I don't have any but I have a friend who recently bought two of them. I'll be visiting her in a couple weeks so will see what they look like and what it's like to sleep on one of them. I've slept on one at another friend's house too. It was fine and it looked fine though I don't remember it all that well. I know it had more cabinetry/shelves around the bed - I think across an entire wall. So it didn't just look like a big cabinet with a fold down bed inside.

I was looking at them recently as we are going to be having overflow guest quarters in our office for DH's upcoming golf event. It'll be a blow-up bed this time around but I pondered a Murphy bed for future use. I decided in my case it would look too much like a bed in a cabinet.

Wrote long post with photos, but Houzz lost it, so if we can ever post photos again, I'll edit the post to add them.

I had one installed 10 days ago from Breda Beds. You can buy it with a sofa that can be left in place when the bed is down. However, the sofa is not connected, so you can use the sofa elsewhere as long as it is against a wall.

One aspect I didn't anticipate was that the manufacturer recommends using a mattress that is no thicker than 10 inches and that weighs no more than 100 pounds. Since I wanted an innerspring mattress and not one made of foam, I had to get a custom mattress made.

I forgot to mention that I bought a model with side cabinets and drawers on both sides. The side cabinets can be made without doors if you wanted to use that area as shelves instead.

I like popup daybeds better than Murphy. Get the ones with the link springs, rather than the ones the the metal bars.

Jojo are you on Instagram? Look up RebeccaandGenevieve (I'll try to link but who knows) and see her highlight on the Murphy Bed she and her husband built. She has decorated and redecorated the room over the years. Might give you some ideas.

For some reason, I can't post a comment with photos. There are some very nice looking Murphy beds today - they do not look like a big box at all (completely disguised).

There are also ones that fold into a cabinet - look like console tables when closed.

I grabbed a bunch of photos - but still can't post any 🥲

@jojoco, check messages.

I bought a house that had a Murphy bed. The room had an inset that it fit into perfectly, but for some reason that now escapes me, I was never pleased with it. I finally had the Murphy bed removed and just put an ordinary bed there.

ETA: After trying to remember why I didn’t like the Murphy bed, I think there were 2 reasons. It was a bear to make up. The upper 1/3 - 1/4 of the mattress was not easily accessible. Putting a sheet on the bed required climbing up on the bed. Annoyance #2, for some reason the foot of the bed was higher than the head of the bed. It had to do with the length of the legs. Not a lot. Just enough to be annoying (to me, at least).

I slept on one in a VRBO a while back. IIRC, it looked like an armoire when closed and was attractive. It was also comfy.

@jojoco, pictures are posting again, so here is the Breda bed I referenced earlier with and without the sofa. I wanted a stained finish, but none of their colors worked with my floor so I had to go with white. Luckily, there's a white built-in desk in the room, so the bed doesn't look too out of place. As I mentioned, you can leave the doors off the side cabinets and just have shelves. Also, this room has a vaulted ceiling. If this were in a standard 8-foot high room, there wouldn't be so much space above it.

I saw this product called a Cabinet Bed recently on the Big A. Apparently, the matress unfolds, which is a little odd, but the concept is interesting..

I live in NYC where murphy beds are a real thing and I have seen real estate listings with some nice looking ones. The part that I don't get is that you have to keep your floor clear of any other furniture so the bed can be lowered so it never really felt like much of a gain to me. My husband is all about them, but for this reason, I've always put my foot down and gone with other options instead.

@Kendrah - yeah, that's what I always wonder about too. I guess that's doable if you have relatively lightweight furniture and room to move it out of the way.

DS had one installed in his 4th. bedroom/office several years ago. He had a local closet company install it and he's very happy with it. When he had the flu he used that room as his isolation ward and his MIL uses it when she comes. He bought his own innerspring mattress. He really loves the fact that it disappears when not in use since it is also his office space. There isn't an issue about keeping that area free of furniture since the rest of the room has a sofa and end table against a wall and his desk and computers on another. He can access the bed from both sides so he can easily change the sheets. They also went with the hinging mechanism that enables one person to lift or lower the bed. They didn't remove the quarter round on the baseboard behind the bed but had the bottom of the cabinet notched to accommodate it.

If floor space is an issue there are also murphy beds where the length of the bed is parallel to the cabinetry. I know you can get a queen, , not sure if you can get a king.

We're looking at them for our place in PA. We have an extra room on the main floor that doesn't get much use but now that the grand kids are getting older we need to make it more 'sleep' friendly. It has a sofa bed but no one ever wants to sleep on one. We do have an extra dense foam mattress that we place on top but then we have to store it when not in use. We're considering either a daybed with trundle or a Murphy bed.

Kendrah, im not sure I follow. Most rooms would have the middle space open. If you have one in a home office, it would just be for the enjoyment of having more walking space rather than moving around a bed. And visually less clutttered.

It would give free space got an exercise mat as well.

jojoco, I may be confusing you with someone else, but didn't you have custom cabinets done in your kitchen not too long ago? What about your cabinet person and something made to fit the style and space. That's what my SIL did with a building for entertaining on her dock. A custom murphy that looks like the other cabinetry on that wall when closed. Open, it holds a surprisingly comfortable queen bed. Holds it very quietly and discreetly as overnighting on the docks does not meet city code. She could put in a full kitchen and full bath, and did, but no sleeping arrangements are allowed so very few have been invited to use it, mostly tight lipped family 😊

I have a Wilding Wall Bed Murphy bed that drops down from the wall. It's the Edge model. I like that when it's in open/down position, you see wood legs instead of metal. Very comfortable. VERY easy to operate. It's actually pretty lux. Also easy to clean around too. I just purchased a boxed mattress, and it's worked out great. I've had it for around 7 years. We don't use it too often, but we do use it, I never feel apologetic having someone sleep on it--it's a comfortable and good looking bed. I'm about to purchase a murphy chest bed for a vacation rental that has low ceilings in the corner that I need to use, and therefore won't accommodate a tall wall bed. One brand that looks very user friendly and is solid wood, is New Traditions. That will probably be my purchase. Wilding sells solid wood cabinet beds, but I like that with New Traditions the pieces that pull out are all attached or mechanically linked up to each other, so when you push them back in, you wouldn't bang up the bed (for example like a pull out trundle will do if not on tracks). In my experience, the more expensive pieces are much easier to operate and also much more comfortable. And they do look more substantial. They can be pricy, but a whole lot less than adding a room onto your house.

When we lived in Florida our house had a large bedroom with all the furniture except the chair built in. The longest wall held a murphy bed surrounded by shelves and cabinets. The surface that hid the bed was paneled and it looked just like a really nice wall. Across from the bed was a desk and a chest with six drawers (three and three), then on the contiguous wall a vanity with a lighted mirror, a tip out door with removable dirty clothes bin, then the cabinetry continued around a large bow window with a window seat. The only other wall was the mirrored doors of a long closet. The former owners had the room designed for their daughter, who liked to use the room to practice dance. Our daughter was also a dancer and it was the perfect room for her. She was in third grade and could open and close the bed by herself, and was very careful not to open it when there were any obstructions. Her bedroom was the ne plus ultra among her classmates, who vied for overnight invites to sleep in the ”disappearing bed.” She loved it and so did we!

Thanks for the updated comments. When we were in Florida two weeks ago, we opened the pullout couch in the guest bedroom/10 and I looked at it and thought oh what a sad looking saggy mattress. I noticed a small Control tucked into the upper right corner, I pushed the button And the mattress started inflating. It wasn’t bad at all. I’ve never seen such a thing, but it inflated to a very comfortable queen size mattress. Kind of like a hybrid. We may hold off the Murphy bed for a bit and see how this works.

A sleep number type sofa bed??? Cool. DD’s guest room has a Sleep Number bed. I think it is comfortable.

Jojo and Still trailing - I've never thought about adding an inflatable mattress to our sofa beds. At our PA place we have two and they're really comfortable sofas but one is a disaster as a bed. We thought about installing a Murphy bed - but an inflatable mattress might be the way to go. Especially since they're only used once or twice a year.

By any chance do you know who makes them? I wonder if any queen size inflatable would work. And you can just leave them inside as long as you deflate them.

@maire_cate here is a ton of info. but in short yes you definitely store it deflated in the fold up sofa bed My brother has the Air Dream.

https://www.google.com/search?q=can+you+store+an+inflatable+matress+in+the+fold+up+sofa+bed&rlz=1CDGOYI_enUS1149US1149&hl=en-US&sourceid=chrome-mobile&ie=UTF-8

Still trailing - thank you for the info. I'm still a little amazed that I never thought of using an air mattress. I guess that's because I've never used one but it is definitely worth trying - and in a pinch you can always use the air mattress in another room by itself.

Maire Cate, we can’t think of everything—-that’s why we have each other ! ❤️

Can you use just any air mattress or does it have to be an air mattress specifically designed for sleeper sofas? I’ve never owned a sleep sofa and I’ve dealt with very few of them, buy my impression is there is lots of metal that could damage an air mattress. I do own air mattresses (because I run the equivalent of a B and B during football season 🙄). I can’t see the ones I have easily folding up on sleeper sofa even when they are deflated.

Bbstx, my sleeper couch at the condo has an air mattress attached to the mattress. More like a built in topper, I think, with an attached controler to inflate it. I'm not in Fl, but dh will be there in a few weeks and I'll ask him to snap a pic. (I think your hunch is correct that a regular air mattress on a metal frame might end badly.)

Jojoco, what you have is what I was envisioning. I just could not fathom flinging a random air mattress on a sofa bed in place of the usual mattress.

Eons ago, DH, his siblings and their spouses, and I rented a condo for a football weekend. Going in, we knew someone was going to have to sleep on a sleeper sofa. We brought an air mattress with us and used it on top of the regular mattress on the sofa. It may have been slightly better than nothing, but it really didn’t work very well.

as @jojoco said its specifically intended for a fold up sofa. Now that she mentions it the first one was an inflatable topper affair.

My parents have an Ethan Allen sleeper sofa and it has an inflatable mattress that it came with. It folds up inside. There are some coils inside the blow up mattress. It isn't a topper, it is the whole mattress that blows up, but there is more inside of it than the air mattress I own that stuffs into a nylon bag.

I find the bed too squishy for my back. When stay there I take the mattress out of the sofa bed, put it on the floor. It is HEAVY and hard to move. A lot more substance to it for sure than your typical air mattress. It is a PITA honestly.

Kswl - you are so right about that. This place is such a wonderful source of information. I'm forever jotting down the tips that I learn here.

Now that I read Kendrah’s response, I remember that the one in our condo is also Ethan Allen. My calling it a “topper“ might be erroneous – – we really just opened it once inflated it and then put it back down. But it does feel like an air mattress not just an inch two of a topper.

I'm following this thread with great interest, as I am/was considering a Murphy bed for our new construction guest room (12x14), which will also house my computer desk. I am disappointed at the price of these things, easily $2000 for a decent quality one, and those are the bare minimum designs. And the assembly with most sounds horrific; most people say it took several hours and up to 4 days! We don't have guests often, although we may have them a tad bit more often in the new house. I'm talking probably a maximum of 4 times a year for a week at a time. I know I don't want a sleeper sofa or an air mattress. I never thought of a trundle bed and will have to explore that more. I'm looking into the cabinet style Murphy, but those come with a mattress that is a tri-fold, and most aren't very comfortable at only 4" thick. The 6" thick ones jump up to $2000, so again, it doesn't seem cost effective. Plus where do you get a new mattress like that when the old one wears out? Thanks for any suggestions.

I used the company's recommended installer. It took the experienced installer most of the day to install, but he was really good at it. As for the mattress, the only restrictions are height and weight. I had a local mattress manufacturer make one that met my requirements, but I'm picky. I could have bought the one the bed company offered.

Thanks for the updates. Still considering one too. There's a lady on Nextdoor that has both a murphy bed and a Pilates reformer. Maybe I can bundle LOL.

I've been considering a Murphy bed as we repurpose our upstairs. I have a family heirloom bed that survived the Chicago Fire but it is only a twin and in a tall family is only good for young ones. It was my childhood bed and I hope to someday pass it on to a grandchild, but none in sight for now. I have it set up as daybed and hope it will someday go to a grandchild. I've been looking at the ones that look like a dresser or chest as well as one that have a desk built in on hinges so it stays level as the bed folds down. Haven't seen them in person.

When DH and I were in out first home, we saw a Sligh desk that had a fold out bed, I really wanted that for our guest room study, but for reasons I don't remember, we didn't do it before we moved and things changed. We have 3 dormers with window seats in this house and I have thought about installing a fold up bed in one of those to create a multi-purpose room. The mattress comfort has been a drawback on all of these, so it is interesting to hear or the inflating hybrids. I've never met a pure air mattress that was worth sleeping on, but a hybrid is a maybe -- if it holds air.