Short and Long Mattress Sizes: When 190 cm Is Not Enough

The rule of thumb is that a mattress should be at least 10 to 15 cm longer than the person sleeping on it. At 190 cm long, a standard UK mattress runs out at roughly 175 to 180 cm of height.

If you are taller than the bed

Sleeping on a mattress that is too short does not just mean your feet hang off. It changes how you lie: most people compensate by curling, or by sleeping diagonally, and both put the spine somewhere it does not want to be for eight hours.

Your options, cheapest first:

• Move up to King or Super king. Both are 200 cm long, which buys 10 cm without leaving the standard range. If width is not the problem, this is the easy answer — but you need a frame that takes it.
• Keep the width, extend the length. A 135 × 200 or 90 × 210 mattress is a plain rectangle and costs the same as any other custom rectangle from us. The frame usually needs extending too, which a joiner can do more cheaply than you would expect on a timber bed.
• Go to 210 or 220 cm. We cut to 220 cm. Above 200 cm, standard fitted sheets stop working and you are into custom bedding as well — factor that in.

If the room is shorter than the bed

Boxrooms, attic conversions with a purlin across the space, boat cabins and campervans all produce beds that have to be shorter than standard rather than longer. Short mattresses are the same job in reverse: tell us the length and we cut it.

Two things worth knowing:

• Below about 160 cm of length, a sprung unit stops making sense — there are not enough rows of springs for the zoning to do anything. Foam or latex builds behave better at short lengths.
• A short bed against a wall at the foot needs the mattress about 10 mm under the opening, not dead on, or it will jam every time you change the sheets.

Depth is a length problem too

People solving a length problem often forget the third dimension. If you are extending into an alcove, or fitting a bed under a sloping ceiling, the depth of the mattress changes how much headroom is left above the sleeping surface. A 38 cm mattress under a low slope puts your shoulder 18 cm closer to the plaster than a 20 cm one.

Our range runs from 16 cm (SlimFit Latex) to 40 cm (Monaco Coir and Latex), and custom builds start at 10 cm.

Common questions

What is the longest mattress you make?

220 cm. Beyond that the quilting frame will not take it in one piece.

Is a long single a standard size?

Not in the UK. 90 × 200 is the continental single and we make it as a custom rectangle. It is the most-ordered non-standard size we cut.

Will standard sheets fit a 200 cm long single?

A UK single fitted sheet will not. A continental 90 × 200 fitted sheet will, and so will a UK King flat sheet used as a top sheet.