8 creative murphy beds

The Murphy Bed is named after its inventor Lawrence Murphy in 1900, it is a name given to any bed that can be folded up against a wall or hidden and exposed as the home owner pleases. The Murphy Bed has risen back into prominence in contemporary design due to its ability to work around the increasingly smaller and space constrained living spaces available in most modern cities. It also has functional and aesthetic value to larger rooms and houses, lending flexibility and a sense of space to the living area. Here we have listed out some of the iconic Murphy Beds from over the last century.

1. Piano Bed

The famous Piano Bed is a variation on the most popular form of the Murphy Bed which involves a cabinet or mantlepiece that can be folded out to form a bed. this was especially important in the 19th and 20th century due to the fact that it allowed families of less than noble heritage to maintain a parlor room and a bedroom with the only room they had. The Parlour room was seen as a sign of opulence, wealth and high social status. Therefore there was a race to turn various pieces of furniture in the parlour room into a foldable bed. The Piano is probably the most amazing such innovation, for believe it or not, the piano bed above is both a functional piano and a bed.

2. Elevator Murphy Bed

The elevated bed is a fresh invention from modern living spaces. It borrows its cues from automated multi level car parking systems, and incorporates a simple pulley that is capable of lifting the bed to the ceiling and bringing it to floor level, as the use case demands. This system works especially well because it does away with the folding mechanism, which is often seen as being unsafe, and unreliable.

3. Tardis Murphy Bed

For fans of the Dr. Who series, there is the opportunity to live out your dreams, literally speaking, and pull down the TARDIS, to get your cozy, comfortable bed. This guarantees instant sleeping pleasure.

4. Dorm Murphy Bed

This idealised Dorm room makes excellent use of space and aesthetics, providing a student with all the usual features of a dorm, with half the space, but twice the luxury and feeling of airiness. This is a good example of the kind of problem that the Murphy Bed can solve.

5. Locker Murphy Bed

The classic locker bed is one of the most popular Murphy Bed constructions on the market today with many DIY guides available as well. This is sure to attract sports fans who can flaunt their favourite players names and numbers during the day, and yet have a comfortable bed to sleep in at night.

6. Murphy Bunk Bed

The murphy bunk bed uses all the innovative features of the murphy bed, and applies it to the more complicated problem of providing more than one bed in a living space. As can be seen from the concept above, the Murphy Bed does an amazing job in fitting two beds where there was previous only space for one.

7. DIY Murphy Beds

The modern DIY versions of the original Murphy beds are by far the most popular. A lot of people build it themselves, and unlike some of the more fancy ones on this chart, these beds simpler, more traditional Murphy beds are amazing in their own right, because they offer endless customisation options to furniture makers and house owners, and provide all the features of the Murphy Bed. The most amazing thing about the DIY beds are how well integrated these products look into the decor of the room.

8. Pet Murphy Bed

The last bed on the list, is the award winning pet Murphy bed, because there is absolutely no reason that your pets should not enjoy the same luxuries as you, and the pet Murphy bed accomplishes the important task of keeping the pets living area out of view when not needed, but warm and comfortable for your adorable pets during the night.