As space is becoming an ever valuable commodity, many clients are considering what to do with that extra bedroom. They want to have a place for friends or relatives to sleep but are tired of seeing a room only being used a few days every year. They dream of what they would do with the room if they didn’t need the bed. Could it be converted into an office? A workout room? A playroom for the kids? The question remains: “But where would our guests sleep when they came to visit if we made this room work for us?”

The answer is simple: have the guest room serve two purposes. Imagine if the there was a bed for guests AND it was an office. The room would be for guests on the occasional weekend or holiday visit but the other 350 days of the year it would be useful for you. Putting a wall bed in a room automatically leaves space open for the room to serve another purpose.

The style you choose depends on the purpose for the bed. Murphy Bed Lifestyles by Closet Factory has several options to choose from:

• Murphy Bed – This options a flat panel that acts as a platform. You can use any mattress that fits the size of the bed. This is a comfortable option for a night or two but in not generally recommended for guests who will be staying for long periods of time.
• Sico Bed – This option has a slated platform that acts as the base of the bed. Add your own mattress and you have a very comfortable option. This is one of the most popular selections for that reason.
• Roommaker – The third type of bed accommodates both a box spring and a mattress. This is a regular bed that can be hidden away. Many clients will choose this option if this bed is going to be used every night. The best application for this wall bed is a bed that is going to be used daily.

Once the bed is designed to be out of the way, the rest of the room can be designed to serve its second purpose. Office furniture can be built in very easily and give the room an open feel. Workout equipment can be used in the space as long as it can easily be moved out of the way when a guest needs to use the room. If a playroom is in order, shelves and bins can be designed to hold toys and books as the room serves a dual purpose.

No matter what option works best for you, an investment in a wall bed can make your guest room a much more efficient use of space. Now who wouldn’t want that?

“It was a successful day and a wonderful launch of the new Closet Factory Cleveland Showroom! On our invitation list were current and previous clients, design professionals, business associates, as well as family and friends. All loved our five Murphybed Lifestyles displays and the delicious food too!” - Kathy Pietrick, President of Closet Factory Cleveland

Congratulations Closet Factory Cleveland!

This September we participated in the Bellarmine University Designer Show House, which is a very successful annual fundraiser in Louisville.  The event was in an 80-year old building converted to condominiums in the Cherokee Triangle area of old Louisville, and three condos (selling for 500-900k) were used for the event.

We joined up with Joan Waddell, former Chair of the ASID chapter in Louisville, to design a multi-purpose room, a home office/guest suite. It featured a Murphy bed and with two reach-in closets, one was used for guest clothing and one for office supplies and files.

The Louisville Courier-Journal sent a photographer through all three participating condos, and shot most of the primary spaces.  They ran a few in the paper but posted them all on their web site.  We were fortunate in that they were so taken with our concept that the Murphy bed got featured with two shots. - Jerry Ostertag, owner of Closet Factory Louisville

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). 

The Sico RoomMaker bed is the most durable of all the wallbeds that Murphy Bed Lifestyles offers.  It is specifically made for comfort as it uses a traditional mattress and box spring.  This bed is designed for the heavy-duty usage associated with dormitories, fire stations, care facilities, etc.  The RoomMaker wall bed is floor mounted with fully-encased coils made of heat-treated alloy steel.  This bed is great when you have a small room and need to utilize the complete space during the day but need to have a bed to sleep in at night.  The RoomMaker is a great for the type of everyday usage that requires comfort and yet space is at a premium.

Sico RoomMaker Specifications

• Cabinet height for Twin or Full 86 ½” - Extends 101” from wall
• Cabinet height for Queen or King 91 ½" - Extends 105” from wall
• Mattress and Box Spring maximum height 17”
• Cabinet depth 22”
• Floor Mounted

The standard handles of the bed become the feet of the bed when it is in the open position.  The RoomMaker's  fully-encased power coils are made of treated alloy steel.  This bed includes a vinyl headboard that folds over the pillows when it is in the closed position.  Sico RoomMaker wallbeds are available in twin, full, queen, king, and California king sizes.

Series Summary

Hopefully, you've read all three parts of this series on Murphy wallbed mechanisms, so you should be quite aware of your wall bed mechanism options and you're now able to make the right selection for your needs.  When you're ready to take the next step and start designing the cabinetry for the bed and the rest of the room, feel free to call us up and arrange for one of our free, no obligation design consultations and then you can ask any additional questions of your Murphy Bed Lifestyles designer at that time.  We're here to help you do things right and get exactly what is right for you, your needs and your aesthetic aspirations!

Remember, no matter which bed mechanism that you determine works best for you, your Murphy Bed Lifestyles designer will be there every step of the way to help you select all the right options to make your design truly custom! 

The Sico EuroBed uses slats for the base of the bed base so it provides considerably more comfort than the “Murphy”.  The Sico EuroBed is the best selling of our wall beds because it is mid-priced, provides superior comfort, and has been tested for everyday use.  This is the bed to use when like your relatives or friends enough that you don’t mind if they stay longer than just overnight, but you really are not ready for them to move in just yet.

Sico EuroBed Specifications

• Cabinet height for twin std  or full std  81 3/8”  Extends 87” from wall
• Cabinet height for queen 92”  extends  92” from wall
• Cabinet depth is 18 5/8”
• Maximum mattress height is 10”
• Side Panel Mounted

The leg folds up inside the bed.  The Sico EuroBed has fully encased heat treated alloy steel springs.  The frame is premium strength extruded aluminum.  This bed also comes with a flat vinyl headboard.  The Sico EuroBed is available in twin, twin XL, full, full XL, and queen.  It is important to note that this bed is available as a full or queen-size side-fold also.

This is the first of a three-part series on Murphy-styled wall bed mechanisms.  Parts two and three will follow shortly.

All wall beds, or beds that fold down, have become commonly known as “Murphy Beds”.   The original “Murphy Bed” brand name has been so heavily used by consumers, retailers, and other manufacturers over the years that the US government has denied all trademark claims to that name.  There is still a specific “Murphy Bed” branded mechanism that is sold, and this is one of the mechanisms that we use.  In differentiating the styles of beds that we offer, we refer to the mechanism name and type to identify the bed, but they are all commonly “Murphy beds.”

Murphy Bed Mechanisms

The “Murphy" wall bed mechanisms are the most price friendly of the three types/brands of wallbed mechanisms.  It is made for a spare room that is used when you have the occasional visitor.  It is perfect for a home office, crafts room, music room or other room that has multiple uses.  The “Murphy” mechanism is great for relatives or other guests that you like to visit for short periods.  It has a low profile frame that uses the bed face as the base of the bed.  The mattress sits on directly the bed face and tends to be a little harder than the slat style.  This bed is perfect for those guests you don’t wish to stay too long, but don’t want be totally uncomfortable!!

Murphy Bed Mechanism Specifications

• Cabinet height for twin or full 85 1/8 ” Extends from wall 85”
• Cabinet height for queen or king 90 1/4” Extends from wall 90”
• Cabinet depth 18 5/8”
• Maximum mattress thickness 9”

The leg folds up inside the bed and tension springs take the bed up and down.  This frame comes in pieces so it can be used when access might be more difficult.  The “Murphy" bed mechanisms are available in Twin, Full, Queen and King.

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!

Murphy beds are an American invention designed by  William L. Murphy  in the early 20th century.    They were first manufactured in San Francisco and consisted of a bed that pivoted on a door jam of a dressing closet and would be lowered into position. 

By the 1920's, Murphy beds became a popular item found in the home as they were wonderful space savers during the big apartment and industrial boom.  However, with the coming of World War II all of this was about to change due to the rationing of steel, and the rise of affordable single family  homes that were springing up about the country.  

With the change and flux of the economy during the 70’s and 80’s, wall beds regained their stature as staple in making the most of a limited space.  By that time, Murphy beds had already gained some of the spotlight in  the American culture through various movie representations.  The wall beds were featured mostly in comedies where they were the prop in slapstick humor situations like when someone becomes stuck in a Murphy bed that has been folded back into the wall.  Not only did Murphy beds regain their popularity in the home, but they soon could also be found in hospitals, fire houses, college dorms and even hotels.

Today in 2009, we are again experiencing a flux in the economy.  Many families are now joining together as grandparents move in and older children return to their nest.  Some families are opting to downsize to smaller homes, this change is forcing us to rethink our use of space and function.   Now we are expanding on this wonderful invention by combining it with bookcases, desks, and a wide range of sizes, styles and materials.

Closet Factory is proud to announce their new line, Murphy Bed Lifestyles which offers to our clients these new features and designs at affordable prices for their expanding and ever changing homes.

Selecting the right mechanism from the three distinctive styles and price points that Murphy Bed Lifestyles have available should be based upon the level of usage you will have and your budget.  We carry the “Murphy Bed” mechanism and two wall bed mechanisms by Sico. 

So, your next question is “What are the differences between the Murphy Bed mechanism and the Sico wall bed mechanisms”?   

The “Murphy bed” mechanism is the most price friendly of the three styles.  It is made for a spare room that is used when you have the occasional visitor.

The Sico EuroBed mechanism uses slats for the base of the bed base so it provides considerably more comfort than the “Murphy”.  The Sico EuroBed is the best selling of the wall beds because it is mid-priced, provides superior comfort, and has been tested for everyday use. 

The Sico RoomMaker bed mechanism is the most durable of all the wallbeds.  It is specifically made for comfort as it uses a traditional mattress and box spring.  This bed is designed for the heavy-duty usage associated with dormitories, fire stations, care facilities, etc. 

Future blog posts will have greater details on the various wall bed mechanisms.  In the meantime, if you are really interested in getting a custom Murphy bed installed in your home, sign up for one of our free design consultations.  Our designers are fully prepared with the technical details and the design expertise to inspire your imagination.