Bed sizes look settled until you draw one. A queen mattress is 60″ wide, but the bed you draw in a plan is wider, because the frame, the side rails and the headboard all add to it. And the room around the bed matters as much as the bed: the space to walk past it, open a closet door and make the bed in the morning. This guide collects the standard US mattress sizes, what a frame typically adds, and the clear space designers plan around each size, with metric equivalents for projects drawn in millimeters.
US mattress sizes
These are the nominal sizes used by US mattress makers. Real mattresses vary by up to about an inch from brand to brand, and the thickness (from about 8″ to 16″) doesn’t change the footprint. The millimeter values are straight conversions, not European sizes.
| Mattress | Inches (W × L) | Millimeters (W × L) | Typical use |
|---|---|---|---|
| Twin | 38″ × 75″ | 965 × 1,905 | Kids’ rooms, bunk beds, daybeds |
| Twin XL | 38″ × 80″ | 965 × 2,032 | Dorms, tall teenagers |
| Full (double) | 54″ × 75″ | 1,372 × 1,905 | Guest rooms, one adult |
| Queen | 60″ × 80″ | 1,524 × 2,032 | Most primary and guest bedrooms |
| King | 76″ × 80″ | 1,930 × 2,032 | Large primary bedrooms |
| California king | 72″ × 84″ | 1,829 × 2,134 | Tall sleepers, long narrow rooms |
Two pairs cause most mistakes. A twin and a twin XL have the same width and differ only in length, so a twin XL needs a longer frame and sheets. A king and a California king are both about 6 ft wide or more, but the California king trades 4″ of width for 4″ of length: it is the narrower of the two and the only standard size longer than 80″.
European sizes are different, and many blocks found online are drawn from them. A typical European double is 135 × 190 cm (about 53⅛″ × 74¾″), close to a US full but not the same, and European kings are 160 or 180 cm wide. If a client buys a US mattress, draw a US size.
What the frame adds
A mattress sits inside or on top of a frame, so the bed’s footprint in plan is always a little larger. As a rule of thumb for space planning:
- Metal platform or simple frame: 1″ to 2″ on the width and length.
- Wood bed with side rails: 2″ to 4″ on the width and 3″ to 6″ on the length.
- Upholstered bed with a padded headboard: 4″ to 8″ on the width and 6″ to 10″ on the length; some wingback headboards add more.
- Footboard: usually 2″ to 4″ more on the length.
When the furniture is chosen, replace the generic block with the real dimensions from the maker’s spec sheet. Until then, a bed block drawn with a frame, like the ones below, is closer to what will be built than a bare mattress rectangle.
Twin Bed · 35⅜″ × 74¾″
2′-11⅜″ ×900 ×6′-2¾″1900 Twin Bed
Full-Size Bed · 80″ × 54″
6′-8″ ×2032 ×4′-6″1372 Full-Size Bed 1′-8″ wide510 mm wide Person
Double Bed · 74¾″ × 53⅛″
6′-2¾″ ×1900 ×4′-5⅛″1350 Double Bed
How much room a bed needs
There is no building code for the space around a bed; the numbers designers use are rules of thumb. The common ones:
- 36″ (914 mm) of clear floor on each side and at the foot is comfortable: two people can pass, and there is room to make the bed.
- 24″ (610 mm) is the practical minimum on the sides you walk along.
- One side against a wall works for twins and kids’ rooms, never for a bed two adults share.
- Nightstands are usually 18″ to 24″ wide; with a 24″ walkway, plan about 20″ to 26″ beside the bed for each one, or let them sit in the walking zone at the head of the bed.
- Doors and drawers: leave 36″ in front of a dresser or a swinging closet door so it opens fully with someone standing in front of it.
The table adds those clearances to the approximate frame footprint, with the head of the bed against a wall. They are floor areas for the bed alone, before closets, dressers and doors.
| Mattress | Bed footprint with frame (approx.) | Room for 36″ on three sides | Room for 24″ on three sides |
|---|---|---|---|
| Twin | 41″ × 80″ | 113″ × 116″ (9′-5″ × 9′-8″) | 89″ × 104″ (7′-5″ × 8′-8″) |
| Full | 57″ × 80″ | 129″ × 116″ (10′-9″ × 9′-8″) | 105″ × 104″ (8′-9″ × 8′-8″) |
| Queen | 63″ × 85″ | 135″ × 121″ (11′-3″ × 10′-1″) | 111″ × 109″ (9′-3″ × 9′-1″) |
| King | 79″ × 85″ | 151″ × 121″ (12′-7″ × 10′-1″) | 127″ × 109″ (10′-7″ × 9′-1″) |
| California king | 75″ × 89″ | 147″ × 125″ (12′-3″ × 10′-5″) | 123″ × 113″ (10′-3″ × 9′-5″) |
Codes set a floor for the room itself, not for the furniture. Under the International Residential Code a habitable room has to have at least 70 square feet of floor area and be at least 7 ft in any horizontal dimension (IRC R304), and a sleeping room needs an emergency escape and rescue opening (IRC R310). A room that meets those minimums can still be too small for a queen with comfortable clearances, which is why it pays to test the layout with the bed drawn at its real size.
Drawing a bed in plan and elevation
In a floor plan the bed is usually the largest object in the room, so it sets the furniture layout. Draw the bed with its frame, show the pillows or a folded-back cover only if your office standard does, and keep the line weight lighter than the walls. In an elevation, the heights matter: a typical mattress top sits 20″ to 25″ above the floor, and headboards range from about 36″ to over 60″ above the floor, which decides whether a window or wall lights can go above them.
Every bed block on cadgrid.net is drawn 1:1 at the size shown on its page, with the base point at 0,0, in an inch file and a millimeter file. Insert the file that matches your drawing units and the bed arrives at the right size; if you are unsure about units, the guide to inserting a block at the right scale covers it.
Quick reference
- Twin 38″ × 75″, twin XL 38″ × 80″, full 54″ × 75″, queen 60″ × 80″, king 76″ × 80″, California king 72″ × 84″.
- Add roughly 2″ to 8″ for the frame and headboard, depending on the bed.
- Plan 36″ (914 mm) around a shared bed, 24″ (610 mm) as a minimum.
- A comfortable queen bedroom starts around 11 ft × 10 ft for the bed zone alone.
