Bedside Tables
Frequently Asked Questions
It depends on what you reach for in the dark, so think about your actual bedtime routine. Bedside storage falls into three broad formats. An open shelf or simple surface is light and airy, and suits smaller bedrooms or anyone who keeps only a lamp, a book and a glass of water within reach. The surface stays visible, which encourages tidiness but also shows any clutter. One drawer plus a shelf is the most versatile format and the one most of our customers settle on: the drawer hides chargers, reading glasses and small essentials, while the shelf takes books, a basket or a spare blanket. Two or three drawers is closer to a small chest of drawers, and suits anyone short on wardrobe space or who prefers everything properly put away, with generous storage without the piece dominating the room. Our Benedict reclaimed bedside drawers, for example, have three drawers with traditional dovetail joints, in a compact footprint of 61cm tall, 50cm wide and 45cm deep.
The top of your bedside table should sit level with the top of your mattress, or within roughly 5cm either way, so you can reach for a glass of water or silence an alarm without lifting your head from the pillow. Before you shop, measure from the floor to the very top of your made-up mattress, including any topper. That number is your target. Most bedside tables sit between 50cm and 65cm tall, which suits the majority of UK beds. If you have a particularly tall divan, a two- or three-drawer bedside chest gives you the height you need while adding useful storage. If your bed sits low, a single-drawer table with clean proportions will feel right both visually and practically.
Once height is settled, think about footprint. A bedside table needs to be wide enough to hold a lamp and a few essentials without feeling crowded, but narrow enough to leave a comfortable walkway around the bed. Aim to leave at least 60cm of clear floor between the side of your bed and any wall or wardrobe, or 70cm on each side if two people share the room. Check the depth of your headboard too: if it projects outward from the wall, a deep table may prevent the bed from sitting flush, which can look awkward and waste floor space. Measure from the wall to the edge of your headboard before settling on a depth.
Every design begins with an antique, such as a simple provincial French chest of drawers or a traditional Hungarian farmhouse piece with clean lines and honest construction. We study what made it work, including the proportions and how the joinery has held after a century of use, then reinterpret it for modern living. The timber is primarily reclaimed pine and reclaimed elm. Each bedside table is built with dovetail drawer joints, which interlock without relying on fixings and grow stronger under the pressure of use; mortise and tenon joinery, the structural backbone of the carcass, which distributes weight and resists racking; frame-and-panel construction, which lets the timber move naturally with changes in temperature and humidity and prevents warping and splitting; and hand-finished surfaces.
Yes. For anyone who keeps only a lamp and a glass of water within reach at night, a side table can be a more elegant and considered choice than a piece designed around drawers. A side table tends to have a lighter presence in a room, with slender legs, a smaller footprint and an open profile, which suits a bedroom that already has generous wardrobe storage or one where the priority is calm and space rather than practicality. Two identical side tables placed symmetrically will read as intentional, while two different ones sharing a material or a sensibility will feel more personal.
No, and in many bedrooms a considered mismatch is more interesting than a perfectly matched pair. If you are using two different tables, keep the heights consistent so that the room reads as intentional rather than accidental. Beyond that, shared materials or a common sensibility draw two different pieces together: a reclaimed elm table alongside a reclaimed teak one will feel harmonious because both carry the same natural quality, even if the grain and tone differ. Mismatching works less well when the two pieces belong to entirely different design languages, such as a heavily carved ornate piece next to a minimal industrial frame. Our pieces are all rooted in the same design tradition - simple, provincial, built to last - so they tend to sit comfortably alongside one another and alongside antiques, even when they are not an exact pair. On symmetry, two identical tables can make a smaller bedroom feel more ordered and spacious, while in a larger or more characterful room, deliberate asymmetry often adds warmth and personality.
Yes. No two pieces of reclaimed wood are identical, so the grain pattern, depth of colour and the way light moves across the surface will differ from piece to piece, even within the same design. The photographs show a representative example of each design. Your table will share the same dimensions, the same construction and the same overall character, but its specific markings and tones will be its own. If you would like to know more about the character of a specific piece before ordering, we are happy to share additional photographs or describe what we have in stock. Please get in touch at info@homebarnshop.co.uk.