How Tall Should a Nightstand Be?
Level with the top of your mattress, or within about two inches either side of it. That is the whole answer, and it is worth stating plainly because nightstands are sold as a height in inches while the number that matters is a relationship.
Measure from the floor to the top of your mattress with the bed made. Not the frame, not the platform. The mattress surface, because that is the height your hand is at when you reach for a glass of water in the dark.
The reason this goes wrong so often is mattress thickness. A 26-inch nightstand was the right height when mattresses were 8 inches thick. A 14-inch pillow top on a platform frame can put the sleeping surface at 30 inches or more, and a standard nightstand next to it sits noticeably below your reach. You end up putting things down by feel and knocking them off the edge.
Two inches either way is the working tolerance. Below that and the difference is not something you notice; beyond it and you start compensating, either by reaching down or by lifting your arm over the edge.
What to do if the numbers do not line up
Too low is easier to fix than too high. A low nightstand can be raised with furniture risers, or replaced with a small chest of drawers, which typically runs 30 to 34 inches and suits a tall bed well. A three-drawer chest as a nightstand also solves storage in a bedroom with no closet, which is common enough in this city to be worth mentioning.
Too high has no good fix, so avoid buying tall for a low bed.
Depth is the other measurement worth taking. A nightstand needs to hold a lamp, a glass and a phone without any of them sitting at the front edge, and 16 inches is about the practical floor for that. Deeper than 20 and it starts to intrude into the walking space beside the bed, which matters in the narrow bedrooms common in older Halifax flats where the bed already runs close to the wall.
Width is more forgiving, but a nightstand noticeably narrower than the bed's side profile reads as undersized. Roughly a third to a half of the bed's width is the range that looks right.
Bring your mattress height with you when you shop. It is the one number that decides this and the one nobody remembers in the showroom. If the bed has a headboard, check the nightstand depth against it as well. A shallow nightstand beside a deep upholstered headboard leaves the front edge sitting behind the pillow line, which puts it further from your reach than the height suggests.
Nightstand heights vary across the bedroom pieces we carry, so bring the number and we will match it
We can match a nightstand height to your bed if you bring the mattress-top measurement in with you.
nightstands. Related: bedside table weight limits explained and how to match your bed frame to your nightstand and dresser.
