What is the Perfect Ratio of Bedroom to Bed Size?

Have you ever gone into someone’s guest bedroom and struggled to squeeze around the bed because it completely overwhelms the room? On the other hand, there are some bedrooms that have mountains of free space, and the bed seems infinitesimal compared to the size of the room. Surely there has to be a happy medium? I’m going to attempt to work it out using a bit of maths and plenty of guesswork.

Working it out

Looking into this idea, we ended up with two results. Either a reasonable sounding 3:1 or, if using the altered Golden Ratio, 1:1.45. Taking into account the size of the overall room, this would put the bedroom-to-bed ratio at about 3:1. So, for every three parts bedroom, you would have one part bed.

However, let’s take the average house as a 3-bedroom semi-detached, worth between £200,000 and £250,000, looking at several examples of master bedrooms in such houses. Sizes vary, but we’re going to go with a bedroom size of 15’ x 11’ (457 x 335cm). We also need to take into account other furniture in the room, so let’s take four feet away from the longest side and two feet from the shortest side, making it 11’ x 9’ (335 x 274 centimetres) of floor space that we have to work with.

This is the rough layout of our room

An ideal bed position is arguably with the head of the bed pressed against the centre of the longest wall, allowing for plenty of room for people to walk around the bed without having to sidle along and bump into things.

Ideal size

Based on the YouGov post that described the ideal heights of men and women, combined with principles of the Vitruvian Man, the average adult shoulder width is around 41cm, and I reckon that it would be preferable to have room for at least two people to walk around the bed side-by-side, making our new available floor space 254 x 192cm.

Theoretically, this would just be enough to fit in a 6’0 super king bed, which has a rough dimension of 232 x 190cm. Taking into account the size of the overall room, this would put the bedroom-to-bed ratio at about 3:1. So, for every three parts bedrooms, you’d have one part bed.

However, let’s delve a little deeper. A big part of your bedroom is the aesthetic, so we’ll look at the ratio in terms of interior design, not just maths. For that, we’ll use the magical Golden Ratio.

The Golden Ratio

The Golden Ratio is 1:1.618 and is found throughout nature, science and art. Here’s an explanation, but, in a nutshell, this ratio should produce something that is aesthetically pleasing.

This is the scientific version of the Golden Ratio

With our available floor space at roughly 3.35 x 2.74 metres, the golden ratio requires a bed of roughly 2.1 x 1.7 metres. Width-wise, that’s fine. This would fall somewhere in between a king and super king bed. But the issue here lies in the length of the bed, as this simply isn’t long enough.

However, if we alter this Golden Ratio ever so slightly and make it 1:1.45, then we’re back in business, as this would dictate we would need a bed roughly 2.3 x 1.9 metres, putting us smack bang in king/super king territory.

The 60-30-10 Rule

Interior designers have developed their version of the Golden Ratio, known as the 60-30-10 rule. It’s often used when painting a room, in that 60% of a room would be a dominant colour, 30% a secondary colour and 10% an accent colour.

The Perfect Ratio

So, there we go. If we’re looking at the dimensions of an average room, then 3:1 looks to be the optimum bedroom-to-bed ratio, while an amended Golden Ratio of 1:1.45 can also produce some interesting results – all produced with foolproof science.