Image 1 of 2
Image 2 of 2
The room you spend a third of your life in, planned with the numbers that decide whether it works: what physically fits, what the evidence supports, and four popular claims that do not survive their own sources.
The easiest room to furnish.
The hardest to get right.
A bedroom hides its failures. The bed goes in, the wardrobe goes on the nearest wall, and the room looks finished from the doorway. Then you live in it: one side of the bed too tight to walk down, a wardrobe door that fouls the frame, a wall that goes black behind the wardrobe in February. None of that is a taste problem. This guide is about the decisions underneath the decoration.
Plan around the bed
Bed sizes in centimetres across Germany, France and Spain, the clearances on three sides, and an arithmetic check you can do before you buy anything.
Four claims corrected
The 16 to 18 degree bedroom, the 100 lux light threshold, the WHO 40 dB bedroom and the seven-year mattress. Each traced to its source, and the figure that does hold up.
Three markets side by side
Escape windows, smoke alarms, minimum sizes and socket counts set out for Germany, France and Spain, because there is no single European answer.
A planner to take shopping
Two printable pages for the room, the bed, the storage and the environment, so you are never standing in a showroom without your dimensions.
- 01What the Room Actually Has to DoA short, unromantic audit of the jobs a bedroom is asked to do, in order, and which of them it is quietly failing.
- 02Bed Sizes and the Cross-Border TrapBed sizes are trade convention, not standards. Germany, France, Spain and the UK side by side, and why a duvet bought in one country does not fit a bed bought in another.
- 03Choosing a MattressWhat the one good randomised trial on firmness actually found and what it did not, what Stiftung Warentest's 2025 test says about price, and where the seven-year rule comes from.
- 04Planning the Room Around the Bed600mm is the minimum walkway and 750mm is what a bedroom wants. The clearances on three sides, the door swing and the window, set before the bed.
- 05Storage, Wardrobes and JoineryHanging rail and drawer volume rather than a number of wardrobes, and the 600mm depth that is the one decision you cannot undo.
- 06LightSeeing what you are doing and telling your body the time are two different jobs. The 2022 consensus targets in melanopic lux, and why the old 100 lux teaching is not safe guidance.
- 07Temperature and the Bed MicroclimateWhere 16 to 18 degrees really comes from, why the bed climate matters more than the room air, and why heat, not cold, is the problem.
- 08Air, Humidity and DampTwo adults put about two thirds of a litre of water into the air a night. Why the wall behind the wardrobe moulds when the room reading looks fine.
- 09SoundThe WHO 40 dB figure is measured outside the building. Reactions during sleep start at around 33 dBA, and the door is usually the largest leak.
- 10Safety and the RegulationsRescue windows under the MBO and the Bavarian exception, smoke alarm duties in Germany and France, ceiling heights and the misquoted French 9 m².
- 11Power, Switching and ControlsSocket minimums under NF C 15-100, DIN 18015-2 and the REBT, and what to wire at first fix while the walls are still open.
- 12Surfaces, Textiles and the Finished RoomAcoustics, dust and colours that have to work at two light levels. Kept short, because the decisions that matter have already been made.
- +The Bedroom PlannerTwo printable pages: the room, the bed, storage and the environment, with the arithmetic check that stops the expensive mistake.
The bed is universal.
The rules are national.
This is the EU edition, covering Germany, France and Spain side by side. There is no single European answer on escape windows, smoke alarms, minimum sizes, socket counts or ventilation, so the guide sets the three markets against each other rather than inventing a continental average. Every figure carries a named standard or a named piece of research, and where we could not verify a number it is not printed. There is a separate UK edition.
Add to basket using the button at the top of this page. Your download link arrives by email straight after checkout.
What format is it?
A 40-page A4 PDF. Your download link arrives by email straight after checkout, and you can read it on any device or print the two planner pages to fill in.
Which countries does it cover?
Germany, France and Spain, side by side, wherever the rules or the conventions differ. The planning, clearances and evidence chapters apply anywhere. If you are in the UK, the UK edition covers British sizes and Building Regulations.
Is it only for a new bedroom?
No. Most of it applies just as much to rearranging, re-furnishing or fixing a bedroom that does not work. Chapters 02 to 05 are the ones to read before you spend anything. Chapter 10 is the one to read before you move a window or a wall.
Is this medical or sleep advice?
No. Studio Akiva are interior designers. The guide reports what the published research says about light, temperature and sound in a bedroom, and names its sources so you can check them. If you have a sleep problem or back pain, a doctor will help more than any designer can.
Can I cancel or get a refund?
This is digital content supplied immediately. At the point of purchase you expressly consent to us beginning supply before the end of the withdrawal period and acknowledge that your 14 day right of withdrawal ends once the download link is issued. The full notice is at studioakiva.eu/widerrufsbelehrung. Separately from that: if the link fails, the file will not open, or you received the wrong guide, email hello@studioakiva.com and we will put it right or refund you.
Would you rather we did it?
Studio Akiva is an award-winning interior design studio working across Europe and a twelve-time Houzz award winner. We plan bedrooms as part of whole-house and single-room projects. Book a free fifteen-minute discovery call.
