When setting up a bedroom, you want to make sure your nightstands complement your bed, your dresser, and any other pieces of furniture you might have. It’s equally important, though, to pay as much attention to scale as you do to aesthetics. This includes your nightstands’ height — the wrong height can not only make a room look off, but it can also make it difficult for you to use.
So what is the correct height for a nightstand, anyway? Interior design content creator Kiva Brent (@kivabrent) has a handy video explaining both the right height and width for a bedside table.
The formula is easy: Your nightstand’s height should be the distance from the floor to the top of your mattress, plus or minus four inches. This ensures that you’ll have an easy time reaching for anything, even if it’s the middle of the night. It’ll also ensure that your nightstands are in proportion to your bed and mattress.
Nightstand width, however, is a little more complicated, as the appropriate dimension depends on the size of your bed and your room. According to Kiva, these are the correct widths to use, according to the size of your bed.
These measurements make sense, as you want to make sure your nightstands balance out your bed, instead of taking over the whole space or being overshadowed by the rest of your furniture.
Keep in mind that these are all guidelines — if your nightstand height or width isn’t perfect, it’s totally fine. You might want to choose smaller nightstands that save space, or maybe you want to go with something very narrow. You might even want to use just one nightstand or a nightstand alternative, like a chair with a compact footprint. If you’re looking to buy something new, check out this list of our favorite nightstands.