Murphy bed pros/cons/recommendation

November 11, 2023 11:02 AM

We're insulating a spare bedroom and have the drywall down on a couple of walls. It occured to us that we'd like to add a fold-down bedframe to the wall when we put it back together.

The room is to small to do much with when there's even a full/queen sized frame in there, but it's in fairly regular use as a bedroom, and we don't want to fall back to an inflatable mattress or similar. If you've done this, can you share any recommendations?

Specific things we're thinking through:

1. Should we frame the frame into a second false wall, drywalling and adding built-ins around it, or should we buy one of the models that's basically a big cabinet?

2. Are there specific hardware brands/systems that are better than others?

A couple of notes:

The stairway to the second floor is *very* steep and tight and can't accomodate assembled furniture/cabinetry or something like a sleeper sofa (which might actually be our preferred option if it were possible), so whatever we choose needs to be in parts and assembled in place.

We're fairly handy.

We have a full mattress (an Ikea Morgongava latex mattress iirc) that we'd like to use, if possible, but if there's a great case for buying a different size, or if you know this won't work with fold-down frame hardware for some reason, we're open to alternatives.

posted by pullayup to Home & Garden (11 answers total)

Sleeper sofa options, since that is your preference: Burrow Shift sleeper sofa (ships in sections; scroll down to see home assembly video), CoddleMe's Toggle Convertible Couch (and others on site).
posted by Iris Gambol at 11:33 AM on November 11, 2023 [3 favorites]

This is something I want to do- and I would like a kit from Rockler. These are often referred to as Murphy beds and Rockler has a great reputation for their kits generally and I’m been impressed with the things I’ve gotten from them previously.
posted by zenon at 11:59 AM on November 11, 2023 [2 favorites]

I would go with the cabinet option. First of all, it will be much easier to eventually repair, replace, or remove in that scenario.

But more immediately, unless the room is so narrow that the bed extends to the walls on either side, you will have some space to either side of. The frame will probably need about 18” of depth. With a cabinet, you can put nightstands or end tables in that space and pull them forward when the bed is in use. Framing it into the wall, you basically have an 18” shorter room (possibly with nightstands in the corners). Depending on your ceiling height, there may also be some space on top of the cabinet for decorative items or storage.
posted by staggernation at 12:25 PM on November 11, 2023 [1 favorite]

My office has always doubled as the guest room, and over the course of about 20 years, I've had everything in there - inflatable bed, sofa bed, regular bed, and for the last 10 years or so murphy bed. That's been my favorite, although I'm not so handy so we hired a local carpenter who had a business building them. Ours fits a queen mattress and has book shelves on either side of the cabinet (so that they are all flush when the bed is against the wall. If I were to do it again, I might have him build a little fold town table for when the bed isn't in use. And make a few of the shelves drawers instead for my guests to use. And I'd think of how I might decorate the cabinet, since it's a pretty wood, but rather monolithic (although right now I've got a keyboard set up in front of it and I want to do some video recording, so I've hung a curtain across it all.)
posted by snowymorninblues at 1:49 PM on November 11, 2023 [3 favorites]

I have a cabinet type Murphy bed. The only thing I will note is that it's hard to get one that has a couch or similar in front of it, so if you want furniture in the room when the Murphy bed is up, you'll have to take it out when it's down. I solved this by building a low bench below the cabinet which I put pillows on, which is good enough to sit on for me because I don't like squishy furniture. But most people find it deeply annoying. If you're intending to use the room, I don't know, as a home gym or craft room or office, it may not be an issue for you.
posted by branca at 4:20 PM on November 11, 2023 [1 favorite]

When we added a combo bedroom / office to our house, we bought a cabinet style Murphy bed. It was easy to assemble and looks really good in either position. It's been in place and had regular use for 8 years now with absolutely no problems. Aside from the two work stations and end tables, there is no other furniture so nothing to move around when we want to put the unit in "bed" position. Easy up and down. What we like is that the room looks less cluttered when the bed is put away, and also, a bed there would inevitably accumulate junk. Good luck.
posted by charris5005 at 5:05 PM on November 11, 2023 [1 favorite]

I have a Clover Murphy cabinet bed and recommend it over a built-in or tall one. There's no hardware to deal with, and it doesn't dominate the room quite as much.
posted by The corpse in the library at 5:55 PM on November 11, 2023 [1 favorite]

Make a mockup in the bed's dimensions out of cardboard.
posted by aniola at 6:24 PM on November 11, 2023

I have a BredaBeds Murphy Bed and I LOVE it. It had good instructions but definitely took hours to assemble and would have been so much better with a second person but it was one of the best decisions I've made for my house, I got a whole room back.

They have really good measurements listed including a way to tell if it will hit your ceiling fan/light fixture. Which I really appreciate, I thought I would going to have to get a sideways one but it showed I could get the vertical one.

Would totally recommend.
posted by magnetsphere at 10:00 AM on November 12, 2023

We also have a BredaBeds bed and love it. We use it as a guest bed in a room that is primarily a kids playroom/my work from home office. It works very well and was reasonably easy for me (an able-bodied man in my late 30s) to assemble on my own, though having a second person dedicated to helping would have made things much easier. (If you do go this route, a piece of advice: a cordless drill and a set of square bits, along with a bit extension, made this much easier for me.)

An unexpected advantage was that the BredaBeds bed is exactly the same depth as a set of Ikea wall cabinets, so it forms a rather seamless look in the guest room and provides additional storage.
posted by kdar at 10:08 AM on November 12, 2023

If you want something with an even smaller footprint, there are "chest" murphy beds as well.
posted by hydra77 at 8:25 AM on November 13, 2023 [1 favorite]