The 8 Best Murphy Beds for Small Apartments and Spare Bedrooms

Murphy beds aren’t just for swanky apartments and Charlie Chaplin gags—they’re an ideal space-saving solution for guest rooms, tiny homes, and cramped walk-ups. Also known as wall beds, Murphy beds have a mechanism that lets you easily (and safely) pull the bed down for sleeping and push it back into a compartment flush with the wall for storage.

These space-saving beds were named for their inventor, William Lawrence Murphy, who needed to hide his bed when living in a one-room San Francisco apartment in order to court a woman. They married in 1900, and he patented his bed in 1911. And while you probably don’t need a Murphy bed to adhere to antiquated courtship customs, they can certainly still come in handy in small multipurpose spaces, so you can use a living room or home office as a temporary guest room, for instance.

In addition to style and function, it’s imperative that your Murphy bed is made with a high-quality mechanism and safety measures that keep the furniture in place. We scoured the beds on the market to find the best options for apartments, spare bedrooms, and kids’ rooms.

The Best Murphy Beds

• Best Overall: Ebern Designs Chocolate Storage Murphy Bed
• Most Affordable: Bestar Nebula Collection Queen Murphy Bed
• Best for Guest Rooms: Red Barrel Studio Crossfell Bed
• Best Chest Bed: Night & Day Furniture Murphy Cube Cabinet Bed
• Most Discrete: Red Barrel Studio Kimsey Solid Wood Storage Murphy Bed with Mattress
• Best Customizable Kit: Wallbedking Full Horizontal Wall Bed Kit
• Best DIY Kit: Easy DIY Murphy Bed Full Size Hardware Kit
• Best Storage: Atlin Designs Full Wall Bed Kit

What to Consider

Murphy beds are convenient and trendy, but with a few pistons and screws keeping your furniture from falling on your head, it’s all the more important to shop for a high-quality one. Here’s what to keep in mind for safety, durability, and style.

Safety and Durability

You can save a chunk of cash by building your own Murphy bed, but it’s a hefty project that requires investing in the right equipment to make sure the bed is safe to use and properly balanced so you aren’t heaving the bed into the wall each night. A properly made Murphy bed has pistons, springs, or hydraulics that take on and distribute the weight of the bed so putting it away is as easy as lifting up the edge of a carpet. We recommend buying a Murphy bed (or a Murphy bed kit), rather than engineering your own, unless you’re an experienced home renovator.

The most important safety rule for installing a Murphy bed—whether you buy a set or build your own—is ensuring the bed is secured to the wall with at least three studs. Chest cabinet Murphy beds don’t need to be secured since they sit on the floor. Quality springs or pistons, as well as heavy duty locking devices, keep Murphy beds secured while they’re stored away. If you plan on pulling your bed up and down each day, pistons will likely last longer. For occasional use, a spring mechanism is perfectly suitable, but it’s more prone to stretching and can cause the bed frame to sag over time.

Types of Murphy Beds

Vertical

Most Murphy beds are mounted vertically on a wall in what looks like a built-in cabinet. Hinges on the bottom and a dual-piston system allow you to lower vertical Murphy beds down from the top. Keep in mind that vertical beds typically don’t come with bedding, so you’ll have to find a mattress that’s compatible with its maximum height, which is usually around 10 inches.

Horizontal

Horizontal Murphy beds mount sideways on the wall so, when it’s opened, the bed sits with one long side along the wall. This design may work better for small spaces or rooms with low ceilings, and may be easier to lower for some. If you’re looking to maximize space, we recommend a vertical option so you don’t lose the few feet near the ceiling, but some horizontal options can function as shelves for decor as well.

Chest Cabinet

Instead of storing a full mattress behind a wall cabinet, you can fold a mattress and cot into an attractive chest cabinet that takes up minimal space. Chest cabinet Murphy beds usually come with a foldable or three-piece foam mattress that may be thinner than your average mattress. These are best for guest sleeping arrangements—we don’t recommend them for daily use, but they can blend in well with decor in a living room or spare bedroom.

How We Evaluated

We researched Murphy bed sets and DIY kits to determine the most important qualifications for safe, durable wall beds. We prioritized dual-piston systems for safety and ease, as well as quality build materials like solid wood, commercial-grade particle board, or alloy steel so your bed lasts as long as possible. We thoroughly examined customer reviews to ensure the models that earned our recommendation are reliable, durable, safe, and reasonably easy to install. We also looked into installation to determine how simple these are to install without the help of a professional.