I would like to build a murphy style bed for our home office so guests have
a place to sleep when they visit. We looked at Futons and Hide-a-beds, but
they both seem to take up too much space in the room. We also didn't care
much for the roll up or inflatable type beds. A murphy bed seems like it
would leave the most space in the room, and still provide a comfortable
bed. And, I could expand the cabinetry to provide much needed shelving in
our office.

Most of the murphy beds I have seen either use hydraulic cylinders or some
kind of spring system to counter the weight of the bed. But, I don't really
want to spend $250 just for a counter balance system. We'll probably have
guests less than once a year, so I can use a little muscle to lower the
bed, or get my wife to help.

I have an article from the April/May 2001 issue of Fine Homebuilding that
shows a bed much like I'm thinking of building. The main difference is that
his bed stands vertically, and ours will stand horizontally.

Anyway, I'm curious if anyone has drawings, plans, photo's, or tips for
building murphy beds, especially those without any fancy hardware.

Thanks,

Anthony

on 4/7/2005 12:25 PM HerHusband said the following:
Anyway, I'm curious if anyone has drawings, plans, photo's, or tips for
building murphy beds, especially those without any fancy hardware.

Saw some plans for a horizontal one at Rockler's. It used the hydraulic
hardware but it shouldn't be too difficult to adapt to a non-hardware
(i.e. brute strength) system as your overall dimensions, etc. will
remain constant or even shrink a bit but the pivot point, height of
mattress in use will remain the same.

Hadn't seen the horzontals before. Looked quite nice and, as you say,
could be worked into a wall of casework, etc. SWMBO was not all that
keen on it until she saw the plans when we were at Rockler's and the
word "horizontal" finally clicked in. She heard "Murphy" and vertical
immediately registered even though I said horizontal.

We have a small guest room that may... g