Nightstands and bedside tables

Height against the mattress, not against the wall

The measurement people get wrong is height, because they measure the wall instead of the bed. A bedside surface wants to land within a couple of inches of the top of your mattress. Too low and you knock the glass reaching down, too high and the lamp shines in your face. Our range runs from 23.6 to 30.7 inches tall, which covers platform beds at the low end and taller sprung bases at the high end.

Width matters less than people expect. Anything from 17.7 inches upwards holds a lamp and a book. What changes with width is whether a second person can put a glass down without moving yours.

Charging built in, and what it actually gives you

22 of the 43 bedside pieces here carry a charging station, which in this range means mains outlets and USB ports set into the body of the table. The practical gain is one cable to the wall instead of three, and a phone that charges on the surface rather than on the floor.

What it does not give you is wireless charging or a guaranteed port standard, so check the published description of the exact piece for the port types before you assume. Where a model does not state it, our page does not claim it.

Pairs, and why they are listed separately

11 of these are sold as a set of two, and we name them that way rather than leaving you to work it out from a price that looks too good. A matched pair either side of a bed is the traditional arrangement and it is still the one that photographs best, particularly with the fluted fronts, where the reeding reads as a single line across the wall.

If your room only takes one, buying half a set is not possible here, so the single-unit models are the ones to look at. They are marked in the name.