Fifteen Drawers in One Bedroom: How the Manchester Collection Adds Up

Australian bedrooms are storage poor and nobody warns you. Older homes have a single robe with one shelf and a hanging rail. Newer builds hand you a walk-in that turns out to be a corridor with hangers. Either way the overflow ends up in the same three places: on a chair, under the bed in a shopping bag, and in a plastic tub in the garage.

The Manchester range answers that arithmetically. One of each piece gives a bedroom fifteen drawers, in four distinct sizes, each of which is genuinely suited to different things. Here is what each one measures and what it will actually hold.

Key Takeaways

• Fifteen drawers total: two in the bed, two in the bedside, five in the tallboy, six in the chest.
• Under bed drawers are 43cm deep and 25.9cm high, opening at the foot of the bed.
• Tallboy stands 114cm tall on a 100cm footprint, chest is 85cm tall and 140cm wide.
• Every case piece is 45cm deep, so they line up on one wall.
• Solid pine structure, crisp white finish, panelled fronts and round silver handles.

Two in the Bed, Costing You No Floor Space

The Manchester Pine Queen Bed Frame with 2 Drawers carries its two drawers in the footboard, so they pull out toward the end of the bed instead of along the sides. That is the difference between storage you use and storage you gave up on, because the walkway at the foot of the bed is space every bedroom already has, while 60cm of clear floor down one side is space most do not.

Inside, each drawer is 43cm deep and 25.9cm high. The queen drawers are 70cm wide and the king drawers 85cm. The bases are lined, which matters more than it sounds: a lined drawer under a bed does not sand the finish off folded clothing every time it rolls in and out.

What fits is flat, seasonal and infrequent. Spare sheet sets. Beach towels between December and March. The winter layers you will not touch until May. What does not fit is anything with loft, so do not plan on hiding a spare doona in there and then feeling cheated.

All three sizes come both ways. If the linen already has a home, the plain double and king frames keep the footboard lower and the room visually quieter. If it does not, the double with drawers is the version that buys back a cupboard, and in a second bedroom or a kid's room that cupboard is usually the one you needed.

Two Beside the Bed, and What They Are Really For

The Manchester Pine 2 Drawer Bedside Table is W55 x D45 x H60cm, with two drawers measuring 37.5cm wide, 37cm deep and 18.6cm high inside. That is not a lot of volume, and it is not meant to be. A bedside drawer is the fastest storage in the house to fill with things you never look at again, which is why two shallow ones beat one deep one.

The 60cm height is the number worth checking before you buy. It wants to land somewhere near the top of your mattress so that reaching a glass of water at two in the morning does not involve groping around below the level of the bed. Most mattress and base combinations land between 55cm and 65cm, so 60cm sits comfortably in the middle.

Two drawers rather than an open shelf is also a decision about who sees your bedroom. A shelf puts the charger cable, the blister pack and the hair ties on permanent display. A drawer takes all of it and gives you back a clear surface for a lamp and one book.

Five in the Tallboy, Stacked Upward

The Manchester Pine 5 Drawer Tallboy is W100 x D45 x H114cm. Two narrow drawers sit across the top at 38cm wide and 19.9cm high, then three full width drawers at 81.5cm wide and 22.5cm high. The split is the useful part. The small top pair takes socks, underwear, belts and the things that disappear into a big drawer forever, while the three below take folded jumpers and denim.

The height is worth noting against your room. At 114cm the tallboy clears most bedside heights and still passes under a standard window sill, which is what lets it go in the awkward metre of wall between a window and a door frame that no other piece of furniture fits. A metre of wall for five drawers is the best exchange rate in the range.

The trade-off is the top surface. At 114cm it is above eye line for anyone sitting down and just below eye line standing, so it works for a plant and a tray, not for a mirror and a morning routine. If you want a surface to get ready at, you want the chest instead.

Six in the Chest, Spread Sideways

The Manchester Pine 6 Drawer Chest is W140 x D45 x H85cm with six drawers, each 59cm wide, 37cm deep and 20.6cm high. Six drawers of one consistent size is a different proposition to the tallboy: nothing is sized for small items, so this is the piece for clothing in volume, plus the linen that has nowhere else to go.

The 85cm height is the real reason to choose it. That is bench height, which turns the top into the place a lamp lives, where the tray for keys and a watch sits, and where the folded washing waits for two days before anyone puts it away. In a bedroom that has to do the job of a dressing room, that surface earns more than the sixth drawer does.

The cost is wall. At 140cm it needs a genuinely empty run, and the moment you add the Manchester Pine Mirror above it you are committing that wall permanently. Worth measuring before you fall for it, because a chest in the wrong spot blocks a robe door and there is no fixing that afterwards.

The Mirror, and the Cheapest Fix for a Dark Room

The mirror is 100 x 100cm and only 5cm deep, framed in the same white with the same moulded detailing. It attaches to the top of the chest or hangs on its own, and if you want the two as a single purchase there is a Manchester Pine 6 Drawer Chest With Mirror.

There is a reason the mirror belongs in this range in particular. A bedroom carrying fifteen drawers is a bedroom carrying a lot of closed timber, and closed timber absorbs a room. Hang a square metre of glass above the chest and half of that mass reads as depth instead of bulk. It is the one piece here that gives space back rather than taking it, which is why it is worth buying at the same time as the chest and not two years later.

It also does the job the range is quietly built around. The Manchester pieces are white on purpose, not because white is fashionable but because a room with fifteen drawers in it can very easily read as a wall of furniture. White, with panelled fronts that break the surface into smaller shapes, keeps a heavily furnished bedroom feeling lighter than it has any right to.

What Fifteen Drawers Costs in Floor Space

Here is the honest maths before you buy the lot. Every case piece is 45cm deep, which is the number that matters in a narrow room, because 45cm out from the wall is what you lose. Along the wall, the chest takes 140cm, the tallboy 100cm and each bedside table 55cm. One of each, plus a pair of bedsides, needs roughly 4.7 metres of wall that is not already a door, a window or a robe.

Most Australian bedrooms do not have that, and the answer is not to squeeze. It is to choose between the tallboy and the chest rather than buying both, which drops you to eleven or twelve drawers and about 3 metres of wall. The bed, the bedsides and one case piece is a complete bedroom, and it is the combination most rooms should be buying.

Start with the bed and one storage piece, live with it for a season, and add the second only if you still need it. Furniture bought in that order almost never ends up in the garage, which is the fate of most of the plastic tubs it replaces.

Frequently Asked Questions

How many drawers are in the Manchester collection?

Fifteen, if you buy one of each storage piece. Two in the footboard of the bed, two in the bedside table, five in the tallboy and six in the chest. Bought separately, each piece still works on its own.

How big are the Manchester under bed drawers?

Each drawer is 43cm deep and 25.9cm high inside. The queen drawers are 70cm wide and the king drawers 85cm wide. There are two on every bed frame that has them, and they pull out at the foot of the bed rather than the sides.

Which is better, the Manchester tallboy or the chest?

It depends on your wall, not your wardrobe. The tallboy is 100cm wide and 114cm tall. The chest is 140cm wide and 85cm tall and gives you a surface at hip height. If you have one long empty wall, take the chest. If all you have is a corner, take the tallboy.

Is Manchester furniture solid timber?

The structure is solid pine, finished in crisp white with panelled fronts, moulded edges and round silver handles. The bed frames use a slat base, so no separate bed base is needed.

How much wall does a full Manchester bedroom need?

Roughly 4.7 metres of wall in total, not counting the bed. The chest takes 140cm, the tallboy 100cm, and two bedside tables 55cm each. Every case piece is 45cm deep.