A UK double bed is 4ft 6in wide by 6ft 3in long. In metric that is 135cm by 190cm. Rounded to whole feet, a double bed is about 4.5ft wide and just over 6ft long, and the frame around the mattress usually adds a further 2in to 6in on each side.
The 4ft 6in figure is where the old British trade name comes from. Ask for a four foot six in a furniture shop and you will be shown a standard double, in the same way that a three foot means a single and a five foot means a king size.
Britain still uses both systems, and beds sit awkwardly across the two. Mattresses are manufactured to metric sizes, yet the trade names are imperial. Knowing both makes shopping far easier, especially when comparing older furniture against new.
A single is 3ft by 6ft 3in, or 90cm by 190cm. A small double is 4ft by 6ft 3in, or 120cm by 190cm. A double is 4ft 6in by 6ft 3in, or 135cm by 190cm. A king size is 5ft by 6ft 6in, or 150cm by 200cm. A super king is 6ft by 6ft 6in, or 180cm by 200cm.
Notice that only the king sizes gain length. Singles, small doubles and doubles all stop at 6ft 3in, so moving from a single to a double gives you width and nothing else.
Rough planning is quicker in feet. A double bed occupies roughly 5ft by 7ft of floor once the frame is counted, and a comfortable walkway is about 2ft. That gives a working rule: a bedroom of 9ft by 10ft holds a double with access on one side, and 10ft by 11ft holds one with access on both.
Once you move from planning to ordering, switch back to centimetres. Product listings, delivery packaging and doorway measurements are all given in metric, and mixing the two systems at that stage is where mistakes creep in. Use feet to sketch the layout and centimetres to check the fit.
The 4ft 6in measurement describes the mattress, not the bed. A slim metal frame might add only an inch on each side. A wooden frame with corner posts can add three or four inches. An upholstered frame with padded rails and a deep surround can add six inches or more, which is half a foot of extra floor.
Headboard height also changes the feel of the room even though it does not affect the footprint. A tall headboard draws the eye upwards and suits a room with high ceilings, while a low profile design keeps a small room feeling open. Both are worth comparing across our modern double fabric beds UK sale range, where external sizes are listed alongside the mattress size.
In tight British bedrooms, the gap between a small double at 4ft and a double at 4ft 6in decides whether the room works. That six inches can be the difference between a wardrobe door opening fully and catching on the mattress, or between a clear walkway and a permanent squeeze.
If the room is close to the limit, measure the wall that will hold the wardrobe first, then work backwards to the bed size. Losing six inches of mattress width is a smaller sacrifice than losing access to your clothes. Our modern small double wooden beds UK selection covers the narrower size in solid finishes for exactly this situation.
Where the room allows it, hinged wardrobe doors can be swapped for sliding ones, which need no clear arc at all. That change alone often makes a full double possible in a room that seemed too small.
A double bed arrives flat packed, but the longest single piece is still over 6ft. Measure the front door, the narrowest turn on the staircase, the landing and the bedroom door, and compare those figures against the packaging dimensions on the listing rather than the assembled bed size.
Older properties with tight dogleg staircases are the usual problem. If access is genuinely restricted, a divan base that splits into two halves is easier to get upstairs than a rigid frame, and a rolled mattress is easier again than a traditional sprung one.
Bedding follows metric sizing, but the imperial equivalents are useful when buying secondhand or older linen. A double fitted sheet covers 4ft 6in by 6ft 3in. A double duvet is 6ft 6in square, or 200cm by 200cm. A king duvet is around 7ft 4in by 7ft 2in, which is why so many couples use one on a double bed for extra drop.
Check the mattress depth as well as the width and length. Sheets are often described in inches for depth, with standard styles suiting mattresses up to 10in and deep styles reaching 14in or more.
With the bed at 4ft 6in, the remaining wall space decides what else fits. A chest of drawers typically needs 2ft 6in to 3ft 6in of wall and around 1ft 6in of clear floor to open, so measure both before choosing a width. Our modern chest of drawers UK sale range lists depth as well as width, which is the figure that affects the walkway.
Wardrobes are the larger commitment. A two door design usually spans around 3ft, while a three door reaches 4ft 6in or more, and the depth of about 2ft is fixed by hanging space rather than style. Compare the options in our modern wardrobes UK collection against the wall you have available.
Bedside cabinets should sit close to mattress height so the surface is easy to reach, and slim depths of around 1ft 3in keep the walkway clear beside a double. Everything at Furniture in Fashion is listed with full dimensions, so you can plan the whole room in one pass rather than piece by piece.
One foot is 30.48cm and one inch is 2.54cm, which is why bed sizes never convert to neat round numbers. A 4ft 6in double works out at 137.16cm in strict conversion, yet the mattress is made at 135cm. The trade names were set before metric manufacturing and were rounded for convenience rather than accuracy.
That small discrepancy explains why some listings quote 4ft 6in and others quote 135cm without either being wrong. When the two figures appear together, trust the centimetres, because that is what the mattress is cut to.
The same applies further up the range. A king size is sold as 5ft but measures 150cm rather than 152cm, and a super king is sold as 6ft but measures 180cm rather than 183cm. Anyone comparing British beds against American sizing needs to work in centimetres to avoid a costly mistake on bedding.
The first error is measuring the room in feet and the furniture in centimetres, then comparing the two without converting. It sounds obvious, yet it is the reason a surprising number of wardrobes arrive and will not fit.
The second is measuring only the widest part of the room. Skirting boards, radiators, boxed in pipework and window reveals all reduce the usable dimension, sometimes by several inches, and they never appear on a floor plan.
The third is forgetting to allow for the door swing. A standard internal door needs an arc of roughly 2ft 6in of clear floor, and a bed placed inside that arc will stop the door short every time it opens.
A steel tape rather than a fabric one avoids a fourth problem, since fabric tapes stretch over longer runs and can read short by an inch or more across a room. Measure twice, write the figures down, and take them with you rather than trusting memory.
British beds are still described in feet because the sizes were fixed long before metric manufacturing arrived, and the names stayed because they are quicker to say. Four foot six carries less effort than 135 centimetres, and everyone in the trade understands it immediately.
The consequence is that you will meet both systems in the same shop, sometimes on the same page. A frame may be listed as a 4ft 6in double while the mattress beneath it is specified at 135cm by 190cm. They describe the same bed, and neither figure is wrong.
Imported furniture is where care is needed, because it is quoted in inches to overseas sizing rather than British feet. A bed sold abroad as a queen or a full is not a British double, and the gap is enough to leave bedding loose or straining at the corners. Check the centimetre figures on anything imported before buying linen to match it.
A UK double is 4ft 6in wide, which is 135cm. This is why the trade name for the size is a four foot six.
The mattress is 6ft 3in long, or 190cm. Frames often add a couple of inches to the overall length.
No. A 5ft bed is a UK king size at 150cm. A double is 4ft 6in, six inches narrower.
That is a small double, also called a three quarter bed, measuring 120cm by 190cm. It sits between a single and a standard double.
Allow roughly 5ft by 7ft for the bed itself, plus about 2ft of walkway on any side you need to use.
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