Bedside Tables

This is one of the few pieces of furniture whose right size is set by something you already own. What matters is where the top sits in relation to the top of your mattress: roughly level with it, or a little above, keeps a lamp, a glass and a phone within reach without having to sit up and look down for them. The tables here run from 45 cm to 68 cm, with the middle of the range at 52 cm — a 23 cm spread, and by some distance the widest variation in the category. Measure from your floor to the top of your mattress rather than to the top of the bed frame, because the mattress adds its own depth, and use that figure to narrow the list before you consider anything else. Every product page gives the assembled height.

Most of these state their storage, and where they do it is two drawers or three; the Augustina lets you choose between the two on the product page. The two groups differ in height as well, which is worth knowing if height is your constraint: the two-drawer tables run from 50 cm to 57 cm, while the three-drawer ones reach 68 cm. Where the supplier has given no drawer count we have not guessed at one, so the photographs are what those pages have to go on.

Footprint barely varies. The shallowest is 34 cm front to back and the deepest 40 cm, with the median at 40 cm; widths run from 37 cm to 60 cm. A bedside table is almost always bought to fit a gap rather than to fill a wall, so measure the gap first — and measure what has to stay reachable behind it. A radiator, a plug socket, a trailing cable or the swing of a door will decide this more often than the table will.

The two names are used for the same piece more often than not. Strictly, a bedside table is a small table that may be open or have a drawer, while a bedside cabinet encloses its storage in drawers or behind a door. Everything here that states its storage does it with drawers, which keep things out of sight but need room in front of them to pull out. If the piece only has to hold a lamp, a book and a glass, a table with fewer drawers is the lighter-looking choice; if it is doing the work of a small chest, look at the three-drawer designs.

Rubberwood is a hardwood from the rubber tree. It is dense and close-grained and takes a stain evenly, which is why it is so often finished to look like oak — the California Rustic Rubberwood Bedside Table is solid rubberwood in a rustic oak finish. Like any solid wood, keep it away from standing water and direct heat. Alongside it you will find solid oak in the Acorn range, rustic and grey oak finishes on the Vulcan and Belvoir, white and grey wood on the Zircon and Wilmot, and white high gloss on the Tanya.

Many of these belong to a range that also contains other bedroom furniture, so a room that matches is possible without hunting for a finish twice. The California, Wilmot, Zircon and Belvoir bedside tables each have a bed frame in the same range. Two ranges go a good deal further: Acorn reaches coffee tables, a nest of tables, a blanket box and chests of drawers, and Corona covers mirrors, dining sets, chests of drawers and wardrobes. A standalone design is not a shortcoming — a bedside table that deliberately contrasts with the bed is a perfectly good way to buy.

Several of these arrive fully assembled — the Acorn, California, Tanya and Vulcan tables among them — and the rest are flat-packed for home assembly; each product page states which, with the carton count and the weight of the heaviest carton. Most ship in a single carton, which makes this one of the easier pieces of bedroom furniture to get up a staircase.

Where the matching pieces live.

• Bed Frames 34 pieces
• Blanket Boxes 1 piece
• Chests of Drawers 7 pieces
• Dressing Tables 3 pieces
• Wardrobes 7 pieces

The rubberwood bedside table, and the beds it sits with.

• California Rustic Rubberwood Bedside Table
• California Rustic Rubberwood Bed Frame
• Zoe Storage Rubberwood Bed Frame