Everything You Need To Know About Murphy Beds
What Is A Murphy Bed?
A Murphy Bed is a bed that is able to fold up. Most of the time these beds are used to save space in places that are lacking in the space department. These beds are manufactured in several different styles, colors, and designs. Many of them also come with a variety of additional options. These may include storage areas, lighting and more. Don’t worry — we’ll cover those later. This type of bed has grown in popularity in recent years. There are many reasons for this growth. Here are some of the main ones.- Open space — Adding a Murphy Bed to your home will create more open space for you to use. A bed takes up a huge portion of any room. If you have one that allows you to fold it out of the way, it opens up all sorts of possibilities for the use of that space.
- Multi-functional rooms — Murphy Beds enable you to have multiple purposes for one room. No more does your guest room have to sit unused for extended periods of time with a bed waiting for guests to come and stay with you. When nobody is in need of your guest room, fold the Murphy Bed away and use the space for a home office, exercise area, or something else.
- Design — The quality of Murphy Beds continues to improve. And with that, they become safer, more functional, and even more affordable. The Murphy Beds that are mounted on the wall, do almost no damage to the wall and are pretty easily moved to a new location if necessary. Maybe the best part of the design of Murphy Beds is the level of customization that is available. Whatever your lifestyle, living space, or need — there is a Murphy Bed that will match it!
Murphy Bed Mechanisms
There are two main mechanism styles that your Murphy Bed will use. One uses springs and one uses pistons. Here’s a look at each of them.Spring Mechanism
Spring mechanisms can handle more weight than you might think and the fact that you can adjust the tension in the springs comes in handy. Plus, replacing a spring when necessary is not too tough. The legs feature a pivoting system so you can pull out the leg as the bed is lowered to the horizontal position. A Murphy Bed with a spring lift mechanism comes in a range of sizes from twin up to king-size. No floor mounting is required. Just attach it to the wall with three screws so it can be easily moved to a new location if necessary. You should plan on 2-3 hours of setup time for your Murphy Bed.
Piston Mechanism
The piston mechanism offers an easier way to make any necessary adjustments to your Murphy Bed. The pistons are designed to use either gas or air pressure. Operating a Murphy Bed doesn’t get any easier! And they usually will have a locking mechanism for an added measure of safety. This ensures that the bed stays closed even if there is an issue with the pistons. The piston lift system requires less space than other lifting mechanisms. And there is no floor mounting required. Just attach it to the wall with three screws so it can be easily moved to a new location if necessary. You should plan on about 1.5 hours of setup time for your Murphy Bed.
Both of these mechanism options make it easy for you to operate your Murphy Bed. Whether you want to go with a spring mechanism or a piston mechanism with your Murphy Bed, there are a bunch of Murphy Bed manufacturers out there. But the quality of products and customer service that you’ll find isn’t the same with them all. Before making a decision on which one is right for you, do some research and make sure that you contact a proven and respected company like Wilding Wallbeds.
Murphy Bed Sizes
In addition to the storage, shelves, desks, and more that make Murphy Beds so beneficial, they also come in a variety of sizes. You can even get a king-size in some styles! Because of this, virtually any room in your home can be transformed into a multi-functional space. Here are a few things to consider when selecting the size of your Murphy Bed. Who is going to be using the bed? How often do you expect it to be in use? How much space is needed for a comfortable night of sleep? And you’ll want to know exactly how much space you have to work within the room you want to use the bed in. Obviously, you will need room for the bed, but don’t forget about making sure there is space around it as well so you can still move around the room easily. One of the best benefits of a Murphy Bed is that you gain the space and functionality without having to give up anything as far as your comfort or mattress size is concerned.Available Sizes
- Twin — This is the ideal size for a child to sleep on because they don’t need quite as much room to sleep comfortably and it won’t take up as much of the floor space. This is also ideal for a small space in your home or office that only requires room for one adult.
- Queen — So you want a traditional queen size Murphy Bed? No problem. This is what you probably want for two adults to sleep comfortably. This is recommended for a bed that you are planning to use every night.
- Bunk beds — Many people do not realize that Murphy Beds are available as bunk beds. For anyone with limited or no floor space, bunk beds can make a world of difference. They provide the same basic functionality as a traditional bunk bed while allowing a great amount of space-saving. This is the way to go for a bedroom that is shared, especially with children. Our bunk beds come standard as Twin over Twin but are also available in twin extra long for those tall guests. These bunk bed systems are not just for children. They can accommodate adults in comfort while freeing up valuable space during the day with a footprint only 17″ deep.
- King — Anybody with space for a king-size Murphy Bed will appreciate the variety that is available in our Studio Series. These beds use our spring lift mechanism and are able to support up to 2,000 lbs! Check out our Studio Series beds.
Popular Murphy Beds
With so many options in design, style, and function, there is a perfect Murphy Bed for everyone. But there are still some models that are more popular than others. Here are some of the most popular Murphy Beds.- Remington — The Remington is by far one of the most popular of our Studio Series designs, and that’s for good reason. This bed was born through years of customer feedback. The Remington is a unique combination of a few classical styles but given a modern twist.
- Bookcase Bed — The Bookcase Wallbed offers the convenience of an integral bookcase and a Murphy Bed in one solution. Our standard Bookcase Wallbeds hold up to 200 lbs. in both bookcase sections. The Bi-Fold Bookcase Wallbeds hold up to 60 lbs. in each of the four bookcase sections.
- Edge — The Edge is the most affordable option of the HomeFront Series. It adds a beautiful contemporary look and feel to any room in the home and is available in your choice of five different kinds of wood and 22 different stains.
- Sofa Murphy Bed — The Sofa Murphy Bed is just one more way Wilding Wallbeds has married both space-saving with functionality. This option allows for the use of a Murphy Bed in a living room or entertainment room without having to compromise your valuable space for seating.
- Murphy Cabinet Bed — This is an innovative bed that can fold into a stylish chest and helps you keep your room neat and clean. They are ideal for any room that needs to function as a guest room and a den, living room, TV room, or any other multipurpose room. What makes this bed so unique is that it is freestanding — meaning that it does not need to attach in any way to your wall or floor.
The Mattress
Many people wonder about the mattress used in a Murphy Bed. It might even be the most commonly asked question when it comes to Murphy Beds. You can use your own mattress in a Murphy Bed. It’s got to be the right size of course, but that may not be what you want to do. Just because you can do something doesn’t always mean that you should.
If you have a conventional bed, you’ve got a mattress that has been designed to work on a conventional bed. In other words, it’s designed to be used and stored horizontally. This creates an issue in a Murphy Bed when the mattress is used horizontally, but stored vertically. This means that the mattress will be out of its designed position most of the time.
This can lead to a problem with your mattress known as slumping. This is where the coils inside the mattress or the foams inside the mattress slide toward the floor because of gravity. This causes a bell-shaped bump at the head of the bed. Once the problem exhibits itself the mattress is ruined. We actually have a very nice Simmons Beautyrest mattress on display to show people what can happen when the wrong mattress is used. Even a great mattress like the Beautyrest — when engineered to lie flat and kept in a vertical position — will likely exhibit a huge bump at the head of the mattress. Slumping.
Problem Solved
Wilding Wallbeds approached the Serta mattress company about designing a mattress for the specific purpose of being used in a Wallbed or Murphy Bed. Serta made two significant changes in the way these mattresses are made.- The Border Rod: The installation of a border rod solved one of the major problems. The coils inside a mattress are designed for back support and durability. In our Serta mattresses, the coil system is entirely surrounded at the top of the coil and at the bottom of the coil with a border rod. This is kind of like a little racetrack that surrounds the entire coils system at the top and bottom of the mattress. Next, Serta fastens its coil system to this border rod at the top and bottom of every single edge coil. Fastening the coils in this fashion ensures that the coil system can’t slump.
- Foam: Mattresses are usually filled with layers of foam that are on top of the coils. This is what makes a mattress so comfortable. There are two sections of the foam. The quilt package contains 3-4 layers and is the top part of the mattress that you can easily see. This part of the mattress does not cause the problem when a mattress is standing in a vertical position. The upholstery package is where the slumping issues can happen. This is because the pieces of foam are loose-laid on top of the coils without being attached. So when a mattress is stood up on end, these pieces of foam will gradually begin to slump. Serta came up with a solution by doing a couple of things. Now the upholstery package is quilted together in the same way the quilt package is. The upholstery layers are also attached to the border rod of the mattress. And they have attached the quilt package to the upholstery layers and the border rod. Nearly all mattresses contain a coil system that is designed to provide durability and back support. In our Serta mattresses, these coils are surrounded by a border rod. The coils are also attached to the border rod at the top and bottom of all edge coils. This layout ensures that the coil system cannot slump.
Build Your Own Murphy Bed
There is a wide range in the cost of a Murphy Bed. Everything from the size, style, quality of materials, and manufacturer will impact that cost. If that is a concern for you, you may want to consider a DIY Murphy Bed kit. This will require a little work on your end but will reduce your cost as well. Before embarking on a DIY Murphy Bed project, there are some important things you should consider. There’s nothing wrong with trying to reduce your costs with DIY projects. However, this is not always a good idea when it comes to a large piece of furniture that you’ll spend about a third of your time — the bed. Many of our competitors will tell you that cost isn’t a factor when it comes to DIY Murphy Beds. They might also say that just about anyone can put one together. When trying to save money, it is not a good idea to sacrifice quality, workmanship, guarantees, and especially safety. Other DIY Murphy Beds are going to necessitate more skill and expertise than the typical DIY crafter is prepared for. This is why Wilding Wallbeds DIY Murphy Beds are designed to give you all of the qualities you’ll need to depend on them for a lifetime. Beds are big, heavy pieces of furniture that will require some skill to install and operate efficiently and safely. When you expect to spend a lot of time in your bed, unfold it each night and fold it back into the wall in the morning — it better be made with high-quality materials and durable. This is exactly what you bet with a Wilding Wallbeds product.
Wilding Wallbeds New Bed Builder Feature
Wilding Wallbeds recently launched a new online Bed Builder. With this new feature, you, the customer can design, quote, get dimensions for, and order a custom Wilding Wallbed directly from the website. The Bed Builder is designed to be easy to use, informative, and fun to experiment with.- Access to the Bed Builder is found in the top right-hand corner of all of the Studio Series and HomeFront Series pages. Click on the button that reads “Design Your Bed in 5 Steps” to open the Bed Builder. Then, click on “Configure Your (Bed Style) Now” and get started building your bed.
- Now you’ll see the five steps of the process. The one you are on will be highlighted. On the right, you can see blueprints for the project you are working on. Notice that this will change as you select different options. As you navigate back and forth between steps, your selections are saved.
- If you need assistance using the Bed Builder, check out this Bed Builder blog for even more information. Or, if you prefer to make an order over the phone, the team at Wilding Wallbeds is waiting for your call.
Murphy Bed Shipping
Not only are Murphy Beds and Wallbeds customized to the customer selections, so is the way they are shipped. This is done with a unique pallet and packaging technique that Wilding Wallbeds has developed over the years. This ensures that every order will be worry-free. Because each order is unique, Wilding Wallbeds has a highly trained, talented and experienced team who build a shipping pallet for each job and package each of the pieces so that it will ship or deliver damage-free. This process gives Wilding Wallbeds a much higher than industry average successful shipping percentage. Before your order is shipped, you’ll receive an email with all of the important shipping information. It will include the estimated arrival date, the tracking number, as well as the customer service phone number. Each and every Wallbed order is sent with the hardware and instructions needed to assemble the Wallbed in the home. We also provide helpful installations videos online that will give you the step by step instructions that you can watch at any time. Many customers have reported these videos to be instructive and easy to follow.Where Does The Name Come From
So why are these beds called Murphy Beds anyway? It’s actually an interesting story. They are named after a man called William Lawrence Murphy. He was a young inventor living in San Francisco when he was in his early 20s right around the year 1900. He was living in a small walk-up studio apartment. But he had a problem. He was in love with a beautiful opera singer and he was desperate to spend some quality time with her. But because of the moral code during those days, his bed was a problem because it was not acceptable for young women to be alone with a man in a room with a bed. And his bed was the centerpiece of his small one-room studio apartment.
He had to find a way to make that bed disappear quickly. Between his desire to spend time with the woman he loved and his resourcefulness, Murphy was about to find a solution. He created a foldaway bed with door hinges and a closet door jam that enabled the bed to hide inside the closet. It was a brilliant invention that really paid off for him. Not only are we still talking about him more than a century later, but because his room could easily be transformed from a bedroom to a parlor, he ended up marrying that singer that he loved so much.
He wasn’t the first to come up with a fold-up bed. But, his design had pivot and counterbalanced features. So, he applied for a few patents for this invention and now a hidden bed is known as a Murphy Bed.