Storage beds — a buyer's guide

Which IKEA storage boxes actually fit under a storage bed?

An honest guide to SAMLA box sizes, bed depths, and the one thing furniture brands never tell you.

A storage bed only earns its space if what you want to hide away can actually live in it properly.

Styled illustration — typical SAMLA configuration shown

The question no furniture brand answers honestly

Search "how deep is a storage bed" and you'll find a lot of talk about cubic metres, litres, and "massive storage capacity." What you won't find is the one thing you actually want to know before you spend £1,500:

Everyone asking this question has already worked out that a storage bed only earns its space if the stuff they're trying to hide away can live in it properly — not squashed, not lid-open, not "nearly fits if you don't mind the rattle." And the honest answer depends on two numbers almost nobody publishes side by side: the bed's internal storage depth, and the height of the crate you're planning to use.

So this guide does both. We've taken IKEA's SAMLA range — the default under-bed storage box in UK homes for twenty years — and worked out which boxes fit under which beds. Ours included. With honest calls on when one of our beds isn't the right answer.

The IKEA SAMLA box, in four heights

SAMLA boxes come in four useful heights, each suited to different kinds of stuff. The 28cm is the one most people reach for. The 43cm is the outlier. The 14cm is the unsung stacking hero — more on that in a moment.

The 28cm is the workhorse — the size most people reach for because a single crate holds a proper volume without being so tall it's hard to lift out. The 43cm is the one most beds silently fail on. The 14cm, though — that's the one that changes everything once you realise what it's for.

Which Furl bed takes which SAMLA box

Every Furl storage bed is built around the same principle: fit as much useful storage as possible under a proper-sleeping bed, in the smallest footprint that still matches the mattress size. The four standard models sit in the same depth tier — the choice between them is about how you want the bed to look and which mechanism suits the room.

The honest read: if you want to use 28cm SAMLA crates — the useful size — any bed in the range works. Choose on style, not depth. If you want 43cm SAMLA crates, the only bed designed around that is Max Extra Deep.

Stacking — the option no one talks about

The depth table above assumes one box standing upright. But here's what changes the whole calculation: the 14cm SAMLA. On its own it's a shoe box. As a stacking layer on top of a deeper box, it roughly doubles your organisation without wasting vertical space.

Two 28L SAMLA boxes under a lifted ottoman — the workhorse configuration most people end up with.

Styled illustration — typical SAMLA configuration shown

A single 28cm box holds one category — "winter stuff" — in one undifferentiated pile. A 28cm box with a 14cm box on top holds two categories, each with its own lid, both easy to reach. "Winter coats" below, "gloves, hats, scarves" on top. The difference between a storage bed you tolerate and one you actively use.

What this unlocks, bed by bed

Apply stacking to the Furl range and the practical capacity jumps.

• Max Extra Deep (45cm) — takes a 28cm + 14cm stack across the whole floor. A king size gives you eighteen separate compartments with their own lids. Or a single 43cm per column if you prefer volume over categories.
• Max +5cm (40cm) — a 28cm + 14cm stack fits with 2cm of headroom. Or an 18cm + 18cm stack with genuine breathing room — two linen sets, two categories.
• Illusion / Air / Simplicity +5cm (38cm) — 18cm + 18cm fits comfortably. 28cm + 14cm is a hair too tall at 42cm, so this is stack-of-18s territory.
• Standard (33–35cm) — a single 28cm works cleanly. For stacking, 18cm + 14cm gives you the two-compartment benefit within a 32cm footprint.

That's the genuine difference between a deep storage bed and a very deep one. Not the single biggest crate it holds — the number of categories you can organise with.

Max Extra Deep — built for the 43cm box

Max Extra Deep is a new bespoke version of our Max storage bed. Same construction, same mechanism, same 6–8 week lead time — with usable storage depth taken to 45cm.

That's the specific clearance you need to stand a 43cm SAMLA crate upright with the lid closed. We built it because enough customers kept asking — people who'd measured their existing boxes, worked out that even our +5cm upgrade was still 3cm short, and wanted to know if we could go further.

A king-size Max Extra Deep holds nine IKEA SAMLA 43cm crates standing upright with the lids closed — 585 litres of boxed storage — plus a strip of loose space at the foot of the bed for duvets, suitcases, or whatever else won't sit in a box. Or, using stacking: nine 28cm + 14cm stacks, giving you eighteen labelled compartments and genuinely everything-has-its-place organisation.

Three real scenarios

How to measure any bed yourself

Works for our beds, anyone else's beds, or anything you're looking at second-hand.

1. Open the bed fully and measure from the floor of the storage well to the underside of the slat frame when the bed is closed with a mattress on top.
2. Do it at three points: head end, middle, foot end. Take the smallest of the three numbers — that's your working depth.
3. Compare against the height of the crate you want to use. If your crate is taller, it won't fit — or it will fit in a way that annoys you daily.

That's the whole method.
Most furniture brands won't give you a straight answer because the straight answer sometimes rules them out.
We'd rather be the one that does.

Frequently asked questions