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Murphy Beds / Roundup

The Best Horizontal Murphy Beds

Turn the bed sideways and the ceiling requirement collapses. What you need instead is seven feet of uninterrupted wall.

A narrow interior hallway showing a short run of uninterrupted wall

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At a glance

Quick picks

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
A narrow interior hallway showing a short run of uninterrupted wallIllustrative

Lori Beds Horizontal Queen Murphy Bed

The same bed turned sideways: 64 inches tall instead of 83, which is the version that fits under a sloped ceiling or a window.

Low ceilings and under-window walls7.9
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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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04
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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How we picked

Horizontal wall beds are a narrow category, so this page is ranked on the two figures that decide whether one fits — closed height and the wall run required — with the vertical equivalent and a cabinet bed included as the honest alternatives when neither works. Where a manufacturer does not publish an open extension for the horizontal model, the spec block says so; a horizontal queen's projection cannot be inferred from the vertical figure.

01Top pickLow ceilings and under-window walls

Lori Beds Horizontal Queen Murphy Bed

Lori Beds

A narrow interior hallway showing a short run of uninterrupted wallIllustrative — category photo, not this unit

The same bed turned sideways: 64 inches tall instead of 83, which is the version that fits under a sloped ceiling or a window.

What it's bad at

Sideways means wide. At 84 inches of wall it needs a full seven feet of uninterrupted wall, and most small rooms have exactly one.

Our score — 7.9 / 10

Footprint8
Mattress9
Mechanism7
Renter fit5
Value8
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Specifications

Folded footprint
84 in. W x 23 in. D x 64 in. H
Open footprint
NOT STATED BY MANUFACTURER
Clearance in front
Cannot be calculated — no open extension figure is published for the horizontal model. A horizontal queen projects roughly the mattress width; measure before ordering.
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
Fold mechanism
Manual fold, horizontal orientation
Weight capacity
NOT STATED BY MANUFACTURER
Assembly
Flat-packed, a few hours with common tools
Renter-safe?
With caveats — must be anchored to studs
Price
Check price on Amazon

Source: Manufacturer listing, loribeds.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
Check price on Amazon

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.

04Building 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
Check price on Amazon

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

The standard vertical wall bed needs about 7 ft 5 in to 7 ft 8 in of ceiling — 88.9 inches on a Bestar Cielo, up to 92 on a Versatile. A large number of apartments, basements, converted attics and rooms with a bulkhead or a ceiling fan come in under that.

A horizontal wall bed solves it by rotating the bed ninety degrees. A Lori horizontal queen is 64 inches tall closed instead of 83 — a difference of nineteen inches, which is usually enough to turn a no into a yes. The cost is width: 84 inches of wall instead of 64, and it has to be uninterrupted.

The trade, in two numbers

Lori queen: vertical against horizontal, closed

Vertical queen
64 in. W × 23 in. D × 83 in. H
Horizontal queen
84 in. W × 23 in. D × 64 in. H
Vertical extension
86.2 in. from the wall
Horizontal extension
Not stated by the manufacturer
Mattress, both
12 in. thick or less, 80 lb maximum for queen

Nineteen inches lower, twenty inches wider. That is the whole exchange, and which side you want depends entirely on which of the two your room is short of.

Note the honest gap: Lori does not publish an open extension for the horizontal model. A horizontal queen projects roughly the mattress width rather than its length, so it will be substantially less than the vertical’s 86.2 inches — but we are not going to put a number on it that the manufacturer has not stated. Measure the wall run and confirm the projection with the seller before ordering.

The four rooms where horizontal is the only answer

Under a window. A 64-inch-tall cabinet fits under most windows where an 83-inch one does not. This is the classic horizontal use case and it is a genuinely nice result — the bed disappears into a window wall.

Sloped ceilings. Converted attics have height in the middle and none at the walls, which is exactly backwards for a vertical bed. A horizontal cabinet sits in the low zone.

Basements. Ducting, beams and a lower finished ceiling. 64 inches usually clears; 83 often does not.

Rooms with a ceiling fan on the only usable wall. Which sounds like a corner case and is extremely common.

Measure to the obstruction, not the ceiling

The relevant number is the height of the lowest thing above the cabinet position — a crown molding, a bulkhead, a sprinkler, a light. Not the ceiling in the middle of the room.

Seven feet of wall, uninterrupted

84 inches is seven feet, and it has to be seven feet with nothing in it. Most small rooms have exactly one wall that long, and it is often the one with the door on it or a radiator under it.

Measure the clear run at the height of the cabinet, not at floor level — baseboards, radiator covers and skirting all shrink the usable width. Then add a couple of inches at each end, because a cabinet wedged exactly wall-to-wall cannot be installed square.

If seven clear feet does not exist, you are back to a vertical bed with a ceiling problem or a cabinet bed, which is 64 inches wide and 36 to 39 inches tall and therefore has neither problem.

What a horizontal bed is like to use

Two real differences from a vertical bed, neither of them obvious from a listing.

You get in and out from the long side, which means access from the foot is gone. In a room where the bed comes down across a doorway, that changes which side of the bed is usable — worth sketching before you order.

And the mattress is held by straps along its length rather than across its width when the bed is up, which is why the mattress weight limits matter as much as on a vertical bed. Lori’s figure is 12 inches thick and 80 pounds maximum for a queen either way.

Mechanically it is the same manual fold: no pistons, no springs to service, anchored to studs with the supplied screws. What that means for a renter is in the renter-friendly options, and how the mechanisms differ is in how do Murphy beds work.

Answers

Common questions

What is a horizontal Murphy bed?
A wall bed rotated ninety degrees, so it folds down sideways rather than lengthways. A Lori horizontal queen is 84 inches wide and 64 inches tall closed, against 64 wide and 83 tall for the vertical version of the same bed — nineteen inches lower and twenty inches wider.
Do horizontal Murphy beds need less ceiling height?
Yes, substantially. A vertical queen wall bed needs roughly 89 to 92 inches of ceiling; a horizontal queen is 64 inches tall closed, which clears almost any finished ceiling and fits under most windows. What it needs instead is 84 inches of uninterrupted wall.
How far does a horizontal Murphy bed stick out?
Lori does not publish an extension figure for its horizontal queen, so we will not state one. A horizontal bed projects roughly the mattress width rather than its length, so expect substantially less than the 86.2 inches the vertical model extends — but confirm the number with the seller before ordering.
Is a horizontal Murphy bed as comfortable as a vertical one?
The mattress is the same — both take a conventional queen up to 12 inches thick and 80 pounds on a Lori. The practical difference is access: you get in and out from the long side only, so if the bed comes down across a doorway, one side of it becomes unusable.
What fits in a room with a low ceiling and a short wall?
A cabinet bed. At around 64 inches wide and 36 to 39 inches tall closed it has neither the ceiling requirement of a vertical wall bed nor the wall-run requirement of a horizontal one, and it is freestanding.

Sources

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