Can You Put a Murphy Bed in an Apartment?

The three tiers, and which your lease cares about

The line most leases draw is at the floor. Screws into a wall sit alongside a mounted TV or a heavy shelf in most landlords’ mental model; lag bolts through a finished floor do not, and that is where deposit disputes happen.

AMERLIFE is explicit that its bed must go on a solid wall and supplies five anti-tip brackets and metal studs. Bestar’s dual-mount mechanism attaches to the floor and the wall structure. Arason states that the Creden-ZzZ needs no bolting to floor or wall at all. Those three sentences are the whole decision.

How to ask, so the answer is useful

Do not ask “can I install a Murphy bed.” The phrase sounds structural and invites a no.

Ask about the thing you are actually doing: “I would like to fix a piece of furniture to the wall with four screws into studs, and fill and paint the holes when I leave — is that acceptable?” That is the same conversation as a bookshelf and it usually gets the same answer.

Get it in writing, by email, and keep it with the lease. A verbal yes from a letting agent does not survive a change of managing agent, and you will be the one holding a wall with four holes in it.

The four clauses to read first

Alterations. Usually prohibits “alterations” while separately permitting “normal hanging of pictures.” Stud anchoring sits between the two, which is precisely why asking beats assuming.

Floors. Almost always named separately, and almost always prohibited outright. This is the clause that rules out dual-mount systems.

Restoration on exit. Determines whether filled screw holes are acceptable. Usually they are.

Building rules in managed blocks. Occasionally cap fixed furniture weight or require contractor certification for anything attached to a party wall. Rare, and worth five minutes if you are in a high-rise.

The second gate: your ceiling

Independent of the lease. The cabinet height is what the room has to clear: 88.05 inches on a Bestar Key West, 91.3 on an AMERLIFE, 87.5 on a MERITLINE with sofa and 85.04 on an Olela. Measure at the wall the cabinet would go on, to the lowest obstruction on that wall — not at the middle of the room.

Under about 7 ft 5 in, go horizontal: a Claremont 80W horizontal queen is 64 inches tall closed, which clears essentially any finished ceiling, and needs 84 inches of uninterrupted wall instead. Horizontal wall beds.

A cabinet bed is around 36 to 39 inches tall and has no ceiling requirement whatsoever, which is the third reason the format keeps being the answer in apartments.

What happens when you move

A freestanding cabinet bed comes with you, and this is worth weighing at purchase: 170 to 250 pounds of assembled furniture that does not come apart. It moves in a van, not a car, and it needs the same stairwell on the way out as on the way in.

A stud-anchored panel bed comes off the wall, flat-packs back down reasonably well, and leaves screw holes to fill. AMERLIFE’s is designed to be assembled at home, which also means they can be disassembled.

A dual-mount system leaves floor fixings, and unless you agreed them in writing in advance that is a deposit conversation. If you are in a short tenancy, that alone is an argument for the freestanding route.