Is a Murphy Bed Worth It?

Number one: how much floor you actually get back

This is calculable from published figures and it is bigger than people expect. A Bestar Cielo 66W is 23.5 inches deep closed and extends 93.1 inches from the wall when it is open. The difference is 69.6 inches of depth, across 65.3 inches of width.

Thirty-one square feet is a meaningful fraction of a small bedroom and most of a home office’s usable floor. It is also six times what a convertible sofa gives back when you close it, because a sofa only ever reclaims the few inches the bed added — the sofa itself never goes anywhere.

That is the real case for a wall bed, and it is a strong one. It is also the case that evaporates completely if the bed stays down.

Number two: your ceiling, measured not assumed

A vertical wall bed rotates a queen mattress through ninety degrees, so it needs headroom to swing. Every manufacturer publishes a minimum and the figures are not interchangeable.

Three inches separate the Cielo from the Versatile, and in an older apartment that is the difference between fits and does not fit. Measure floor to ceiling in the exact spot the unit will stand, and measure it before you shortlist anything, because it eliminates models rather than inconveniencing them.

If the ceiling is the problem, the answer is a horizontal wall bed — the Lori Beds horizontal queen is 84 inches wide by 23 inches deep by 64 inches high closed, so it needs a long wall instead of a tall one. The options are in the best horizontal Murphy beds. If the ceiling and the wall are both short, a cabinet bed needs neither.

Number three: whether you are allowed to fix it to the building

A dual-mount wall bed anchors into the wall structure and into the floor. That is not optional and it is not a preference — it is what stops a counterbalanced queen mattress tipping. Bestar’s own installation is a two-person job for that reason.

Most residential leases treat anchoring into studs as an alteration requiring permission, and many flatly prohibit it. There is a whole page on how that conversation usually goes: can you put a Murphy bed in an apartment.

If the answer is no, you are not out of the category. Cabinet beds are freestanding — the Arason Creden-ZzZ explicitly needs no bolting to floor or wall, and the Night & Day Murphy Cube anchors to nothing. You give up a couple of inches of closed depth and a few inches of mattress thickness, and you keep most of the floor benefit. The Costway rolling cabinet goes further still and rolls on castors, at the cost of being cot size.

When the answer is honestly no

When the bed will be left down. The entire value of a wall bed is the morning habit. If the bed stays down five days out of seven, you have bought a queen bed with a cabinet around it, a ceiling requirement and an anchoring job — and a plain bed frame would have been a better purchase. Be honest about this one; it is the most common way the money is wasted.

When the room has no 65-inch stretch of clear wall. A queen vertical wall bed needs about 65 inches of width and nothing in front of it for 93 inches when open. Radiators, windows that open inward and doors all rule out walls that look available.

When the room needs seating, not a bed. A wall bed closed is a cabinet you cannot sit on. In a studio that is often the deciding fact, and the answer is a convertible sofa or a wall bed with a sofa built in front of it — see the best Murphy bed sofa combos.

When the guest comes twice a year. Thirty-one square feet reclaimed daily is worth a lot. Thirty-one square feet reclaimed twice a year is worth very little, and a futon that is also your sofa is the better buy. The straight comparison is in Murphy bed vs futon.

So: worth it or not?

Worth it when the room is a home office, a studio or a nursery that also has to sleep an adult; the ceiling clears 89 inches; you can anchor; and the bed genuinely goes up every morning. In that case it is the best product in this entire category and nothing else comes close — a real queen mattress and 31 square feet of floor is not a compromise at all.

Worth it with a change of model when you rent or cannot drill. A cabinet bed keeps most of the benefit, needs no fixings, and includes somewhere for the bedding. Start at the best renter-friendly Murphy beds.

Not worth it when the bed will stay down, the wall is not there, or the room needs seating more than it needs a bed. Those are three different reasons and each one is sufficient on its own.

If you are still weighing it, read how Murphy beds work for the mechanism and are Murphy beds safe for the question everybody asks second.