work. Zip and link mattresses solve almost every access problem, and we make them in all of our ranges from king size upwards.

Zip and Link Mattress Sizes

Zip and link mattresses are two separate mattresses that zip together along their shared edge to create one seamless sleeping surface. They are genuinely transformative for anyone with access difficulties, since each half is a completely manageable size to manoeuvre through tight staircases or awkward bedroom doors.

Beyond the access advantage, zip and links offer something that a standard mattress simply cannot: completely independent spring tensions for each half. If one partner needs a firmer feel and the other sleeps better on a softer surface, a zip and link means both of you can have exactly what you need in a single bed. Our bed geek team can advise on the best tension combination for any couple’s situation.

• King Size Zip and Link — 150cm x 200cm (each half 75cm x 200cm)
• Super King Size Zip and Link — 180cm x 200cm (each half 90cm x 200cm)
• Extra King Size Zip and Link — 180cm x 190cm (each half 90cm x 190cm)

The zips on our models are fully recessed into the mattress border, so you won’t feel them through the sleeping surface. Zipping together or apart takes about a minute once you get the knack of it, and it also makes turning your mattress significantly easier every month.

What is the Best Mattress Size for Tall People?

This is one of the most common questions our team handles, and the answer is more straightforward than people expect. If you are taller than 6ft (183cm), you need a mattress that is at least 200cm long. That rules out every standard UK single and double mattress, which are both 190cm. A king-size (200cm) or super king (200cm) is the natural starting point.

For anyone over 6ft 3in (190cm), a standard king size still only gives you 10cm of clearance from the foot of the mattress to your feet. That sounds fine in theory, but in practice, once you factor in a duvet hanging over the end and any tendency to push your feet down when you stretch, it can feel snug. In those cases, a bespoke length of 210cm or 215cm is worth considering. We can make mattresses to custom lengths as part of our bespoke service, so get in touch, and we’ll talk through the options.

One often-overlooked factor for tall sleepers is the footboard. A high or solid footboard on a bed frame can make a 200cm mattress feel significantly shorter if it forces you to fold your legs. If you are tall and buying a new bed frame alongside a new mattress, consider a low footboard or an open-ended frame.

What is the Best Mattress Size for Couples?

Honestly? Bigger than you think you need. We say this from experience rather than to upsell, because the single most common piece of feedback we get from couples who upgrade from a double to a king is some variation of “I can’t believe we waited so long.” The extra space changes how well you actually sleep, not just how comfortable the bed feels when you first lie down in a showroom.

The key numbers for couples are these: on a double mattress (135cm wide), each person has 67.5cm of personal space. That is genuinely the same as a baby in a cot. On a king size (150cm), each person has 75cm. On a super king (180cm), each person has 90cm, which starts to feel like genuine personal territory rather than an optimistic sharing arrangement.

If you and your partner have significantly different weights or builds, or if one of you moves around considerably in the night, a zip-and-link mattress with independent tensions for each side is worth serious consideration. The difference in how undisturbed the lighter or more still sleeper feels is notable. Our bed geek team help couples work out the right tension combination every day, so don’t hesitate to get in touch for a proper conversation about your specific situation.

Does a Larger Mattress Mean Better Sleep?

In most cases, yes. A larger mattress reduces sleep disturbance from your partner, and sleep disturbance is one of the most underestimated factors in how well-rested you feel the next morning. When one person moves and the movement transfers across the mattress to the other person, it can cause partial wakings that neither person fully registers but both feel the effects of the following day.

Ergonomic research from the National Bed Federation found that a full 50% of couples would buy a larger bed once they’d actually tried one. This isn’t really surprising when you consider that the average person turns 60 to 70 times in a night and that most couples are doing this within a 135cm width of shared territory on a double.

When a pocket spring mattress is chosen alongside the larger size, the improvement compounds further. Each individual pocket spring works entirely independently, meaning movement on one side of the mattress has minimal effect on the other. Combined with a king or super king width, you have both the physical space and the spring engineering working in your favour for an undisturbed night.

We spend a third of our lives in bed. By the time you turn 50, that’s around 16 years of your life spent on a mattress. Over a ten-year lifespan, every £100 spent on a better bed amounts to less than 4p per night. The right bed size, with the right mattress, is arguably the best value investment in your daily quality of life that exists.

Continental and European Mattress Sizes

European mattress sizes are broadly similar to UK sizes, but with some important differences that catch people out when buying frames or bedding from European retailers or websites. European singles and doubles tend to be both slightly wider and significantly longer than their UK counterparts.

The most common trip-up is the IKEA sizing system. IKEA uses their own dimensions that sit between UK and European standard sizes, which means a UK mattress and an IKEA bed frame are frequently not compatible. We cover this in detail in our complete IKEA mattress guide. In summary: if you have an IKEA bed frame, always measure it before ordering a replacement mattress.

IKEA’s double equivalent is 140cm x 200cm (versus the UK standard 135cm x 190cm), and their king equivalent is 160cm x 200cm (versus the UK standard 150cm x 200cm). We can make mattresses to IKEA dimensions as part of our bespoke service, though these are not covered by our standard love it or return it guarantee. Get in touch for details.