What height should my nightstand(s) be?

[Brian Lefort]

I am building a couple of nightstands, and I am wondering how high they should be. I am thinking that they should be level with the top of my mattress. Any thoughts? Insights?

[Matt Day]

I think ours are an inch or so lower than top of mattress. It helps keeping things on the nightstand (phones, Etc) if anything.

[johnny means]

Keep in mind, good night stands are likely to outlast several mattresses. I would look more at proportion and design to dictate the final specs. Typically, they are higher than the mattress.

[john davey]

I am currently building boxes to go on top of my night stands. Problem is that the night stands were the hight of my original bed. Now I have a new bed with a pillow top mattress that is so much higher than my old bed I cannot see the alarm clock. So I would build them the hight of the mattress or a little lower..... John.

[Michael Mahan]

Keep in mind, good night stands are likely to outlast several mattresses. I would look more at proportion and design to dictate the final specs. Typically, they are higher than the mattress.

I thought that as well Till one night I rolled over & smacked my face on the nightstand corner (it was up 2 inches over the mattress ), got a small cut & one heck of a black eye both top & below the eye , a pretty purple & black with red tints
Everyone at work thought I had gotten into fist fight , no one believed my story at all .

[william watts]

I am currently building a night stand and thought a lot about how tall it should be. The night stand we now have is 3 in. higher than the mattress so you have to extend your arm up to reach anything on the table, makes for an uncomfortable reach. After a little experimentation I am building the new stand 2 1/2 inches lower than the top of the mattress. You can google " furniture dimensions" and get charts and dimensions, doesn't seem to be any standard. It seems like beds are higher than they were a few years ago.

[Pat Barry]

I thought that as well Till one night I rolled over & smacked my face on the nightstand corner (it was up 2 inches over the mattress ), got a small cut & one heck of a black eye both top & below the eye , a pretty purple & black with red tints
Everyone at work thought I had gotten into fist fight , no one believed my story at all .

Ya sure, we all believe ya don't we folks? You don't need to provide a picture of your black eye as evidence for us.

[Danny Hamsley]

I build them at 24" finished height.

[Matt Meiser]

I prefer about level with the mattress.

[glenn bradley]

I go for dimensional appeal but, did end up at the height of the mattress with the pair I made for myself.

[David Eisenhauer]

I just started building a pair for my wife to replace the older too-low pair. The new nightstands will be 32" high (as per her directions) and I believe they will be fairly close to mattress height. Her criteria was to get her reading light base up to an elevation that would allow the light to shine down over her side of the bed as opposed to sideways light shining in her face.

[Ellen Benkin]

David --
Good point about getting the reading light higher as a rationale for a higher nightstand. I've built them both ways -- level with the mattress and higher than the mattress. I think it depends on what the user gets used to. Because of the light I prefer to have them a little higher than the mattress but maybe when I replace the mattress they will be level!

[johnny means]

I thought that as well Till one night I rolled over & smacked my face on the nightstand corner (it was up 2 inches over the mattress ), got a small cut & one heck of a black eye both top & below the eye , a pretty purple & black with red tints
Everyone at work thought I had gotten into fist fight , no one believed my story at all .

Do you butt the night stand right up against your bed?

[Jim Rimmer]

I just started building a pair for my wife to replace the older too-low pair. The new nightstands will be 32" high (as per her directions) and I believe they will be fairly close to mattress height. Her criteria was to get her reading light base up to an elevation that would allow the light to shine down over her side of the bed as opposed to sideways light shining in her face.

Bingo! My wife requested that I make nightstands higher than the existing ones so her light was high enough to read by. I did but I don't remember the height and I'm at work so I can measure them or look at my old drawing.

[John T Barker]

I thought that as well Till one night I rolled over & smacked my face on the nightstand corner (it was up 2 inches over the mattress ), got a small cut & one heck of a black eye both top & below the eye , a pretty purple & black with red tints
Everyone at work thought I had gotten into fist fight , no one believed my story at all .

Seriously, how strong is your wife and how often does she beat you?