Thanks - It is hard to tell you the exact measurements although I can tell you how to work out what works for you .....

Decide the height you would like the finished bed - deduct the height of the mattress - deduct the height of the MDF board - and that will leave you with the height you need the base built to!

My other tip with the base is to only have it go to where the mattress starts to curve up on 3 edges of the bed (the 4th edge ie the bed head end, will need to go all the way to the edge of the mattress as this will meet the wall behind). If you build it to the full width and length you will be constantly banging your legs on the edges of the bed base and that would hurt! if you just do it to the flat surface area of the bed and not the full size you will only ever bump the mattress!

With regards to the bedside tables I aligned the top of them with the top of the mattress to create a nice line, i was then limited by the size of the walls and I wanted the same size gap on either side of the bedside table. If you don't have limitations you can decide what shape you like ie more rectangular or it can be defined by what you would like to keep in there.

Good luck with it!

Good point about aligning the bedside tables to the top of the mattress....do you know approximately the height of your finished bed in the photo? Thanks again

No i don't have the finished height - but best to check what height you like!