What size wardrobe or chest of drawers should you choose for your bedroom?
By Nassim Hasni, publisher of DecoScale · published
DecoScale calls a storage piece a chest of drawers up to 140 cm tall and a wardrobe above that: in the survey of 6 October 2026, no listing falls between 100 and 175 cm. The median chest of drawers is 81 to 120 cm wide depending on the retailer, the median wardrobe 95 to 153 cm. In front of either, keep 60 cm clear to open drawers and doors.
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Wardrobe or chest of drawers: where is the line?
In the bedroom, DecoScale decides on height and on the width of the front. A chest of drawers is at most 140 cm tall and at least 70 cm wide: below that, the piece is a bedside table, whatever word the retailer uses. A wardrobe is taller than 140 cm; a dressing island is not one, it stands in the middle of a dressing room. This sorting is DecoScale's choice, not a standard.
It falls in a gap of the catalogue: in the survey of 6 October 2026, the tallest chest of drawers is 100 cm and the lowest wardrobe 175 cm, and no listing lies between the two. In the living room, the same piece serves as a TV stand or a sideboard: see the TV stand size guide.
What size of chest of drawers?
The retailers in DecoScale's catalogue publish for their bedroom chests of drawers a median width of 81 to 120 cm depending on the retailer, a median depth of 39 to 50 cm and a median height of 76 to 91 cm. The chart gives, per retailer, the smallest, median and largest width surveyed.
| Retailer | Listings | Width min (cm) | Width median (cm) | Width max (cm) | Median depth (cm) | Median height (cm) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Homary | 32 | 100 | 120 | 160 | 43 | 78 |
| Casanova | 17 | 80 | 104 | 163 | 39 | 83 |
| IKEA | 13 | 70 | 108 | 160 | 50 | 78 |
| Camif | 11 | 79 | 100 | 180 | 43 | 82 |
| Miliboo | 11 | 80 | 120 | 160 | 42 | 76 |
| Massivmoebel24 | 10 | 70 | 81 | 96 | 44 | 90 |
| Drawer | 9 | 80 | 90 | 158 | 40 | 85 |
| Bobochic | 4 | 90 | 109 | 130 | 41 | 91 |
Survey of 6 October 2026 over DecoScale's catalogue; retailers with 3 listings or more; not checked by the retailers.
These figures are a dated survey of 6 October 2026 over 110 listings, after leaving out 11 pieces with a front under 70 cm, which DecoScale treats as bedside tables, and 4 listings whose dimensions fall outside the range the engine finds plausible. They describe what these retailers sell, not a standard. The numbers of listings are very uneven: one retailer alone has 32 of the 110. That is why no median across all retailers is given: only the figure of the retailer you are looking at counts.
Height matters for a reason the engine knows: a piece at least 90 cm tall in front of a window is flagged as hiding the daylight. In the survey, 24 of 110 chests of drawers reach that height: under a window, measure the sill height before buying.
What size of wardrobe?
For wardrobes, the median width runs from 95 to 153 cm depending on the retailer, the median depth from 40 to 60 cm and the median height from 185 to 200 cm.
| Retailer | Listings | Width min (cm) | Width median (cm) | Width max (cm) | Median depth (cm) | Median height (cm) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Massivmoebel24 | 18 | 50 | 106 | 241 | 60 | 197 |
| Camif | 11 | 80 | 153 | 223 | 58 | 200 |
| IKEA | 9 | 78 | 117 | 175 | 55 | 190 |
| Sklum | 8 | 80 | 123 | 240 | 40 | 200 |
| Drawer | 7 | 80 | 103 | 140 | 53 | 195 |
| Miliboo | 6 | 90 | 95 | 120 | 55 | 185 |
Survey of 6 October 2026 over DecoScale's catalogue; retailers with 3 listings or more; not checked by the retailers.
Survey dated 6 October 2026, over 59 listings; 6 dressing islands and 1 listing with dimensions out of range are left out. Width varies a lot from one listing to the next, from 50 to 241 cm: it is the clear length of wall that decides, not the number of doors. Height must fit under your ceiling, and the wardrobe must be able to be stood upright once assembled: see how to tell if furniture will fit.
How much room to leave in front of a wardrobe or a chest of drawers?
60 cm clear in front of the face, to pull a drawer or open a door: DecoScale applies the same distance to the wardrobe, the chest of drawers, the sideboard and the bookcase. So you need more than the depth of the piece: the chart adds it to three depths that bracket the survey.
| Depth of the piece (cm) | Depth to allow, clearance included (cm) |
|---|---|
| 40 | 100 |
| 50 | 110 |
| 60 | 120 |
Clearance of 60 cm read from DecoScale's engine; example depths, not checked.
This rule is a penalty, not a ban: a rug may occupy the strip, a bed or a bedside table may not. DecoScale does not read how a wardrobe opens, hinged or sliding: it keeps 60 cm in front of all of them. For the clearances of a whole bedroom, see small bedroom layout.
Where to put the wardrobe and the chest of drawers?
Against a wall: DecoScale places them with the back at most 15 cm from the wall. It also keeps them 100 cm from a door and 30 cm from a radiator, when it could locate them on your photos. When your photos already show a built-in closet, wardrobe or dressing room, it does not propose a wardrobe and the chest of drawers receives its share of the budget: see small bedroom layout. The distances to keep are gathered on room layout dimensions.
What DecoScale checks, and what it does not
DecoScale picks the chest of drawers and the wardrobe from its catalogue, at their published dimensions, and checks their place in the room: wall, clearance in front, door, radiator, window. It does not check the length of wall a wardrobe needs from its width, nor that the piece will get through the front door, the stairs or the lift. The plan of the room comes from your photos and two tape-measure dimensions: see the Method page. For the bed and its bedside tables: bed size guide and bedside table size guide.
Frequently asked questions
What height is a chest of drawers?
It varies by retailer: from 76 to 91 cm in median in the survey of 6 October 2026. DecoScale calls a storage piece a chest of drawers up to 140 cm tall, and flags a piece at least 90 cm tall in front of a window.
What width is a wardrobe?
From 95 to 153 cm in median depending on the retailer, and from 50 to 241 cm across all the listings surveyed. The clear length of wall decides.
How much room to leave in front of a chest of drawers or a wardrobe?
60 cm clear in front of the face, on top of its depth: 110 cm for a piece 50 cm deep.
What is the difference between a chest of drawers and a bedside table?
For DecoScale, under 70 cm of front, the piece is a bedside table, whatever word the retailer uses.
Does DecoScale check that the wardrobe fits through the door?
No: it checks its place in the bedroom, not its delivery.