Do you know what my favorite thing is about my blog? I love that over the years, this blog hasn’t just been me giving information and people taking that information. I do try to share a lot of information, and I try to share not only my projects, but also all of the helpful tips and tricks that I’ve learned over my years of DIYing. I always feel so encouraged when I get feedback about how people find it useful and learn from what I share. But then people leave so much helpful information in the comments! I’ve learned just as much from y’all over the years as you’ve learned from me. I love that I’ve created this little corner of the internet where there’s such a give and take of information going both directions.
With that said, I’m sure some of you will think I’ve been living under a rock, but I had no idea until last week that there was such a thing as a Murphy bed that looks like a dresser. Someone left that little nugget of info in a comment on a post last week, and I was like, “Wait…WHAT?!” Because people are always telling me that I should put a Murphy bed here or there. “Put a Murphy bed in your studio!” “Put a Murphy bed in your future home gym!” “You could put a Murphy bed in your living room!” “Put a Murphy bed in your future family room!”
And every time someone would say something like that, I’d envision the entire height of a wall having to be dedicated to a Murphy bed, an idea that did not seem practical or pretty to me at all. But to learn that Murphy beds can come disguised as a dresser changes everything!
I mean, we had a dresser in our home gym. I really like the idea of having a dresser under a wall-mounted TV. Even if it’s not usable as a dresser, having that piece below a wall-mounted TV grounds the TV rather than having a TV just floating on the wall.
And those drawers didn’t even get used. I did store a few things in there, but those few things weren’t really home gym-related and could easily have been relocated to another place in our home. So to learn now that we could have had a Murphy bed there disguised as a dresser is a big game changer for me. And you better believe that I’m now making plans to have one in our future home gym.
When I started my search, I landed on Wayfair. They seem to have a lot of these, and the prices are anywhere from about $500 to over $2000. They come in various styles that can fit just about any style of decor. But mostly, I was interested in seeing exactly how they work and how they’re assembled because, naturally, my DIY mind goes right to, “Can I build one?” And yes, these don’t look difficult to build at all. The construction is pretty straightforward. There’s nothing complicated about it.
With that in mind, after looking at so many different options, this Wilkinson Farmhouse Murphy Bed from Wayfair (affiliate link) is actually my favorite as far as the construction goes.
And it’s also one of the least expensive ones I found at $570. (Evidently that’s a sale price right now. The regular price is $730, according to the product listing.)
And while I don’t really lean towards farmhouse style in our home, the only thing that makes this farmhouse style is the trim on the front. But if I’m building it myself, I can make those fake doors into any style I want them to be. It’s all just decorative trim, so I could use the trim that I like and that coordinates better with my style. I could use trim to make those doors look more traditional.
The bottom drawer is an actual drawer that can be used for storage.
But when it’s fully extended, using three different pairs of drawer slides on three sections and casters under each section, it forms the support for the bed. And then those false doors, which are on hinges at the top and bottom, fold out into two different sections to form the support for the mattress. The top of the dresser is hinged in the middle so that it folds back so that your guest doesn’t feel too closed in.
This one doesn’t come with a mattress, but there are plenty of tri-fold mattresses available on Amazon to choose from (affiliate link), and they come in various thicknesses and materials. The mattress folds up and stores behind the false doors, so if you’re buying a dresser-style Murphy bed that doesn’t come with a mattress, you’d just have to make sure that the thickness of the mattress you buy, once folded, will fit inside the storage area. But if you’re making the dresser-style Murphy bed yourself, you can choose the mattress thickness you want and then build the depth of the Murphy bed to fit the mattress.
I have to admit that I’ve become a tiny bit obsessed with this idea over the last few days, planning and strategizing how I’m going to build a dresser-style Murphy bed to go in our future home gym and looking at the various styles to see how I may want mine to look. Again, they come in so many different styles, from the farmhouse style above, to this much more modern style (affiliate link), to this style which seems kind of Anthropologie-inspired (affiliate link), and everything in between. There are so many styles available that can fit practically any style of decor. And of course, if you build your own, you’re only limited by your imagination.
Anyway, I don’t remember who told me about this, but I do know it was in a comment on a post last week. And whoever you are, I could absolutely hug your neck right now. This is exactly what I want and need for our future home gym. If Matt ever does need someone to come and stay with him overnight, it would be so much more practical to have that person on that end of the house rather than putting a bed in my studio at the opposite end of the house. Adding this one item to our home gym would bring so much peace of mind for those just in case situations.
Addicted 2 Decorating is where I share my DIY and decorating journey as I remodel and decorate the 1948 fixer upper that my husband, Matt, and I bought in 2013. Matt has M.S. and is unable to do physical work, so I do the majority of the work on the house by myself. You can learn more about me here.
