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Murphy Beds / Roundup

The Best DIY Murphy Bed Kits

A kit is the cheapest route to a real wall bed and the one where the hardware is the easy part. You are signing up to build a cabinet square to a quarter of an inch.

Hands assembling flat-pack furniture with an allen key and printed instructions

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At a glance

The kit, and the two ways to avoid needing one

Tap any row to jump to the full write-up. Scores are our own, from the rubric on how we choose — not customer ratings.

#ProductBest forScorePrice
01
Hands assembling flat-pack furniture with an allen key and printed instructionsIllustrative

Murphy Bed Depot DIY Murphy Bed Frame Kit

Hardware and a steel frame rated to 600 lb, installable vertical or horizontal, so you build the cabinet to the room rather than the other way round.

Building to an awkward alcove7.9
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02
An empty apartment room with wooden flooring and a bright window, ready to be furnishedIllustrative

Lori Beds Vertical Queen Murphy Bed

23 inches deep closed and no hydraulics at all — a manual-fold panel bed you assemble flat-packed with ordinary tools.

The lightest touch on a rented wall8.2
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03
Bed linens folded on a made bed in a neutral bedroomIllustrative

Night & Day Furniture Murphy Cube Cabinet Bed (Queen)

A queen bed inside a solid rubberwood credenza that bolts to nothing. Closed it is 26.4 inches deep and about ten square feet of floor.

Renters who want a queen and cannot drill8.6
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How we picked

One kit is listed because one kit is what we could verify specifications for; padding the list with hardware whose ratings we could not read would defeat the purpose. The two alternatives are included because for most readers the honest recommendation is a flat-pack panel bed or a cabinet bed rather than a build — and saying so is more useful than a longer list.

01Top pickBuilding to an awkward alcove

Murphy Bed Depot DIY Murphy Bed Frame Kit

Murphy Bed Depot

Hands assembling flat-pack furniture with an allen key and printed instructionsIllustrative — category photo, not this unit

Hardware and a steel frame rated to 600 lb, installable vertical or horizontal, so you build the cabinet to the room rather than the other way round.

What it's bad at

You are the cabinet maker. If you cannot build a square box to within a quarter inch, a kit will cost you more in wasted plywood than a finished bed would have.

Our score — 7.9 / 10

Footprint9
Mattress8
Mechanism8
Renter fit2
Value9
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Specifications

Folded footprint
Depends on the cabinet you build around it
Open footprint
Depends on orientation and mattress size
Clearance in front
Determined by your build. A vertical queen projects roughly the mattress length plus the cabinet depth.
Doorway minimum
Kit ships flat; the cabinet is built in place
Sleep surface
Your mattress — the kit does not include one
Mattress
10 in. or thinner recommended; up to 11 in. usable within the limit
Fold mechanism
Spring-balance, described by the manufacturer as fingertip operation
Weight capacity
Steel frame rated to 600 lb evenly distributed
Assembly
Substantial — you build the surrounding cabinet yourself
Renter-safe?
No — a wall bed built this way is anchored to the structure
Price
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Source: Manufacturer listing, murphybeddepot.com, recorded 27 Sep 2026. Any field the listing does not state is marked as such rather than estimated.

02The lightest touch on a rented wall

Lori Beds Vertical Queen Murphy Bed

Lori Beds

An empty apartment room with wooden flooring and a bright window, ready to be furnishedIllustrative — category photo, not this unit

23 inches deep closed and no hydraulics at all — a manual-fold panel bed you assemble flat-packed with ordinary tools.

What it's bad at

Lori is clear that the bed must be anchored to the wall for safety, and it supplies screws for wood and metal studs. It is lighter on your lease than a full cabinet system, but it is not drill-free.

Our score — 8.2 / 10

Footprint10
Mattress9
Mechanism7
Renter fit5
Value8
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Specifications

Folded footprint
64 in. W x 23 in. D x 83 in. H
Open footprint
Extends 86.2 in. from the wall; about 87 in. wall to foot
Clearance in front
Gains 63.2 in. of depth when opened (23 in. to 86.2 in.). No walkway figure stated by the manufacturer.
Doorway minimum
NOT STATED BY MANUFACTURER
Sleep surface
Takes a standard 60 x 80 in. queen mattress
Mattress
Your own: 12 in. thick or less, 80 lb maximum for the queen
Fold mechanism
Manual fold — no pistons, no springs to service
Weight capacity
NOT STATED BY MANUFACTURER
Assembly
Flat-packed, a few hours with common tools per the manufacturer. Printed and video instructions supplied.
Renter-safe?
With caveats — must be anchored to studs; screws for wood and metal studs included
Price
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Source: Manufacturer listing, loribeds.com, recorded 27 Sep 2026. Any field the listing does not state is marked as such rather than estimated.

03Renters who want a queen and cannot drill

Night & Day Furniture Murphy Cube Cabinet Bed (Queen)

Night & Day Furniture

Bed linens folded on a made bed in a neutral bedroomIllustrative — category photo, not this unit

A queen bed inside a solid rubberwood credenza that bolts to nothing. Closed it is 26.4 inches deep and about ten square feet of floor.

What it's bad at

170 lb assembled and it does not come apart again. Getting it into a third-floor walk-up is the whole problem with this category.

Our score — 8.6 / 10

Footprint8
Mattress7
Mechanism8
Renter fit10
Value7
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Specifications

Folded footprint
64.1 in. W x 26.4 in. D x 36.6 in. H — about 10 sq ft of floor
Open footprint
64.1 in. W x 80.3 in. D x 25.7 in. H
Clearance in front
Gains 53.9 in. of depth when opened (26.4 in. to 80.3 in.). No walkway figure stated by the manufacturer.
Doorway minimum
NOT STATED BY MANUFACTURER
Sleep surface
80.3 in. long; a true queen sleeping surface per the manufacturer
Mattress
Optional tri-fold gel-infused memory foam, 80 in. L x 63 in. W x 6 in. H
Fold mechanism
Front panel folds down, mattress tri-folds out on a sliding platform
Weight capacity
NOT STATED BY MANUFACTURER
Assembly
Required. 170 lb assembled — two people minimum. 10-year limited warranty.
Renter-safe?
Yes — freestanding, nothing is anchored
Price
Check price on Amazon

Source: Manufacturer listing, nightanddayfurniture.com, plus retailer listings, recorded 27 Sep 2026. Any field the listing does not state is marked as such rather than estimated.

A Murphy bed kit is the mechanism, the frame and the instructions. You supply the cabinet, the mattress and the labor. It is genuinely the cheapest way to a real wall bed, and it is worth being blunt about what it asks of you, because the hardware is the straightforward part and the cabinet is not.

A wall bed cabinet has to be square. Not roughly square — square within about a quarter of an inch across a box two feet deep and seven feet tall, built from sheet goods, standing on a floor that is probably not level. If it is out, the bed binds on the way down, and a binding wall bed is worse than no wall bed.

What the hardware actually gives you

Murphy Bed Depot frame kit, published figures

Frame rating
600 lb evenly distributed, steel
Orientation
Vertical or horizontal, with the included hardware
Mattress
10 in. or thinner recommended; up to 11 in. within the limit
Mechanism
Spring balance — described as fingertip operation
What you supply
The cabinet, the mattress, the fixings into your wall

Spring balance rather than gas pistons is worth understanding. Springs are adjustable to the mattress weight, do not lose pressure the way a piston can, and are what most purpose-built systems used before pistons became cheap. The trade is that they must be tensioned correctly for your mattress, which is a step people skip and then wonder why the bed slams.

The 600-pound frame rating is lower than Bestar’s 1,000 pounds, and the qualification “evenly distributed” matters: it is a frame rating, not a two-adults-sitting-on-the-edge rating.

The cabinet: the actual project

Four things determine whether a self-built wall bed works, and none of them is in the kit.

Square. Measure the diagonals of the carcass; they must match. A quarter of an inch out over seven feet is the practical tolerance before the bed starts to catch.

Plumb, on a floor that is not level. Shim the cabinet before fixing it, not after. Purpose-built systems include leg levelers for exactly this reason — Bestar specifies them on the Pur.

Fixed into structure. Studs, located properly, with fixings rated for the load. This is the step where a DIY bed becomes a safety question rather than a woodworking one.

Material. Sheet goods heavy enough not to rack. A cabinet in thin plywood will flex and the flex becomes a bind.

The honest skills test

Have you built a cabinet before, and did it come out square? If yes, this is the best value in the category. If no, the sheet goods you waste learning will cost more than the difference between a kit and a flat-pack panel bed.

Two better answers for most people

A flat-pack panel bed. Lori ships a complete manual-fold bed, 23 inches deep closed, with printed and video instructions, assembled in a few hours with common tools. You get the engineering and the fit without the cabinet build, and it still needs anchoring to studs with the supplied screws. That is the middle ground and for most readers it is the right one.

A cabinet bed. No build, no anchoring, finished furniture. A Night & Day Cube is 26.4 inches deep closed and opens to 80.3 inches. The catch is 170 pounds assembled and a six-inch tri-fold mattress.

Both are covered properly in renter-friendly Murphy beds and the best Murphy bed cabinets.

When a kit is genuinely the right call

Two cases, and they are real.

An awkward alcove. If the space is a chimney breast recess, a dormer or a non-standard width, no manufactured cabinet will fit it and a kit lets you build to the opening. This is the strongest argument for the format.

Matching existing joinery. If the room already has built-in cabinetry, a kit inside a matching carcass disappears in a way a bought unit never will.

In both cases the same rules apply: 10 inches of mattress or less, tension the springs to the mattress weight, fix into studs, and check the diagonals. And before any of it, check the ceiling — a vertical queen needs the same 89-plus inches whether you built the cabinet or bought it. See horizontal wall beds if it does not, and are Murphy beds safe for the installation points that matter most.

Answers

Common questions

What comes in a DIY Murphy bed kit?
The mechanism, a steel bed frame and instructions. The Murphy Bed Depot kit's frame is rated to 600 pounds evenly distributed, installs vertical or horizontal, and uses a spring-balance mechanism. You supply the cabinet, the mattress and the wall fixings.
Is building your own Murphy bed hard?
The hardware is straightforward. The cabinet is the project, and it has to be square within about a quarter of an inch over a box roughly two feet deep and seven feet tall, plumb on a floor that probably is not level, and fixed into studs. If you have built a cabinet that came out square, this is good value. If not, a flat-pack panel bed is the better buy.
How much weight does a DIY Murphy bed frame hold?
The Murphy Bed Depot steel frame is rated to 600 pounds evenly distributed, against 1,000 pounds including the mattress on Bestar's manufactured queen wall beds. Note the qualification: it is an even-distribution figure, not a rating for two adults sitting on the edge.
What mattress thickness works with a Murphy bed kit?
Murphy Bed Depot recommends 10 inches or thinner, with up to 11 inches usable within the limit. Whatever you choose, tension the spring mechanism to the actual mattress weight — skipping that step is why self-built beds slam.
Are gas pistons or springs better for a Murphy bed?
Springs are adjustable to the mattress weight and do not lose pressure over time, which is why they are standard on kits. Pistons are simpler to set up and are what most manufactured cabinets use — Bestar's Versatile uses a dual piston mechanism. Both are fine; the spring just requires you to do the tensioning.

Sources

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