Over a hundred years ago, the Murphy bed was invented to fold into a small apartment closet; Today, it is the perfect solution for the modern multifunctional auxiliary bedroom.

It all started when William L. Murphy moved to San Francisco at the turn of the century and met his future wife. He lived in a one-bedroom apartment that had a standard bed that took up most of the floor space. Wanting to entertain, he began experimenting with a folding bed and applied for his first patent around 1900. It was a huge success, but Murphy beds lost their popularity just after World War II, when single-family houses with many bedrooms were being built. . Today, the demand is back with homeowners turning spare bedrooms into home offices, exercise rooms, or game rooms. And if you just bought a Wii, a folding bed will give you plenty of room to play a perfect game.

Here are some important things to remember when considering a folding bed. First, be sure to lay out the room exactly the way you want it. With this style of bed, it is a bit more difficult to change the room once it is anchored to the floor or wall. Second, you need to make sure that you can walk around the bed when it is folded. A typical bed shoots about eight feet from the wall to the end of the bed and there is nothing more annoying than having to crawl across the bed to get to the other side of the room. Finally, try to make your Murphy bed unit more attractive by adding a bookcase on each side or connecting the cabinet to a home office desk. Be mindful of the room’s decor and how it will look when the bed is up or down.

Murphy beds have also been referred to as “folding bed” or “fold-down bed”. There has been some confusion between a folding bed and a hidden bed. While they both serve the same purpose of saving space (a trundle bed would also fit into this category), a Murphy bed is specifically designed to be concealed when not in use.

The last few years have seen an increase in the popularity of Murphy beds. The most important factor to consider when buying a folding bed is the quality of the bed; A solid, well-functioning mechanism is paramount, as most folding beds do not come with a box spring.