Short answer: lay out a coastal bedroom from the window in.
The window can’t move, so first decide how the bed sits against it.
Then give the bed 2 feet of floor on each side and at the foot (3 if you can).
Set the nightstands by the mattress top and run the rug 18 to 24 inches past the bed.
Leave the dresser room to open, and put the chair where the daylight lands.
There’s also a free furnished coastal bedroom plan you can open and drag around.
Fair warning: as it opens, our own plan parks its chair by the door, and I’ll show you how I’d fix that.
Free floor plan: Open this coastal bedroom layout in the free room planner — furnished and yours to move around →
Start With the Window, Because It Can’t Move
I get why coastal mood boards start with linen and rattan.
They’re the fun part.
But you can swap a duvet cover in an afternoon, and you can’t move a window.
So before anything gets pretty, figure out how the bed meets the window wall.
Say one side of the bed will run along a wall with windows (with a walkway between them, more on that below).
Wayfair’s bed size guide says the bed should then sit below the height of the windowsill, for privacy, for looks and so your window treatments still work.
Bedroom sills are typically 24 to 30 inches high, it says, and the average bed is around 24 inches, mattress included.
To check yours, add the frame’s height (usually 13 to 15 inches) to the mattress’s thickness (8 to 16 inches).
The sum should be less than the sill height.
A 14-inch frame plus a 12-inch mattress makes 26 inches.
That clears a 30-inch sill, but not a 24-inch one.
Pushing the headboard under the window instead?
Then measure the headboard.
Our nightstand and headboard calculator puts the top of a headboard you can sit up against 24 to 31 inches above the mattress.
On a standard bed, that’s 49 to 56 inches off the floor.
Next to a sill at 24 to 30 inches, that headboard rises 19 to 32 inches above it, right across the bottom of the glass.
Even its shortest one, 14 inches above the mattress so you can lean on it at all, tops out around 39 inches, still 9 to 15 inches over that sill.
So under a window, either let a low headboard cross the bottom of the glass or skip it and pile up the pillows.
Then there’s the light.
In a coastal room the window is the star all day, but at night you kinda want it gone.
The Sleep Foundation says that, as a general rule, it is best to sleep in as much darkness as possible, and that blackout curtains block the majority of external light.
It also says getting morning sunlight may help improve sleep quality.
So I’d hang the airy linen you’re dreaming of and put a blackout lining or shade behind it.
Beachy by day, dark by night.
One more, if young children live in or visit your home.
In an October 2020 release from the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission, its acting chairman, Robert Adler, said cordless window blinds and curtains, or those with inaccessible cords, are the only safe option where young children are present.
If you can’t replace corded ones yet, the CPSC lists steps.
One of them: move all cribs, beds, furniture and toys away from windows and window covering cords, preferably to another wall.
So in a home like that, I’d hold off on both bed spots above, and on the window chair coming up later, until the coverings on that window are cordless or their cords are inaccessible.
The picture at the top of this section shows the low-headboard version.
The bed sits right under a wide window looking out at the ocean, and its upholstered headboard covers just the bottom strip of the glass.
The blue chair sits by the second window, not the door.
Gorgeous.
Just make sure those windows can go dark.
Give the Bed 2 Feet on Each Side and the Foot, 3 if You Can
Pretty isn’t enough.
A bedroom that makes you turn sideways to get into bed isn’t finished.
Wayfair’s bed size guide gives the numbers.
Keep a minimum of 2 feet (24 inches) of clearance on either side and at the foot of the bed, and ideally leave 3 feet or more around it.
It says this is especially important for larger beds meant for two people, which should be kept away from the wall for easy access on both sides.
In fact, Wayfair says that if you want the side of a bed against a wall, go with a twin or twin XL.
Here’s that math for a queen.
Wayfair lists queen beds at 62 to 65 inches wide and 82 to 85 inches long, made for a standard 80 by 60 inch mattress.
Take the big end.
65 inches plus 24 on each side is 113 inches across, about 9 feet 5 inches.
85 inches plus 24 at the foot is 109 inches out from the headboard wall, about 9 feet 1 inch.
Wayfair says queen beds fit well in 11 by 10 foot rooms, and both of those fit inside one.
Swap the 24 for Wayfair’s ideal 36 and it gets tighter: 137 inches across (about 11 feet 5 inches) and 121 inches out (about 10 feet 1 inch).
So in an 11 by 10 room you’ll land somewhere between the minimum and the ideal.
That’s fine.
I’d give the extra to the side you get in on.
The picture at the top of this section has the idea.
There’s a nightstand on each side of the bed and plenty of open floor on the side toward the window and the glass door.
That’s what I’d copy.
Measure your own floor before you fall for a chair or a bench that eats it.
Set the Nightstands by the Mattress Top, Not the Dresser
It’s tempting to buy nightstands that match the dresser.
Rattan with rattan, done.
But the measurement that matters is the top of your mattress.
Our nightstand calculator says a nightstand’s top should be level with the top of the mattress, or within 2 inches of it.
It also says to measure the bed made (a topper and a duvet add 2 to 4 inches).
Amerisleep’s nightstand guide is a bit looser: within 2 to 4 inches of the mattress top, measured from the floor with any toppers on.
For a bed on a standard frame, about 25 inches to the mattress top, the calculator lands on nightstands 23 to 27 inches tall.
Too low and you’re leaning off the edge for your water glass at 2 a.m. Too high and you’re reaching up for it.
Then the width and the gap.
Wayfair’s bed guide says to keep 2 to 6 inches between the bed and a nightstand.
With the average nightstand 21 to 28 inches wide, that’s 23 to 34 more inches of wall beside the bed, for each one.
Two or one?
Two, for me, in a coastal room.
That matched pair is pretty much half the calm look.
And since Wayfair wants a bed for two off the wall with a way in on both sides, I’d give each side its own lamp and a spot for a glass, as long as the wall has those 23 to 34 inches to spare on that side.
The close-up at the top of this section shows a rattan nightstand right beside a bed with a cane headboard, a little succulent and a globe lamp on top.
Before you buy one like it, measure your made bed first, then the table.
Read next: Coastal bedroom ideas
Free calculator: Match the nightstand height to your bed →
Let the Rug Run 18 to 24 Inches Past the Bed
Okay so, pet peeve.
A rug that barely peeks out from under the bed frame looks like it shrank in the wash.
Honestly, I’d rather have no rug.
Ruggable’s bedroom rug guide calls this the Golden Rule of placement: leave 18 to 24 inches of rug visible on each side and at the foot of the bed.
For a queen, Ruggable says an 8 by 10 is the most common choice.
That leaves enough rug on all sides that your feet land on something soft getting in and out of bed.
For a king, it says a 9 by 12 works best.
Turn an 8 by 10 so its 10-foot side runs across the bed, and a 60-inch queen mattress leaves 30 inches of rug on each side.
Even a 65-inch queen frame leaves 27½.
Both clear the 18 to 24.
You don’t have to cover the whole floor under the bed, either.
Ruggable says most bedroom rugs are placed under the lower two-thirds of the bed, starting just in front of the nightstands and running past the sides and foot.
For a narrow room, or one where a large rug won’t fit, its small-room hack is a runner on each side of the bed.
For the coastal part, Ruggable’s tip is to stick to light colors, airy patterns and natural-looking textures.
A jute or jute-look rug does that.
On a budget, a thrift store or Facebook Marketplace is worth a look before you pay full price.
The picture at the top of this section gets it right: the jute rug runs well past the foot of the bed and out past its sides.
Free calculator: Find the rug size for your bed →
Give the Dresser Room to Open, Then Anchor It
A dresser can fit the wall and still fail the room.
The thing is, its width tells you whether it fits against the wall.
It tells you nothing about whether you can pull a drawer all the way out and stand there.
Wayfair’s dresser guide recommends 36 inches of clearance between the front of your dresser and your bed or other furniture, so you can easily open and close the drawers.
Dimensions.com, a reference site of standard sizes and clearances, asks for more.
It lists a clearance of 42 to 48 inches in front of a dresser, so you can open a drawer completely and reach inside while standing in front of it.
36 inches at the very least, and 42 if you can spare it.
If the dresser goes across from the foot of the bed, Wayfair’s bed guide has a formula.
Add the bed’s length to double the dresser’s depth (so the drawers open fully), and the room has to be longer than that by at least 24 to 48 inches.
Wayfair says dressers run 18 to 24 inches deep.
So an 18-inch-deep dresser facing an 85-inch queen needs a room at least 85 + 36 + 24 = 145 inches long that way, about 12 feet.
That’s longer than Wayfair’s 11 by 10 queen room in either direction, so in a room that size I’d put the dresser on a side wall.
Then anchor it.
The CPSC’s Anchor It! site puts it plainly: anchoring all furniture with drawers, doors, and shelves to the wall prevents tip-over injuries and deaths.
Its list of what you’ll need is an anchoring kit, a drill and bit, a screwdriver and a stud finder.
In a rental?
The same site says covering holes from your anchors won’t be a problem.
The picture at the top of this section hangs a round rattan mirror over a white dresser.
There’s a palm in a basket beside it and the corner of a bed in front.
The gap between those drawers and that bed corner is the one I’d measure first in your room.
Wondering where the mirror should go? The free feng shui mirror placement checker draws your room and checks whether it faces the bed or the front door.
Put the Chair Where the Daylight Falls
A bedroom chair ends up as either a reading spot or a place to drop clothes, and I think where it sits decides which.
So I’d skip whatever spot is left over after the bed and the dresser, and put it by the window, where the daylight is.
In a coastal room that’s the best seat you’ve got.
One condition, from the first section: if young children live in or visit your home, that window’s coverings go cordless, or get inaccessible cords, first.
After dark it needs its own lamp.
You know I think overhead lighting is a crime, and a chair lit only from the ceiling is a chair nobody reads in, in my book.
A floor lamp beside it or behind it does the job.
Keep it out of the bed’s 24 inches, too.
A chair that pokes into the walk to the bed gets bumped every single night.
The picture at the top of this section is the spot I mean.
A rattan armchair sits right by a window, sun falling across its cushion, with a woven floor lamp behind it for after dark.
Our Free Plan: What It Gets Right and What I’d Move
Here’s what’s in our free coastal bedroom plan.
There’s a jute rug, a white linen bed and two rattan nightstands.
A white dresser sits under a rattan mirror.
Then a rattan floor lamp, a blue accent chair, an areca palm, a succulent and a rope pendant, plus a window and a door.
Some of it is right.
There’s a nightstand on each side of the bed.
The rug runs past the bed on all four sides.
And there’s no bench at the foot of the bed, which I like.
A bench isn’t wrong, it just needs floor.
Run Wayfair’s formula on a bench 18 inches deep at the foot of an 85-inch queen.
The room needs to be at least 85 + 18 + 24 = 127 inches long that way, about 10½ feet.
At the top of Wayfair’s 24-to-48 range it’s 151, about 12½ feet.
Now the part I’d move.
As it opens, the plan parks the blue accent chair down by the door, across the room from the window.
It faces the door’s wall, with its back to the window’s wall, and its front edge sits right at the edge of the door’s swing.
That’s the leftover spot I just told you to skip.
I’d drag it up into the empty corner to the left of the window, where there are 5 feet of open wall before the window starts.
Same condition as before: with young children in or visiting your home, cordless coverings or inaccessible cords first.
Turned to face into the room, it gets the window’s light from the side, and the plan’s rattan floor lamp is already right below that corner for after dark.
Second, the succulent.
The plan puts it about 19 inches in front of the dresser, right where you’d stand to open a drawer.
Wayfair wants 36.
Drag it out of that strip.
Also good to know: turns out the plan isn’t drawn to scale.
The planner labels the room 32 feet 6 inches by 23 feet 6 inches.
At that scale, the bed is drawn about 13 feet wide and 10 feet long.
That’s far bigger than the queen, king or California king in Wayfair’s guide.
Use it for where things go, then check every size with a tape measure and the numbers above.
And one call is yours.
The plan floats the bed with its head toward the window, about 6½ feet off that wall, so lying down you face the door’s wall.
In a real room, would you rather see out?
Then turn the bed so one side runs along the window wall, still 2 feet off it, and do the sill check from the first section before you commit.
If young children live in or visit your home, do it only once that window’s coverings are cordless or their cords are inaccessible.
The picture at the top of this section shows a room a lot like our plan.
There’s a rattan nightstand and a woven pendant by the bed, a palm in a basket and a white dresser by a window.
And a blue armchair sits right in front of the dresser.
If that chair sits within 36 inches of those drawers, it’s in the way too.
Everything in the free room planner moves.
Drag any piece, or click it to turn it, change its color, flip it or resize it.
And add a bench if your room passes the math.
I’d start with the chair.
Related read: Things I Wish I Knew Before I Decorated My First Home — Instant PDF + Kindle download. Secure checkout by Stripe