Smart bedside table ideas: light, charging and sound

Light: three kinds, three jobs

A reading light, one each side, aimed at the page rather than the room. This is the one that matters most if you share a bed: a narrow, directional light lets one person read while the other sleeps. A table lamp lights both pillows.

A soft shelf light. A low, warm glow from a lit niche is enough to find your way to the door at night without switching on the main light and waking yourself, or anyone else, up properly.

And control of the room from bed. Getting up to switch off the ceiling light is the small daily annoyance most people want rid of. A switch by the bed, or a scene that turns everything off at once, solves it.

Whatever you fit, choose warm white. Cool, blue-white light late in the evening is the opposite of what a bedroom is for.

Charging with no cable on show

Put sockets at shelf height, not behind the table at skirting level. A socket with a USB-C port means a phone, a watch and a tablet can all charge without a plug block.

Better still, take the cable away altogether. A wireless charging pad set flush into the shelf, or a magnetic Qi2 charger, means you put your phone down and it charges. A magnetic charger inside a drawer keeps the phone out of sight and out of reach, which some people find helps them sleep.

Sound

A speaker built into the bedside unit, rather than sitting on it, frees the shelf and sounds better because the unit acts as an enclosure. It is worth having if you fall asleep to a podcast or wake up to the radio. If you do neither, leave it out and save the money.

One press for the whole room

The idea that turns a bedside table into a smart bedroom is the scene: one button that does several things at once. A bedtime scene might turn off the main light, close the curtains, dim the shelf lights to a glow and leave the reading lights for each side. A morning scene opens the curtains and brings the lights up slowly.

Curtains are the part people underestimate. A motorised track that closes them from the bedside, or on a timer, is the single most useful thing to add to a bedroom scene. On our bedside columns, the automatic curtain closing system is an add-on at £1,145 plus VAT for the track, the motor and the fitting, curtains not included.

Floating or full height

A floating bedside table, fixed to the wall with the floor clear beneath it, makes a small bedroom look bigger and makes cleaning easy. It needs a solid fixing, so check what the wall is made of first.

A full-height bedside column goes further. Instead of a table, a finished column runs up the wall each side of the bed, carrying shelves, sockets, lighting and sound, with the wiring inside it. It frames the bed like a headboard does, which is why the two are so often designed together.

Size it to the bed and the wall

Measure the wall either side of the bed, then the walkway you need past it and any door or wardrobe that has to open. A 400mm wide unit suits most bedrooms. 600mm gives each side noticeably more room. 800mm is generous, and better suited to large bedrooms and hotels.

The two sides of a bed are rarely identical. If one side is too tight for a column, we can build a single column for the other side to the same specification.

What ours cost

Our Caledonian bedside smart columns are made in three models and priced per pair. Caledonian Lite has a lit upper shelf on each column and a smart switch between them, from £1,600 plus VAT for a 400mm pair. Caledonian Plus adds a lit lower shelf and a shelf socket on each, from £1,750. Caledonian Sound puts smart speakers in place of the upper shelf, from £2,150.

The 600mm pairs are £2,150, £2,300 and £2,700, and the 800mm pairs £2,700, £2,850 and £3,250, all plus VAT. Sockets with USB-C, drawer packs, phone chargers, reading lights and the curtain system are options, every finish is the same price, and the columns are built around the bed you already own.

Common questions

What is a smart bedside table?

A bedside unit with the power, charging and lighting built in: sockets and USB-C at shelf height, wireless phone charging, a reading light, a soft shelf light, and a switch that controls the room from bed. No lamp lead, no charger cable and no extension block on the floor.

Are floating bedside tables a good idea?

Yes, in most bedrooms. They leave the floor clear, which makes a small room look bigger and makes vacuuming easy. They must be fixed into something solid, so check the wall before you choose one.

Can you get a bedside table with wireless charging?

Yes. A charging pad set flush into the shelf, or a magnetic Qi2 charger, means you put the phone down and it charges. Check that your phone supports wireless charging and that its case is not too thick.

How wide should bedside tables be?

Measure the wall either side of the bed. A 400mm unit suits most bedrooms, 600mm gives each side more room, and 800mm suits large rooms and hotels. Leave enough space to walk past and open any wardrobe doors.

How much do bedside smart columns cost?

Our Caledonian columns are priced per pair. A 400mm pair is £1,600 plus VAT for Lite, £1,750 for Plus and £2,150 for Sound. Wider columns cost more, and they are built around the bed you already own.