Murphy Bed Tutorial

Well, it's been about a month since I posted about our Chalk Board Murphy Bed. And honestly, I don't remember every step we took to get the bed together but I will try my hardest to write an accurate tutorial :) 

We needed this room to function better than it previously was and with family coming in for the Holidays I was motivated to get it finished ASAP! Reed thought I was crazy but we needed a bed that could fit two people in so we didn't have to turn our living room in to a guest room for a week.

Step 1: MEASURE! Yep, measure the size of the mattress you plan to use for your murphy bed. We had two twin mattresses that I planned to lay side by side with a nice topper to make them feel like 1 big king size bed. 

Step 2: MEASURE and CUT! Yes, measure again. But this time measure your boards to create the frame your mattresses will fold up in to. We used 1x12x12 white pine boards to create the frame, we added about an inch to the size of the mattresses side by side. 

Step 3: Bring your 3 framing boards in to the room and screw together your frame. ( and measure again before putting them up! We didn't the first time and when we went to fold the box in to the frame we did it wrong and had to re do it. Make sure you take in to account of if your top board goes "in between" your side boards or "on top".)

Step 4: Sit on the floor and ponder your next move! Just kidding :) cut and attach your bottom board that you will attach the hinge and box too. We cut a strip of MDF because that was what we were making the bottom of the box out of and having the boards the same height is important! 

Step 5: Cut your bottom box boards to size. We used MDF (medium density fiber board) and I do not recommend it for this project pay more and get the lighter boards! This stuff weighs a TON! Because we needed two sheets to make the correct size we used a mending plate to keep the boards together with out adding bulk. 

Step 6: Cut and install your 1x4x12 boards to the size of your mattress box. These boards are what will keep your mattresses from sliding around on the MDF. 

Step 7: Once your box and frame are made use a piano hinge to attach the box to the bottom board of your frame. We actually had to add some other hinges because the MDF made our box to heavy for the piano hinge. But if you use a different type of plywood you should be fine with the piano hinge! 

Step 8: Add your mattresses and WA-LA  you have a murphy bed!! You can use different types of locks to attach to the top to make sure the mattress box stays in the frame when folded up, we just used a simple gatehouse door latch. 

Sorry I wasn't very good at taking pictures for the tutorial! It was 7pm when we started the project and finished at Midnight so we were both more focused on getting it done than getting usable pictures :) 

But overall we love our Murphy Bed and think it was a super easy project that really any one can tackle! Just make sure you MEASURE MEASURE MEASURE! Every issue we had was due to bad cuts, but luckily we had enough material to make it all work with out buying more. 

And we love how useful this is! It worked wonders when we had guests by giving them their own space and it makes the room super functional when it is folded up too! I'm in love with the chalk board and can't wait to practice my chalk art :) 

*Don't forget to check out the quick tour of the room as a guest room!!