Children’s Bed Buying Guide: Choosing the Right Bed for Your Child

Choosing a new bed for your child is one of those purchases that can feel surprisingly significant. It's not simply somewhere they'll sleep. Their bed sits at the centre of a room where they might read, play, get ready for school, retreat when they want some quiet and, before you know it, become a teenager.

That makes choosing a children's bed slightly different from buying one for yourself. You need to think about what works now, but it's worth looking a few years ahead too.

Do they need the extra floor space that comes with a single? Would a small double make more sense as they get older? How much room does the bed leave for playing, storage or eventually a desk? And do you want a design that can change with the room rather than one they'll quickly grow out of?

This guide walks through those decisions, helping you choose a wooden bed that works for your child, their bedroom and family life.

When to Move Your Child Into Their Next Bed

There isn't one particular age when every child needs to move into their next bed. Children grow at different rates, bedrooms vary enormously and families don't all make the change at the same point.

Instead, look at what's happening with their current bed and bedroom.

Perhaps your child has physically outgrown their bed. Maybe you're redesigning their room and want something they'll be able to use for much longer. A younger sibling might need the existing bed, or you may simply have reached the point where a more grown-up bedroom makes sense.

Whatever prompts the change, it's a good opportunity to think beyond the next year or two.

A solid wooden bed with a simple design doesn't need to belong to one particular age group. Change the bedding, wall colour and furniture around it and the same frame that works in a younger child's bedroom can still feel completely at home several years later.

That's one of the reasons our children's beds have deliberately simple solid timber designs rather than being built around a particular theme or age.

Choosing Between a Single and Small Double

For many families, bed size will be one of the biggest decisions.

A single mattress measures 90 x 190cm (3'0" x 6'3"), while a small double measures 120 x 190cm (4'0" x 6'3"). Both give you the same mattress length, but the small double adds another 30cm of width.

Neither is automatically the better choice. What matters is how that extra width would be used.

When a Single Works Well

A single wooden bed gives your child a full 190cm mattress length while keeping the overall footprint relatively compact.

It can be a particularly practical choice when:

• The bedroom is relatively small.
• You want to preserve more open floor space.
• The room also needs to accommodate wardrobes, drawers or a desk.
• Your child doesn't need the additional width of a larger mattress.

That space around the bed can be valuable in a child's room. When they're younger it might be used for playing. As they get older, the same area could eventually be needed for a desk, additional storage or simply more room to move around.

When to Consider a Small Double

A small double bed uses the same 190cm mattress length as a single but increases the width from 90cm to 120cm.

That additional 30cm can make a small double worth considering when:

• There's enough room to accommodate the wider bed comfortably.
• Your child is getting older and would appreciate more sleeping space.
• You're choosing a bed with their teenage years in mind.
• You want something more generous than a single without moving to a full double.

The trade-off is the extra floor space the bed occupies. In a larger room that may make very little difference. In a smaller bedroom, 30cm can have a surprisingly big impact on where other furniture fits.

We'll look much more closely at this decision in our Single or Small Double Bed for a Child: Which Size Should You Choose? guide.

Planning the Bed Around the Bedroom

Once you have a rough idea of the size you want, look at how the complete bed will work within the room.

Mattress measurements are a useful starting point, but the wooden frame itself will be larger. External dimensions also vary between designs, particularly when you add features such as a headboard or a wider platform.

Check the space beside and at the foot of the bed. Can your child still get to their wardrobe easily? Will drawers and doors open properly? Where are the windows and radiators? Is there enough room for the furniture already there?

It's worth thinking ahead here too.

A bedroom that currently needs plenty of open space for toys may eventually need to accommodate a desk or different storage. You don't need to plan the entire room around what your child might want years from now, but leaving yourself some flexibility can be useful.

If you're finding it difficult to picture a larger bed in the room, mark out its external dimensions on the floor. Seeing the actual footprint can make it much easier to judge how much usable space will remain around it.

For bedrooms with sloping ceilings or more awkward layouts, our guide to the best beds for loft rooms and low ceilings goes into room planning in more detail.

Choosing the Right Bed Height

Width and length aren't the only measurements worth considering. Bed height affects both how the bed works for your child and how much space it appears to occupy within the room.

Our children's beds use a low bed design, with a 20cm footboard height. The version with a headboard has a 75cm headboard, while there's also a headboard-free design if you want to keep the frame particularly simple.

The lower height makes it easier for children to get in and out of bed, while the reduced profile can also work particularly well in smaller bedrooms.

Remember that the mattress adds to the finished sleeping height. If you're comparing mattresses at the same time as choosing the frame, check the mattress depth so you have a better idea of how high the finished bed will actually be.

There's also a visual decision to make. A headboard gives the bed a more defined presence within the room, while the headboard-free version keeps the profile lower and simpler. Both designs can work as your child gets older, so the choice comes down to the bedroom itself and the style you prefer.

Choosing Oak or Pine for a Children's Bed

Both oak and pine can work brilliantly in a child's bedroom, so this decision is less about which timber is 'best' and more about the look, budget and finish you have in mind.

An oak bed can be a lovely choice if you want the natural timber to become a noticeable part of the room. Solid pine beds give you the same solid timber construction at a more accessible price and plenty of flexibility over the finished look.

Our Oak vs Pine Bed Frames: Which Should You Choose? guide goes into both materials in more detail.

A Bed They Won't Quickly Grow Out Of

Children's bedrooms can change dramatically in a relatively short space of time. Dinosaurs, rainbows or football might be the order of the day now. A few years later, your child may have very different ideas about what their room should look like.

The bed doesn't necessarily need to change with every new phase.

This is where a simple wooden frame comes into its own. Rather than choosing a bed built around a particular theme, you can let the easier-to-change parts of the bedroom carry more of your child's personality. Bedding, cushions, pictures, lamps and wall colours can all be swapped as their tastes change.

The same applies to choosing between a headboard and a headboard-free frame. Think about what will work with the room over time rather than trying to predict exactly what your child will like as a teenager.

Buying with the future in mind doesn't mean choosing something boring. It simply means giving yourself a good base to work with.

Choosing a Finish

The finish can completely change the character of a wooden children's bed without changing the frame itself.

Our standard choices are unfinished, white, light, medium, walnut and black. You could keep the timber pale and natural, choose a darker tone to work with existing furniture or use a more neutral finish that can sit happily alongside several future bedroom colour schemes.

If you're trying to match flooring or furniture, £1 colour samples let you see the finish in the actual bedroom before committing to it. That's particularly useful because colours can look quite different under natural and artificial light.

Before You Choose

By this point, you should have a much clearer idea of what you're looking for. Before ordering, run through the practical details one final time:

Bed size: Will a single give them enough room, or does the bedroom comfortably accommodate a small double?

External dimensions: Have you checked the measurements of the complete frame rather than the mattress alone?

Floor space: Is there enough room left for playing, furniture and the way the bedroom may change?

Height: Have you considered the bed frame and mattress together?

Headboard: Would you prefer the more defined look of a headboard or a simpler headboard-free design?

Timber: Does oak or pine suit your budget and the look you want?

Finish: Will it work with the room now without unnecessarily limiting what you can do with the bedroom later?

You don't need to find a bed that somehow predicts everything your child will need for the next ten years. A better aim is to choose one that works well now, leaves the bedroom flexible and doesn't feel tied to a very particular stage of childhood.

A Bed Made for All the Years Ahead

Children have a habit of growing up rather quickly! Their favourite colours will change, bedrooms will be rearranged and the toys scattered across the floor will eventually make way for something else entirely. A good wooden bed can simply stay put through all of it.

At The Wooden Bed Company, we make every bed to order in our Yorkshire workshop using solid European oak or Scandinavian pine. We're woodworkers, so the things that matter to us are refreshingly straightforward: good timber, careful workmanship and beds made properly rather than produced as quickly as possible.

That feels particularly important when you're choosing something your child could be sleeping in for many years. Our simple designs give you room to change everything else around them, while the choice of timber, size and finish means you can make their bed feel like part of their bedroom from the start.

Take a look through our children's beds and find the one that feels right for their room now, with plenty of growing up still to come.