My husband is obsessed with murphy beds. I think they only work in a situation like this where you really have a space to put everything else away for when you bring the bed down.

Just like kitchen cabinets, there are junk murphy beds and high quality murphy beds. My cabinet maker has made murphy beds before. If you have a cabinet maker you like, I'd ask them to price it out. If not, I'd do research before going to stores and looking. Do you live in a large city? (I live in NYC where there are TONs of places to purchase Murphy beds. If you live somewhere that apartment living is not as common, your in store choices may be more limited.)

I think you are absolutely right. If a person wants a dedicated sewing/workout/office/yoga room, they should do that and not try to make it a multi-functional room. But I don't need that. I only do like 1 quilt every 1 or 2 years or when a friend will ask me to make a t-shirt quilt for their kid going off to college, military, etc. I'm too busy to do more than that.

Thank you so much for your response. I will ask the cabinet builder if this is something he would be interested in.

I live about 40 miles north of Houston, TX. There are a lot of cabinet builders near-ish me, most of the good ones have huge workshops on land not too far away. They need space to work.

I bought a house that had a queen size Murphy bed in the walkout lower level. I originally planned to scrap it, but it was brand new (still wrapped in plastic) so during our renovation I had a wall closet in an upstairs bedroom expanded to fit the Murphy mechanism. We didn't need custom cabinets made.

To make it as comfortable as possible, I put a good quality pillowed mattress cover over the mattress, and my (adult) son uses the bed when he visits. He's 6'6" so not a little guy, and he says it's very comfortable. When he's not visiting I use this room as my office, and there's enough floor space that I don't need to rearrange furniture to pull down the bed, but I like it tucked away when it's not in use. For us, this works out very well and the good mattress + mattress cover makes it comfortable for guests.

Depends on what you want. You can buy the Murphy bed hardware and have a custom cabinet built for it, or you can buy the whole thing, cabinet and bed. There are full height cabinets and half height. Just depends on what you want and what would work for your situation.

You could also just consider doing a blow up mattress as it sounds like you won't use it often.

Here's what it looks like in the closet. Each side of the closet is wide enough for a small cart (bought them at IKEA) to hold blankets, pillows, and rechargeable lamps. (There's also a closet light.) When the doors are closed it just looks like a regular closet.

I understand this might not be everyone's cup of chowder, but as I mentioned it works well for us, and I was able to use existing closet space, just expanded. (I was replacing trim and doors anyway.)

I hate Murphy beds! My parents installed queen sized one in the second bedroom/office of their current downsized house. They bought the best mattress in the store. That thing is so uncomfortable that I now bring a twin air bed when I spend the night. It would have been much better if they had installed a real twin bed with a trundle under it

Chispa,

Is the reason they are uncomfortable bc a normal thickness mattress won't fit?

A Murphy bed sounds like a great fit for your needs! They’re designed to make rooms multifunctional, so when your son isn’t home, you’ll still have plenty of space for quilting. A lot of companies specialize in these, and they can come with professional installation, so you don’t have to worry about setting it up yourself. You can find options that fold away easily and still look great in the room. Some even come with shelving or storage, which could be handy for your quilting supplies. You might want to check out furniture stores that focus on space-saving designs, they often have a variety of styles to choose from. My credentials? I’ve been 7 years working at Expand Furniture.