Murphy’s wall
Posted on Saturday, December 3, 2005
URL: http://www.nwanews.com/adg/Style/138455/
In the 1976 Mel Brooks farce
Silent Movie, a hotel uses
satiric candor to advertise
its wall-mounted
folddown sleeping options : “Murphy Beds : Charming for the Unsophisticated.” Murphy beds — those spacesaving sleeping arrangements using drawbridge engineering to extend or conceal a mattress — are still charming, but these days they’re hardly unsophisticated. Gone is the screeching metallic protest as the frame of a Murphy is fanned out from its cabinet. In its place is the soft sigh of an elaborate pneumatic piston system.
Also gone are the romantic associations that hinged themselves to the beds around the time of their invention in San Francisco at the turn of the 20 th century.
If necessity is the mother of invention, then the drive to impress the opposite sex is its father. William Murphy faced the challenge of wooing the daughter of a respected cable-car engineer in an era when an upstanding young woman didn’t enter the bedroom of a man who was not her husband. Murphy could only afford a studio apartment ; he didn’t have a room that wasn’t his bedroom. So he began tinkering with a metal frame attached to a steel-reinforced doorjamb hinged so a bed could fold out into the room when needed and be hidden vertically away when not. His innovation earned him the right to entertain his sweetheart in what appeared to be a proper parlor.
Through the years, Murphy beds have been stripped of their status as a bachelor’s loophole. Today’s American household is all about hybridization : Handheld devices perform a variety of functions, so large pieces of furniture might as well, too. Today, William Murphy would Instant-Message his girlfriend from a credenza folded out from a bookcase that at night could be transformed into his bed.
OFF THE WALL Other ways the Murphy bed now fits snugly into the sophisticated modern household : Flexibility A few years ago, Bob Bullock’s wife requested that he consider adding a bed to his office in their home in the Westbury neighborhood of Little Rock. He agreed to the idea in general but not to his wife’s suggestion in particular : a daybed. “I was like, ‘Oh, God, please no, ’” Bullock recalls.
Instead, the two reached a compromise on a custom-built Murphy bed concealed behind a golden oak cabinet that was a perfect match for the existing room group, consisting of a computer desk and other cabinetry.
Unlike Murphy beds of old, whose installation could require the removal of baseboards and carpet, Bullock’s bed-concealing cabinet resembles an entertainment center or a covered bookcase and is almost as mobile. Where a daybed would intrude into the floor space, the cabinet concealing the Bullocks’ Murphy is a scant 16 inches deep.
(While the Murphy Bed Co. is still in operation, Murphy beds, also known as wall beds, are marketed by a variety of manufacturers ; the parts for Bullock’s bed were made by the Create-a-Bed company based in Louisville, Ky., and sold, customized and installed by Waterful Wonderbeds of North Little Rock. )
The bottom of the cabinet along the back is contoured to hug the room’s baseboards, meaning the piece sits flush against the wall. Comfort Also unlike early, more rustic Murphy bed models that required specialty foam padding, modern Murphies take virtually any standard innerspring mattress that can function without the need for box springs. The Bullocks selected a Beauty Rest Pillow-Top model for theirs.
Anyone who wants to fold down a Murphy bed to reveal a catalog-ready tableau of fluffed duvet and three graduated layers of pillows is going to have to compromise on the first impression : While most models will fold up with the bedspread intact, the Bullocks keep sheets on theirs and store the comforter and pillows in tall, narrow side cabinets that flank the centerpiece. The Wow factor When Chris Davis pulls down the model Murphy bed on the showroom floor at North Little Rock’s Waterful Wonderbeds, the bed frame emits a relaxed hiss as it glides into place, like air escaping from a vacuumsealed jar. The beds, which Davis custom builds, operate on piston lift technology counter-balanced and designed for daily use.
But despite the modern, selfcontained technology, Murphy beds — here one minute, swallowed up into the wall the next — have always had a secret-panel allure, a sense of concealment that could figure into a Hardy Boys mystery or a Scooby Doo cartoon. One model from the Denver-based dealer Flying Beds is a swiveling bookcase : A modern bookcase whose clean lines would place it right at home in a Crate & Barrel catalog twirls to reveal a queen-size bed.
The wood cabinetry on the Bullocks’ Murphy, as designed by Davis at Waterful Wonderbeds, has been scored in four places along the front to create the impression of bifold doors.
Four raised rectangular fixtures appear to be decorative detail, but the outside two depress into the cabinet to release the bed for lowering. (Think of a car-door handle, or the special book on the bookshelf in a mystery story that triggers the reveal of a secret passageway. ) Then they lock into position to form legs underneath the foot of the bed.
Davis also installs halogen lighting inside the cabinetry for use as reading lights in bed, similar to the lighting design at boutique hotels. A safety switch ensures the lights cannot operate when the bed is closed, so the lighted bulbs don’t come into contact with bedding. Even if visitors haven’t come to the Bullock home as overnight guests, Bob Bullock can’t resist taking them to his office to show off his Murphy. “I bring people in here and say, ‘ Did you notice the bed ?’” he says. “They look at me like I’m crazy. They’re typically pretty impressed.”
MURPHY’S LAWS Despite the captivating technology that makes a Murphy bed a space-age marvel and a quaint throwback, there are several things to consider before choosing this bedding option. Size / Space Needs It’s the classic Murphy bed bug : Davis finds that most Murphy bed customers who come into Waterful Wonderbeds have one room in their homes that they need to function two ways — as a home office and as a guest room. But Davis was thrown for a loop recently when a couple came in asking him to craft a king-size Murphy bed that could go into an airplane hangar they’re designing which also needed residential quarters. First, he hadn’t heard the airplane-hangar request before. And second, he doesn’t recommend king-size Murphies. The piston technology hasn’t been perfected for the weight distribution.
Mattress size isn’t the only configuration question to consider. A room might only be wide enough for a Murphy to fold down sideways, leaving no headboard. Davis is such a perfectionist — valuing function as much as he values form — that he doesn’t like to build those models either : The pillows always wind up on the floor during the night, he says.
(While Waterful Wonderbeds deals most often in queen-size beds, the style can be applied to full- and twin-size mattresses as well. More Space Place, a dealer in Hendersonville, N. C., billing itself “America’s Murphy Bed Store,” offers a Murphy twist on bunk beds : Melamine cabinetry, with a slim bookshelf in between, folds down to reveal matching twin beds, perfect for children’s bedrooms, vacation lodging, or guest rooms for grandparents of younger children. ) Installation A modern Murphy bed contained in a cabinet functions mostly as a free-standing piece of furniture, requiring no structural alterations. So the cabinet doesn’t follow the mattress as it’s being pulled down, the piece is attached to the wall in at least three places, affixed by screws mounted into wall studs.
When the airplane-hangar couple express concern about wall damage, Davis tells them a Murphy bed leaves more of a hole in the wall than a simple nail used to hang a picture would. The pressure causes some pull on the wall, often requiring minor patchwork to be done later.
As for relocating the mechanism, it would seem to have the makings of a nightmare — a cross between the two most fearsome beasts in all of furniture-moving : an entertainment center and a hide-a-bed. Bullock says that actually isn’t the case ; because the mattress can be easily removed, the contraption isn’t all that heavy.
Price Prices for modern Murphies, with all their bells and whistles, can be on the hefty side.
The Waterful Wonderbeds unit featured in the photograph retails for $ 2, 500 (mattress not included ). The cabinet and bed frame alone cost $ 899. In addition to $ 400 apiece for each of the twin bookshelves, the price increases with optional woodworking including decorative molding along the top and bottom of the cabinet ; to learn more visit www. wwbeds. com
The original Murphy Bed Co., based in Farmingdale, N. Y., also prices its products based on the bed frame and mechanism alone, up through its cabinetry. (The company does offer king-size options. ) Price range for the frame and mechanism alone runs $ 625 for twin up to $ 1, 140 for king-size. Mattresses are sold separately, ranging from $ 255 to $ 675. Price range for the cabinetry runs $ 200 for a basic wall unit up through $ 1, 395 for cabinetry that can accommodate one of the king-size frames and mechanisms. Visit www. murphybedcompany. com
The twin-bed unit described above from More Space Place retails around $ 887 for the frame mechanism and cabinetry on the traditional, bi-fold door unit. (Shipping, however, could add up to $ 400, and mattresses aren’t included. ) The company, offering a variety of sizes and styles, ships its beds and cabinetry from North Carolina. Visit www. morespaceplace. com
The combination bookcase / desk / bed from Flying Beds — an example of the European concept of functional change furniture — is available in twin, full or queen. Price range for the bookcase and bed alone is from $ 2, 783 to $ 4, 414. Adding the fold-out table increases the price range to $ 3, 243 for the twin up through $ 4, 954 for the queen. The company also has a variety of other cabinet styles. Visit www. flyingbeds. com
ONE NIGHT STAND Prefer to store your cash under the mattress instead of blowing it all just to have one that folds out of the wall ? You could always visit a Murphy bed. The Inn at Mountain View boasts one room with a Murphy bed that has proved so popular it gives the suite its name : Murphy’s Corner. Many guests ask for the Murphy bed by name, since it’s also the name of the room. The inn dates to 1886, so it seems unlikely the bed was original, but Shay Pool, who owns the inn with husband Scott, can attest to its advanced age. Despite that, it’s a free-standing piece of furniture, folding into a handsome armoire when not in use. (The inn also has a child-size Murphy in one of its cottages. ) “People who come here like the vintage things,” says Pool. “They give them a look back in time,” she adds before sizing up her own Murphy bed : “I wouldn’t sleep on it, but people seem to love it.” Coming next week : HomeStyle’s gift guide.