A UK king size bed is 150cm wide, which is 5ft. The mattress length is 200cm, or 6ft 6in. That width gives each of two sleepers around 75cm, which is roughly the same personal space as a single bed each, and it is the main reason couples move up from a double.
If you are comparing with sizes used elsewhere, an American king is wider still at about 193cm, and an American queen at 152cm is almost identical to our king. So a bed described as king can vary considerably depending on where the description came from. Always read the centimetre figure.
Moving from a double at 135cm to a king at 150cm sounds modest on paper. In use it is one of the more noticeable furniture upgrades in a home.
The additional width means two adults can lie without shoulders touching, which reduces the small adjustments that break sleep. The extra 10cm of length matters too: a 200cm mattress comfortably suits sleepers up to around 185cm tall, whereas a 190cm bed starts to feel short well before that.
For anyone who reads in bed, works from bed occasionally, or shares with a child in the early hours, the difference is practical rather than cosmetic. Our king size leather beds UK sale and upholstered designs both come in this size, so the choice becomes about finish rather than fit.
The mattress is 150cm. The frame is always wider. Padded side rails on a fabric or leather frame typically add 8cm to 15cm in total. Solid wooden frames with visible posts add a comparable amount, and designs with a shaped or storage foot end add length at the bottom as well.
Plan on an outer footprint of about 160cm to 168cm wide and 210cm to 218cm long. That is the rectangle you should mark on the floor plan. If the specification lists both internal and external measurements, use the external figure for the room and the internal figure for the mattress.
A king bed needs a room that can absorb its footprint and still allow movement. Allow 60cm minimum on each side you use and 70cm at the foot if you walk past it.
In a bedroom of 3.4m by 3.6m, a king sits well with bedside cabinets both sides and a chest of drawers along another wall. At 3m by 3.4m it still works if you accept slimmer bedside tables and put the wardrobe on the wall behind the door. Below 3m in width, the bed will fit but the room begins to lose its other functions, and a double usually serves better.
Bay windows, chimney breasts and radiators complicate this more than square footage does. A chimney breast can prevent a bed from centring on the natural wall, and a radiator behind the headboard wastes heat and can dry out upholstery over time. Where possible, place the bed on an internal wall and keep the radiator clear.
If the room can take more, a super king is 180cm by 200cm, which adds another 30cm of width. That gives each sleeper 90cm, the same as a full single bed, and it transforms sleep for couples who both move a great deal.
The trade off is the room. A super king footprint with clearance realistically needs a bedroom of at least 3.6m by 3.8m, and bedding for the size is less widely stocked and generally more expensive. It also becomes harder to move: the mattress cannot bend around a tight stair turn, and split bases become almost essential in older houses.
Where space genuinely allows it, the super king size fabric beds UK we stock are worth comparing side by side with king options, because the decision usually comes down to what you lose in floor space rather than what you gain in bed.
Width increases the load on the centre of the mattress, which is where support tends to fail first. A king frame should have closely spaced slats and a central support rail carried on one or two legs to the floor. Without that, the middle of the mattress settles faster than the sides and you end up with a shallow trough.
Divan bases handle this differently, using a fully sprung or firm edge platform, and many king divans arrive as two linked halves for exactly that reason. Either approach works, provided the base is sound.
The mattress itself matters as much as the base. Pocket sprung constructions with more springs across the width respond independently, which suits couples of different weights. Hybrids combine that with a softer comfort layer. Whichever you prefer, compare depth as well as construction across our modern mattresses UK sale so the bed height stays in proportion to the headboard.
UK king bedding is cut for 150cm by 200cm. Fitted sheets state a pocket depth, commonly 25cm to 32cm, and this needs to exceed your mattress depth or the corners will lift.
Duvets for a king bed are typically 225cm by 220cm. Many couples choose a super king duvet at 260cm by 220cm on a king bed instead, purely because the extra fabric stops one person pulling it off the other. It is a small change that resolves a nightly argument.
Pillows sit better in pairs at this width. Two standard pillows leave a small gap in the middle, which is why king size pillows or a pair plus a bolster look neater when the bed is made.
A 150cm bed occupies a large share of the wall, so the surrounding pieces should be restrained. Slim bedside cabinets in a finish that echoes the frame keep the arrangement calm, and matching them either side creates the symmetry that makes the bed look deliberate rather than oversized. Have a look at our high gloss bedside cabinets UK sale if the room needs to bounce light around, since reflective finishes help in darker rooms.
Keep the palette quiet and let texture carry the interest: a woven throw, linen bedding, a plain rug that extends past the sides of the bed. Wall lights instead of table lamps free up cabinet surfaces and suit narrow bedside space.
If storage is the constraint, a frame with drawers or a lift up platform recovers the area under the mattress, which on a king is a considerable amount. You can compare frames, bases and mattress depths across the bedroom range at Furniture in Fashion and check every measurement before you decide.
Width matters most where it is shared. On a 135cm double, two adults have roughly 67cm each, which is narrower than a single bed. Move to 150cm and that becomes 75cm each, close to the width of a standard single per person. That is the point at which most couples stop touching by accident and start sleeping through the night without adjusting position because of someone else.
The duvet tells the same story. A double duvet on a 150cm mattress leaves very little overhang, so any movement pulls it off one side. Use a king duvet on a king bed and the drape holds on both edges, which removes one of the most common causes of broken sleep in a shared bed.
Pillow arrangement changes too. A king takes two pillows comfortably with room for a third across the middle, or two European square pillows behind standard ones if you like to read in bed. On a narrower mattress those extras have nowhere to go during the night.
If one of you runs warm, the extra width helps in another way. A little space between two bodies reduces trapped heat, which is often more effective than changing duvet weight. It is a small point that only becomes obvious after a summer in a warm upstairs bedroom.
A UK king is 5ft wide and 6ft 6in long. In centimetres that is 150cm by 200cm, and it is the standard British king specification for both mattresses and bedding.
Fifteen centimetres wider and ten centimetres longer. Each sleeper gains around 7cm of personal width, which is enough to stop shoulders meeting in the middle of the night.
You need closely spaced slats or a solid platform, plus a central support rail with at least one leg to the floor. That prevents the middle of the mattress from settling ahead of the edges.
Around 3m by 3.4m is the practical lower limit once you allow walking space on both sides. It fits in smaller rooms, but the loss of usable floor area is usually not worth it.
No. A US king is roughly 193cm wide, considerably wider than our 150cm king. The American queen at 152cm is the closer match to a British king.
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