Our correspondent reports problems matching the size of a new bed, mattress and bed linen. (Reported by m_t, and edited by Derek Pollard).
I bought a ‘king size’ bed and a ‘king size’ mattress from a well known supplier. However they did not fit each other. They were made by two different manufacturers. It seems that ‘king size’ is not a fixed size at all. Some sizes are metric, some imperial and some are metric conversions of imperial.
On the advice of a friend, I decided to go to Habitat and IKEA. They have hard metric beds that are all 2 metres long. Widths are 140 or 160 cm. I think you can also get 180 cm.
I notice that the 2 metre length is now widely available, even in non-metric places. I think this is because replacing six feet with 2 metres is popular with tall people and it is a nice round value. Unfortunately the width does not show any signs of being standardised.
Once you have the bed, you need the linen in the same size. That means I really only have two shops to choose from. Does anybody know any other shops that do 140 and 160 cm widths?
(Readers may also be able to comment on problems they have experienced trying to match bed and mattress widths.)
Metric Views 
I had similar problems after buying a “Super King Size” bed from Ikea. I wasn’t too keen on their own mattresses but did eventually get a suitable Silentnight mattress via Argos… the duvet and bedding I had to go back to Ikea for.
The first problem was mattresses. Especially on-line, most sellers refer to sizes in feet. I was looking specifically for a Silentnight mattress and even struggled with their own web site but found that Argos had metric dimensions on their web site. Interestingly, the “foot” sizes quoted by most are only an approximation!
The next problem was duvet and covers. Asking for things like this as “xxx size” are pointless as they seem to differ from shop to shop, having the metric size did help though. Only one retailer, Marks and Spencer, didn’t sell metric sizes.
I did a little research on this one and did find that even the Americans have problems in this area and for a change it’s not so much to do with measurement units – bed sizes differ even between states!
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You only have to think about pillows, the stardard size in the UK is 80x50cm, but in Finland it is 50x60cm, 65x65cm in France and 80x80cm in Germany. No wonder, then IKEA has to make different sizes for different markets!
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I agree, different manufacturers can make it confusing to find the size of the bed you’re looking for.
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