Murphy bed experiences?

Ok, I'll admit it, I like to think/plan/dream about things that are a long way off, but anyway...

I've been thinking about what I want to build on the family "farm" in a few years, as the current house on it should just be leveled and started over from scratch. (* - see below for more rambling about this...)

I plan on building a house with the number of bedrooms I expect to actually be used, by then hopefully I'll know how many kids rooms will be necessary. I hate the thought of an exclusive guest bedroom as it seems to be a very inefficient use of space considering how little use they typically get. So, my present thought to deal with that problem is to build a murphy bed in the middle of 2 built in bookshelves and use the room primarily as a den/library. But, it would give guests a private room, and I'm assuming that a murphy bed would be much more comfortable then a pull-out sofa. Plus, murphy beds are pretty uncommon and would give the room that unique "cool!" feeling. Maybe?

Anyway, my question is, "Am I overlooking something?" Are there any pitfalls or cautions I need to be aware of with regards to a murphy bed?

*OT rambling about the current house. It's been there forever, and is in pretty good condition. However, it's grown over the years, and redoing the room layout would be a real pain or impossible because of load-bearing walls in awkward locations, etc. The sills in the basement have quite a bow in them now, all of the electrical needs to be updated, etc etc etc. I think, and my father agrees, that it would be best just to level it and start over. However, what I'd like to do in order to preserve some sense of history, is to save a lot of the framing materials etc and use that wood for built-in projects for the new house. That way I could at least say "Well, that bookcase there was one of 150 year old sills from the original house."
Reply to
Mike Clark
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Based on careful perusal of Three Stooges films, they invariably close up while you are in them.

Reply to
Hank Gillette

Whenever I think of a Murphy bed, all that comes to mind is someone like Stan Laurel or Lucille Ball stuck inside.

Barry

Reply to
B a r r y B u r k e J r .

I have one in our spare bedroom and the only problem is that it is LOW. My father had a hard time getting up out of it in the morning. Of course, you could change the mounting height but the template and detailed directions from the company were pretty specific about the location of all the holes. It does work very well and it gives our guests a real bed instead of an air mattress or a mattress on the floor. I always wanted to make my son's bed disappear under the eaves. His room, in our old house, butted up against a under the eaves storage area and I thought that it would be neat to let the bed slide out of sight when it was not in use. A set of wheels and a few handles on the footboard and the bed could slip away during the day and then appear at night.

Reply to
David Chamberlain

Works fine. I stayed at a resort in Sedona, AZ a few years ago and my room had a Murphy bed. I liked it enough that we now have one in our living room, and a big joiners bench took the place of the bed in our former bedroom. (1-bedroom city apt.)

When it is down, it is a normal bedframe that holds whatever standard mattress you want, so it is no different from a normal bed. There is a strap that buckles across to hold pilows and the mattress in place when you fold it.

Rodney Myrvaagnes NYC J36 Gjo/a

"Accordions don't play 'Lady of Spain.' People play 'Lady of Spain."

Reply to
Rodney Myrvaagnes

My wife and I have talked about it several times for our spare bedroom and if this were our forever house I might do it. You can get hardware and plans for it at Rockler. here's a link to the items.

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Christmas, Allen Catonsville, MD

Reply to
Allen Epps

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