Materials: Pax Wardrobes and Lyngdal sliding doors
Description: We wanted to make the second bedroom in our condo more multifunctional, and the obvious solution was a Murphy bed.
We spoke to some of the local suppliers, and a basic Murphy bed with no additional storage space would have been at least $3,500. That's a little steep, and we didn't really like the style of any of them.
I'd seen two IKEA hacks that used Pax cabinets with a Murphy bed kit here and here.
I used those as inspiration, but switched to sliding doors instead of bifolds.
Materials:
3 Ikea Pax 100x236 wardrobes (1 was cut up and used for materials)
2 sets Ikea Pax Lyngdal 200x236 sliding doors
1 set Ikea Inreda LED spotlight
2 Ikea Inreda LED light strips
Free-standing Murphy bed kit
2" and 1-1/4" particle board screws
Cabinet edging tape
Total Cost: $1,650
Ikea Cost: $1,010
We waited until Ikea had a Bedroom event. We bought the Pax stuff, got $150 gift card back, and then used that to buy the lighting. I was also able to scavenge some underutilized shelves and drawers from a few of the other Pax wardrobes we have.
Total Width: approx. 372cm (10'-1")
From start to finish the project took about 1 week - that was one solid Saturday of work, with everything else done in the evenings.
For the most part all of the work was done by one person, but there were a few steps were a second set of hands was needed: initially assembling the Pax wardrobes; lifting the top piece into place; and lifting the doors onto the rails.
See more of the Pax sliding door wardrobe with Murphy bed.
~ Chris Nelson, Edmonton, Canada
I know one must make sacrifices when living in small spaces but, how do you get to your clothes when the bed is down?
ReplyDeleteOther than that it looks great!
This is actually for his second bedroom, so I don't think getting to his clothes is an issue (I'm assuming that it's basically a guest bed). Also, it wouldn't take more than a few seconds to put the bed up and get to your clothes, so I don't think it would be a problem for whoever is using the room.
DeleteYup, it's our guest bedroom which already has its own walk in closet. We're just using the extra Pax storage for spare bedding, purses, yoga/fitness stuff, boardgames...
DeleteIf the bed is down, it takes less than 10 seconds to flip it up and access the storage. It wouldn't be ideal as a main bed/closet, but it would still be pretty workable.
The biggest challenge is the width - in the description it says 10'-1", but I goofed and it's actually 12'-2". So you need a fairly long wall to make this work.
Thanks for the replies. Didn't see that it was a guest room.
Delete@K M Story, I certainly could see it as an issue if someone was still sleeping in the bed. Making sure you have clothes out for the next day would be a necessity if it was the main bedroom and one was part of a couple.
A great space saver indeed.
ReplyDeleteIt looks awesome. Question: which Murphy bed kid did you use?
ReplyDeleteI used the Next Bed kit. For a lot of the other kits I saw comments about how flimsy or cheap the foundation for the mattress was, but that's not an issue with the Next Bed since it uses slats.
DeleteIt needs to be mounted to the wall at baseboard level which is what's covered in the instructions, but I'm pretty sure you could mount it to the floor instead if you wanted.
There are plenty of videos of it online, like this one: http://youtu.be/B1XIB5PchAI
Good info. Thanks!
DeleteThat looks amazing! Good job!
ReplyDeleteOh I love this!
ReplyDeleteSherry Tejada
Does the bedding not get extremely wrinkled whilst it's up? Or do you just dress it each time you take it down?
ReplyDeleteIt gets pressed flat against the wall, so it hasn't really been a problem? It might need to be smoothed out a bit when the bed is pulled down, but nothing major.
DeleteWe don't fold the pillows up, though. We have a 12" mattress with a mattress pad, which we just reused from our old bed. With a shallower mattress you might be able to fold the pillows up, but with our gigantic mattress they either have to be tucked down on the sides, or pulled off and put in the storage.
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteLove this idea, really opens up the space.
ReplyDeleteThis is so retro! I haven't seen a Murphy bed in forever. I lived in several small studios in NYC and Jersey City during the 90s and Murphy beds never dawned on me. I only wish now I had remembered them then. I was thinking, If you didn't have sliding doors, you could push the bed up and leave it as is. The underside showing (during a party) might make for a great conversation piece. Or put some nails in the bottom frame and hang art temporarily. Great ikeahack.
ReplyDeleteMurphy beds are so practical and seem to becoming a lot more popular, especially in apartments, condos and studios. I assembled a queen-size BredaBed for my parents-in-law who live in a small apartment. Very convenient!!
ReplyDelete