Anyone who knows me knows that I'm an art lover.  I collect it, I make it, and I hang it everywhere!  For a while my house looked like a hap-hazard art gallery, with pictures placed wherever I could find some spare wall.  After my previous entry about clutter bugs, I took a look around my place and decided that perhaps I needed to take some of my own advice.

I went through taking down the many pieces I had in the strange places I had them until I was left with pure white bare walls.  It felt a bit awkward at first, but after the day went on, I began to enjoy what I call the "blank canvas".
My "blank canvas" was painfully apparent behind my large couch, where a wide open space continued to stare at me.  Although I'm a fan of large art, I don't have much - especially nothing in the right shape to fill that vacant space.  So what did I do?  I decided to fix it up with some nice cluster art.

Cluster art is a wonderful way to fill some space and display various images together.  I also love it because I don't have to stand there with a level making sure that everything is perfectly lined up.  With that said - I also didn't want to attack my wall, filling it with holes as I figured out what piece would go where - so I began this project by fanning my desired pieces out on the floor in front of the couch.

It took me a good 20 minutes, but after moving some pieces around, adding some, and changing out others, I finally had my desired arrangement.  This was the perfect way to fill such an oddly shaped space!  Most of my pieces were still on display - and the ones that aren't, well I know what I'm going to do with them now, I think I caught cluster fever!

My camera is elsewhere at the moment so I searched online and found some excellent examples of cluster art at it's best.  Here you go!

Twenty or thirty years ago, if you would have used “Murphy beds” and “style” in the same sentence, I probably would have thought you were crazy. 

I have to say that I’m not overly impressed with how the Murphy beds from 30 or more years ago look, even if I consider the styles and fashions of the day.  Most of the time the bed cabinet did not match the room and it stuck out like a sore thumb.  Come to think of it, that might have been part of the reason for the relative obscurity of wallbeds during the latter 20^th century. 

But times change, and with those changes has come a rebirth of sorts for the ubiquitous Murphy bed.

Today, the new Murphy bed is not only technologically improved but some companies are moving away from the old, non-customizable DIY kits and are now into creating what works (and looks!) best for their customer.

So, to give you an idea of how a Murphy bed can be stylized into a room, I’ve included a few pictures with this article.

For the first example, I have to say that having matte Lucite^© inserts on the doors enclosing the wardrobe closet to either side of the Murphy bed is one stylish way to put a bed into the room.  Plus, it still leaves plenty of space for other activities during the day.  Using crown moldings and raised panel doors give the unit a richer, more traditional kind of look and having it fit precisely from wall-to-wall gives it that truly custom built-in look that today’s homeowners really want.

This next example illustrates taking full advantage of the space in the room for dual purposes – home office by day and bedroom by night!  Check out how the style of the room is Timeless Modern and how the style of the Murphy bed fits right in, regardless of whether the bed is opened or closed.  In my opinion, the bed cabinet and the surrounding furniture blend in together beautifully making this a wonderful design.

If you don’t want to go the route of having extra cabinetry surrounding your new Murphy bed, that doesn’t mean that you can’t make it look great.

Creative choices like having the stain color on the wood of the cabinet match the wood flooring color, having the unit tall enough for the crown moulding to meet the ceiling, raised panel styled doors, and the right choice of door handles all combine to make this unit stylistically fit into this room as well as it does physically.

As soon as I saw this photograph, I knew that I had to share it! 

It is a simple and elegant design for a child’s room, utilizing decorative crown moulding mounted all the way to the ceiling to give the unit that much desired, built-in look.  The open shelving keeps the unit feeling light and airy. 

The small and large arched handles in brushed chrome add to the simplicity theme.  The star-shaped and knobs on the drawers are “oh-so-cute” and add a sense of fun for this kids.

By using a beautiful bright white melamine to hold the queen sized wall bed, it makes cleaning up after the little one much easier too. 

Today, wallbeds not only pivot from the head of the bed, but they can also pivot out from the sides, as seen in the picture below.

At Murphy Bed Lifestyles, we’ve discovered there's a certain freedom that can be found in a custom designed wall bed unit.  By customizing the wallbed cabinet to fit the decor of the room, it allows our clients to easily add them into a room pre-designated for a particular use by day and become a bedroom by night.  Now, you too can easily turn your home office or craft room into a guest room for your overnight visitors.

Interior Designers are also getting involved with Murphy beds - finding various ways to use and decorate the empty wall space when the bed is lowered into sleeping position.   Painting the wall and adding a beautiful piece of art can give the bed more of a welcoming flavor.  Just think of how nice it is in a white room when you pull down the bed and voila! There’s a bright image or color lightening up the space.

And for those of you like me that prefer to diy take a look at my 5 Creative Ways To Decorate Your Murphy Bed for some ideas (posted on October 8th, 2009). 

Small rooms will always feel larger empty than when they are crammed full of your stuff.  That's why choosing the right furniture for the room is the first key to getting the most out of your space and making your small room feel larger.

When dealing with a small space, it is best to pay attention to how the items relate to the size (scale) of the room.  Working with a small scale room your best bet would be to invest in sleek, stream lined furniture, which will enhance the flow of space.  Glass topped tables and chrome touches will also help move light around the room, making it feel more open.

Now, perhaps you're like me and have inherited a nice big fluffy couch that you absolutely love, but it takes up a lot of space.  Mine was given to me by my mother-in-law and not only is it huge, but it's a deep olive green  making it appear larger than life.  Since I recently painted all of my walls and trim white, I decided that my best bet was to get a white canvas slip cover for the couch, which would allow it to blend in with the walls.  This left me with a beautiful blank surface to work with, so I bought some fabric that matched the colors of my rug and used it to make throw pillows for the couch.  Doing this, I not only created the illusion of space, but also added a new sense of harmony to the room.

To make a room feel larger and more open, it needs to be visually uncluttered.  The eyes should be able to travel around a room without being distracted - this is where harmony is important.  You can do this while decorating by connecting the elements of a room. 

This balcony set up is a wonderful example of how this can be done.  The bright floral patterns of the pillows and table cloth resemble the dancer's dress in the picture and the wooden screen blends in, adding a touch that makes me feel as if I'm vacationing on tropical island.

So now that you're set on creating horizontal space, some of you with low ceilings may be wondering how you can create the illusion of vertical space.  You can do this by selecting furniture which sits low to the ground, then hang pictures and artwork slightly above eye level.  Placing curtain rods high towards the ceiling will also give off the feeling of height.  OK, once you have your furniture all set up, the rest of the room should fall nicely into place.

My second rule for decorating (right after feng shui) is USE SHELVES!  (And I'm not really shouting at you, I'm just excited about decorating with shelves and wanted to emphasize things a little!)

Using shelves is especially the case when it comes to decorating in a small or downsized space.  Shelving when done right will add to a room.  Not only does it supply you with an excellent amount of storage, but it also allows you space to place your favorite decorative items and plants.

You can even use shelves as decorative accents by placing them around windows, doors, and yes, even wall beds.

Small rooms can really make a wonderful space feel cramped, so in order to create the illusion of a larger room, you'll need to use a few crafty tricks to fool the eyes and brain. 

Many people who want to paint their small rooms think they don't have the option of using darker colors.  Go ahead and use those deep navy blues and dark olive greens, but instead of painting the wall floor to ceiling, only paint 3/4 of the way up.  Use a lighter version of the same color on the top.  This gives off the illusion the walls are higher than they really are and create the feeling of more room.

If you're looking for a good color to add more depth - go for cooler tones like blues and grays on walls.

In a previous post I mentioned that a great way to expand small spaces would be to hang large pieces of art (or wall clings, decals, or mirrored headboards) to your walls.

But what about the floors?

While hunting around the internet to see what's out there and what's made of sustainable material -- just because I'm that type of girl --I came across Amara's beautiful, vibrant botanical rugs. WOW!!  I thought I had hit pay-dirt.

These rugs would look simply marvelous accenting the wall bed units designed by Murphy Bed Lifestyles!

The bold black and white floral patterns would be the perfect touch to bring out the brilliance of the white  melamine, while the bright colorful floral patterns compliment organic woods that Murphy Bed Lifestyles have to offer, too.  Talk about having your cake!

OK, like the title says, here's 5 creative ways to decorate your Murphy bed.  Read and enjoy!

1. Hang curtains!  Curtains are a great way to add a splash of color and texture to a room, and they’re easy enough to change with the seasons, trends and you! 
2. Put up decals!  Some of my favorite wall-cling sites are VinylWallArt.com and DaliDecals.com.
3. Use wallpager!  The space behind a Murphy bed is small, which makes it the perfect place to use that fancy and "way too expensive but you love it oh so much you must have it somehow and someway" wallpaper. Ferm Living Shop not only offers sensational wallpapers but they have their own matching pillows.
4. Add lights!  Not only is it quite delicious but adding light to the space behind the bed and in the surrounding cabinetry will create the illusion of a larger space.
5. Put up a canopy!  Overstock.com is a wonderful source for inexpensive circular canopies or if you’re a Do-It-Yourselfer, check out this great tutorial on HowToDoThings.com.

Here's an example of what a decal can do with the space behind your Murphy bed along with a cool shot of a mirrored headboard!