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Originally Posted On: Murphy Beds | Wallbed Categories | Wilding Wallbeds (wallbedsbywilding.com)

Not Enough Space? Maximize Your Room Space with a Murphy Bed.

In this world of rising costs and smaller living spaces, we are finding it more and more important to make the most of our spaces. This involves being innovative, selective, and creative to get multi-purposes out of our rooms. Many of us have guestrooms with beds taking up the majority of the floor space only to be used in the event of the occasional guest. These guestrooms are the biggest offenders in being inefficient with your precious space. A guest bed is the only thing standing in the way of you having an exercise room, home office, or craft room.

Where does a Murphy bed come in?

Murphy beds are a great solution to the problem of a wasted guestroom. For those who don’t know, a Murphy bed is a bed that folds up into a cabinet for storage, so it doesn’t take up floor space when it is not in use, leaving your room open for other things. Now if your mind is flashing to horrible memories on a sleeper sofa, with a 2” pad and metal rods and springs in your back, you have nothing to worry about. Murphy beds generally use a standard mattress (some even up to 12” thick) and are as comfortable as the mattress you put on them, as a Murphy bed doesn’t diminish the comfort of a mattress in any way. With a Murphy bed you get the convenience of an air mattress, with the comfort of a traditional mattress. Gone are the days of guestrooms sitting empty and wasted 360 days of the year.

What should I do with my reclaimed space?

Now that you have found a great solution to reclaiming the lost space in your guestroom you have the freedom to use that room as you wish. Right now with the continuing pandemic we have all had to learn how to work from home. The only way to be successful working at home is to have a private comfortable space to conduct business. Too many of us found ourselves sitting at card tables in our cramped guestroom. In today’s world every professional needs a functioning home office. A great way to create space for this is using a Murphy Bed to clear up the guestroom and setting up a professional home office.

Another thing that many of us learned the hard way is that we will not always have access to gyms and fitness centers for exercise. The only way to guarantee that you have continuous access to your fitness regimen is to create an exercise room at home. Once again, opening up the guest room with a Murphy bed is a great way to create the space needed to have your own personal fitness center in the comfort of your home.

Other popular second uses for guest rooms are nice formal sitting areas for conversations with friends, play rooms for the kids or grandkids, craft rooms, libraries, or even a nice TV room for watching the game.

Some Common Questions

Here are some common questions that people new to Murphy beds often have.

Q: Are Murphy beds hard to lift?

A: This depends on the lifting mechanisms. Some DIY Murphy beds on YouTube require you to “Clean and Jerk” the total weight on the mattress, but most commercially made murphy beds use lifting mechanisms to assist with the lift. Wilding Wallbeds, an industry leader, offers piston lift and spring lift options, which keep the lift weight from 5-20 lbs making it easy to lift and lower without much effort.

Q: Are Murphy Beds safe?

A: Yes, Murphy beds are safe. Murphy beds mount into either the studs in the wall or the floor joists depending on the construction of the Murphy bed. This keeps the bed cabinet from tipping over. The commercially sold mechanisms have been engineered and tested to ensure that they are safe and reliable. This keeps the bed from falling out of the cabinet or springing closed. This question probably roots from the scene of Lucy, from I Love Lucy, caught in a Murphy bed folding up and down unable to get out. Though it makes for great comedy it is of course only through movie magic that something like that would be possible.

Q: How much room does a Murphy bed take up?

A: The space a Murphy bed takes up is entirely dependent on the mechanism and the craftsman. Some are designed to fit in a closet, some take up a few feet of floor space. Wilding Wallbeds prides themselves in making Murphy beds with the smallest footprint on the market. Their queen Murphy beds start at only 64” wide by 16” deep.

What are Murphy beds made of?

A: This once again just depends on who is making them. The mechanisms are generally made out of steel or aluminum. The cabinets are made out of hardwood, plywood, particle board, or MDF. Higher end murphy beds are typically made out of hardwood, and plywood rather than the particle board and MDF, because of the superior strength, durability and beauty of the natural product. Knowing what the Murphy bed that you are interested in is made of is extremely important as the materials that are used really determine the overall quality of the bed.

Ditch the wasted space!

With the demands of life, and the value of your space, you deserve the ability to get the most out of your room. The idea of a guest room sitting unused the majority of the time is outdated and inexcusable. The time has come for all of us to ditch this wasted space and use a Murphy bed to get the room that you deserve. The comfort will leave your guests rested and impressed, and the convenience gives you the freedom to have a space that fits your lifestyle.