Murphy Beds: When to Use
- Ryan Harkrider
- 20 hours ago
- 4 min read
If anyone else grew up watching, The Great Muppet Caper, I'm sure you're familiar with this scene:
And much like Kermit, Fozzie and Gonzo, I wasn't a fan of Murphy beds for a long time. The practicality, on which the Murphy bed seems to base its existence, just didn't add up. So you have a large empty room...why not furnish it with an actual bed? Or are you planning on moving all the furniture out of the room to then put the bed down? Where does everything go?
For years, we would have 90min consults or Design for a Day consults where clients would ask about the practicality of a Murphy bed, especially in multi-use spaces like guest rooms combining with home offices or playrooms. Typically we would steer them instead towards a sofa bed, offering a comfortable place to sit when not in use rather than an unusable box on the wall.
However, Murphy beds and the discussion of Murphy beds kept coming up. We all vividly remember the first time that a Murphy bed was the strongest solution for a design concern. Our consult client had a yoga room that she also wanted to turn into a guest space. A sofa bed would take up too much of the valuable floor space and there was zero furniture in the room that would need to move in and out for the Murphy bed to lower in place. The wall bed would be painted the same shade as the walls, allowing it to blend away and the room to remain as zen and peaceful as possible.
Not too long after that consult, our Cedar Hill Modern project began its preliminary designs. Our clients had a basement flex room that would transform, depending on its inhabitants at the time, from a music room to an office to a guest room. As we began space planning exercises, an area for a lounge came together very naturally, however tight for a sofa bed. Playing around with the space a little further, we noted a large open area opposite the planned lounge. Too big to remain empty and too far removed from the seating arrangement to be included, it was an excellent spot for storage casework and to our shock, perfect for a Murphy bed. Just like the previous yoga room project, no furniture would need to move out of the way for the bed to lower. Circulation around the room was still very comfortable with the bed in place. Bookshelves flanked the Murphy bed so there was more visual interest and storage rather than the dreaded 'box'. Wanting to have even more fun with it, we selected a delightful tomato red paint, brass hardware and added one of our Kate Blairstone tiger wallpapers on the inside for a surprise:
Remembering that Murphy beds can be oriented either side-to-side (like the above image) or headboard-to-footboard helps tremendously when you are faced with lower ceilings or a longer wall span.
Murphy beds still had more in store for us. Our Skyline Residence project had a basement flex room that our clients wanted to use for family hangouts (complete with wet bar for movie night snacks) as well as an area to comfortably sleep guests. Our clients also had a portable rowing machine and stationary bike that they needed floor space for in the basement, with the plan to easily tuck away the equipment into a nearby storage room when not in use.
Again, the space planning exercises determined a natural area for a family room arrangement with a large sectional sofa. A structural beam divided the space into two zones: one with the sofa and the other with the wet bar and generous floor space for exercise equipment or a table & chairs. Wall locations for the wet bar were limited and it was positioned on a long wall, opposite new windows and the family room built-in.
However, the wall was so long that having just the wet bar casework there felt odd. Our clients had an existing sofa, not a pullout, that they wished to use in the family room. We could have designed additional full height cabinet storage along the wall but with the already planned open floor space in front of the bar area, it made sense to use this extra wall space for a Murphy bed. We also added additional closet space for guests along the wall to create one long, unified piece of casework.
Just like with the wallpaper, bookshelves and additional storage from the previous project, Murphy beds can be more than just a bed. Adding small flip-top cabinets with outlets become nightstands for overnight guests. Outlets and switches on the inside of the bed are those little touches that make your friends and family feel comfortable. Murphy beds are a box where you should think outside the box. :)
Final notes: we will almost always still recommend a sofa bed over a Murphy bed as a sofa bed offers multi-purpose use. There ARE comfortable sofa beds out there, promise! However, if you have a space were circulation is not an issue or a room that naturally leans itself towards being open, sometimes a Murphy bed makes the most sense.
Believe it or not, we have more Murphy bed projects upcoming!
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