These Fantastic Murphy Beds Save Space in Small Apartments and Spare Bedrooms

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Murphy beds aren’t just for swanky apartments and Charlie Chaplin gags—they’re an ideal space-saving solution for guest rooms, tiny homes, and cramped walk-ups. Also known as wall beds, Murphy beds have a mechanism that lets you easily (and safely) pull the bed down for sleeping and push it back into a compartment flush with the wall for storage.

These space-saving beds were named for their inventor, William Lawrence Murphy, who needed to hide his bed when living in a one-room San Francisco apartment in order to court a woman. They married in 1900, and he patented his bed in 1911. And while you probably don’t need a Murphy bed to adhere to antiquated courtship customs, they can certainly still come in handy in small multipurpose spaces, so you can use a living room or home office as a temporary guest room, for instance.

In addition to style and function, it’s imperative that your Murphy bed is made with a high-quality mechanism and safety measures that keep the furniture in place. We scoured the beds on the market to find the best options for apartments, spare bedrooms, and kids’ rooms.

The Best Murphy Beds

• Best Overall: Ebern Designs Chocolate Storage Murphy Bed

• Most Affordable: Bestar Nebula Collection Queen Murphy Bed

• Best for Guest Rooms: Red Barrel Studio Crossfell Bed

• Best Chest Bed: Night & Day Furniture Murphy Cube Cabinet Bed

• Most Discrete: Red Barrel Studio Kimsey Solid Wood Storage Murphy Bed with Mattress

• Best Customizable Kit: Wallbedking Full Horizontal Wall Bed Kit

• Best DIY Kit: Easy DIY Murphy Bed Full Size Hardware Kit

• Best Storage: Atlin Designs Full Wall Bed Kit

What to Consider

Murphy beds are convenient and trendy, but with a few pistons and screws keeping your furniture from falling on your head, it’s all the more important to shop for a high-quality one. Here’s what to keep in mind for safety, durability, and style.

Safety and Durability

You can save a chunk of cash by building your own Murphy bed, but it’s a hefty project that requires investing in the right equipment to make sure the bed is safe to use and properly balanced so you aren’t heaving the bed into the wall each night. A properly made Murphy bed has pistons, springs, or hydraulics that take on and distribute the weight of the bed so putting it away is as easy as lifting up the edge of a carpet. We recommend buying a Murphy bed (or a Murphy bed kit), rather than engineering your own, unless you’re an experienced home renovator.

The most important safety rule for installing a Murphy bed—whether you buy a set or build your own—is ensuring the bed is secured to the wall with at least three studs. Chest cabinet Murphy beds don’t need to be secured since they sit on the floor. Quality springs or pistons, as well as heavy duty locking devices, keep Murphy beds secured while they’re stored away. If you plan on pulling your bed up and down each day, pistons will likely last longer. For occasional use, a spring mechanism is perfectly suitable, but it’s more prone to stretching and can cause the bed frame to sag over time.

Types of Murphy Beds

Vertical

Most Murphy beds are mounted vertically on a wall in what looks like a built-in cabinet. Hinges on the bottom and a dual-piston system allow you to lower vertical Murphy beds down from the top. Keep in mind that vertical beds typically don’t come with bedding, so you’ll have to find a mattress that’s compatible with its maximum height, which is usually around 10 inches.

Horizontal

Horizontal Murphy beds mount sideways on the wall so, when it’s opened, the bed sits with one long side along the wall. This design may work better for small spaces or rooms with low ceilings, and may be easier to lower for some. If you’re looking to maximize space, we recommend a vertical option so you don’t lose the few feet near the ceiling, but some horizontal options can function as shelves for decor as well.

Chest Cabinet

Instead of storing a full mattress behind a wall cabinet, you can fold a mattress and cot into an attractive chest cabinet that takes up minimal space. Chest cabinet Murphy beds usually come with a foldable or three-piece foam mattress that may be thinner than your average mattress. These are best for guest sleeping arrangements—we don’t recommend them for daily use, but they can blend in well with decor in a living room or spare bedroom.

How We Evaluated

We researched Murphy bed sets and DIY kits to determine the most important qualifications for safe, durable wall beds. We prioritized dual-piston systems for safety and ease, as well as quality build materials like solid wood, commercial-grade particle board, or alloy steel so your bed lasts as long as possible. We thoroughly examined customer reviews to ensure the models that earned our recommendation are reliable, durable, safe, and reasonably easy to install. We also looked into installation to determine how simple these are to install without the help of a professional.

Chocolate Storage Murphy Bed (Queen)

This high-quality Murphy bed is certainly not a cheap one, but it takes our top spot for its quality construction, beautiful design, and varied storage. It's well-suited for daily use and also has nice-to-have extras, like built-in power outlets and USB ports.

When opened, there's space on the wall above the bed for a painting or decoration to act as a headboard. There's additionally room to display your stuff on shelves to either side of the bed, as well as six roomy drawers for discrete items or clothes. The only potential drawback, aside from the hefty price tag, is the 1-year warranty on the mechanism.

Nebula Collection Queen Murphy Bed

Bestar offers plenty of Murphy bed solutions, but we like the Nebula collection because it's simple and relatively affordable. It also comes in several colors and it's made with a dual-piston system for safety.

The folding leg beneath the bed makes it easy to switch from bed mode to closet mode in seconds. Although it is constructed from particle board, customer reviews suggest that it's plenty sturdy and lasts well over time. The collection also includes models with built-in storage.

Kimsey Solid Wood Storage Murphy Bed with Mattress

This Murphy bed is the easiest to hide when it isn’t in use, as it folds into a box that looks just like a set of dresser drawers. Made with solid wood and high-quality joinery, this is an excellent pick for a guest bed in your living room or entertainment area because it blends in with a wide range of furniture.

The feet are also made of solid wood, which is a welcome difference from the other beds on this list, most of which have unattractive (but practical) metal legs. Another plus is that it comes in five finishes.

Murphy Cube Cabinet Bed

Avoid the installation process with this cabinet chest bed from Night & Day Furniture, which has a much smaller footprint than a vertical or horizontal Murphy bed.

It’s made from solid hardwood with a cherry finish to resemble a real chest and fits a cot and folded mattress inside (with spare room for sheets, pillows, and a blanket).

Although it requires resetting the bed each time you open it up, this is one of the most affordable and least cumbersome options we cover, and it comes with a memory-foam mattress.

Crossfell Bed (Double)

This bookshelf Murphy bed from Red Barrel Studio is ready to transform your guest bedroom. With a simple bed frame and basic storage options, this isn't the best pick for daily use, but the closet style makes for a super clean look when it's closed up.

It comes with two roomy bookshelves on either side of the bed, so you could furnish an entire guest room or Airbnb suite with just this piece of furniture. Like our Best Overall pick above, there's only a 1-year warranty on the mechanism.

Full Horizontal Wall Bed Kit

For a partial DIY project, this horizontal Murphy bed kit comes with everything you need for the skeleton of a hideaway bed. The kit includes the bed, the pistons, and the mounting system—nothing else. You can choose to cover it with a cabinet or add bookshelves.

The legs automatically fold out when you open the bed, making it as easy to use as it is to install. Some customers say they got this up and running within two hours.

Full Size Hardware Kit (Full)

DIY Murphy bed projects can be a lot cheaper, if you’re willing to build the bed platform and cabinetry yourself. This kit includes all the hardware you need to create a safe wall bed system with the flexibility to design and build everything else yourself.

It also comes with step-by-step instructions for how to build the bed and a list of the materials you’ll need. If you get stuck reading the paper or PDF instructions, watch the provided videos to help troubleshoot.

Full Wall Bed Kit

One huge perk of a Murphy bed is the storage space it opens up. This system by Atlin Designs has full closets on both sides of the bed, complete with clothing rods, adjustable shelves, and three drawers. The dual-piston system makes it safe and easy to set-up, and there are tons of color combinations available, such as this model with contrasting white doors and drawers, to fit your style.

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