The Owner-Builder Network

An Amazing DIY Murphy Bed

MurphyBed
DIY Murphy Bed

When you have more people in the house than space, then you might want one particular space of your home to act as double – a space that can serve as two or more different spaces. What are the options?

If your spare room doubles as a home office, craft room, or playroom for the kids, then a fold-away bed may be the perfect solution for freeing up floor space. This bed would work just as well in a granny flat or bedsit.

If you’ve done some pre-made Murphy bed hunting before you know that they could be quite expensive! By building your own, you could cut costs and have a well-fitted Murphy bed in your room.

DIY Murphy Bed - Coat of paint

How to Build a Murphy Bed?

The very first step of building a Murphy bed is gathering all the necessary materials needed for your project. Make sure you already have a design on your hand on how your folding bed would look like and follow these steps.

Build a headboard

The headboard of your Murphy bed will serve as the cabinet frame of your folded bed. So make sure that it will be sturdy enough to hold your bed when not in use.

Build the bed frame

You’ll need to take measurements of your room so you can build the right size frame for your Murphy bed. When building your frame you have to make sure that you have enough room for it to fit on the headboard.

The frame usually consists of the headboard, the footboard, and the rails. The headboard and footboard are placed at the head and foot of the bed respectively.

Build the rail system

The rail system of the Murphy bed is also important. If you have a bed that folds up and down with a system that uses rails and brackets that is not sturdy, then you cannot put a lot of weight on the top of the bed and you cannot leave a lot of items on top of the bed when the bed is folded down.

This is because the rail system will not be able to support the weight of the furniture and items on the bed when the bed is folded down.

The rails are attached to the sides of the bed.  The rails can either be the same length or different lengths. The purpose of the rails is to secure the mattress.

The length of the rails is important as they will determine the width of the mattress. So you should make sure that choosing quality materials for your Murphy bed is vital.

Assemble the bed!

Finally put the parts of your bed together. Assembly is a very important part of setting up your Murphy bed. Murphy beds need to be assembled carefully and correctly.

We recommend that you assemble the bed first on the floor before you place it on the wall. Make sure to attach all of the pieces correctly and tightly. Make sure not to leave any loose screws behind because it will be a reason that your bed won’t be safe enough to sleep with.

Do you want a simple-looking Murphy bed like this?

Materials:

  • 3/4″ Plywood
  • Coat and Paint
  • Metal Brackets
  • Screws

Tools:

  • Hammer
  • Power Drill
  • Table Saw
  • Sander

Click on any image to start the lightbox display. Use your Esc key to close the lightbox. You can also view the images as a slideshow if you prefer 😎

Thanks to Little Dog Vintage for this great project. You can get the step-by-step instructions here

If you liked this project, you will also like viewing these space-saving ideas…

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