The Murphy bed

For the past 6 1/2 years, we have not had a guest room, a consequence of a small, 3 bedroom house and 2 kids. We've had a very comfy couch that would sleep 2, and a single hide-a-bed, but an actual guest room is something we've missed having.

The boys happily share a bedroom, but the small 3rd bedroom has been their playroom. And since it's function as a playroom is more useful than just returning it to a bedroom, with little floor space, we decided to install a Murphy bed.

A Murphy bed, for those who may not be familiar, is a bed that is stored vertically in a cabinet when not in use. This was an ideal solution to our space and function problem: most of the time the room will still be the boys' playroom, but we also have a full size bed available for guests (mostly grandparents).

Chris did a bit of research and decided it would be more affordable plus a good project to build the Murphy bed rather than buy a pre-made model. We purchased the deluxe full-sized kit by Rockler on Amazon. The kit includes plans for building the cabinet to hold the bed.

Chris building the bed and frame, in situ.

We purchased the lumber and plywood panels from Lowes and had it delivered since moving 4x8 sheets of 3/4" plywood is not a walk in the park. The cabinet is finished, other than staining the wood. It looks great and the playroom actually has more floor space since its footprint is smaller than the hide-a-bed it replaced.

The Murphy bed cabinet.

The mattress had to fit certain specifications for weight and size. If too light, it wouldn't hold the bed down in the open position. If too heavy, it might not stay in the upright position. It also had to fit within the dimensions of the cabinet.

Finding a mattress that fit those criteria was a matter of shopping on Amazon.com. The mattress was vacuum packed and rolled for shipping. It is amazing how small the mattress gets when vacuum packed! We got an 8" deep mattress that weighs just under 60 pounds.

Amazing how small that mattress looks!

Once the vacuum seal was opened, the mattress puffed up to normal size very quickly. Below is a picture of the Murphy bed open with the new mattress installed. (It was my first attempt at a panoramic photo, hence the weird line down the middle.)

The Murphy bed with mattress installed.