DIY Murphy Bed + Desk (AKA Hidden Bed)

Heeello! I'm back! With another exciting soirée into woodworking and furniture.

Content Warning, do not attempt this if:

• If you value your sanity
• If you don't want to breakdown in frustration
• You are a "weekend warrior" type woodworker
• If you have a "good 'nough" attitude to accuracy/preciseness

The main impetus for this instructable is to help the next fellow who stumbles across the Hiddenbed kit on Rockler's website and thought that would be a great combo piece of furniture. While a stellar piece of furniture, I found the lack of instructions by anyone online to be a big gap for those wishing to save ~$2500 by building it themselves. Particularly for those of us who are not professionals or have access to a commercial CNC machine to precision cut/drill all of the pieces.

So this one is for all you Joe Shmoes out there! Hopefully the documentation of my mistakes helps you make less of them.

Legit Content Note: As alluded to above, I am assuming you are building a bed from a kit. As such, you should receive some plans from them. For that reason, there are a couple areas below where I skip details on dimensions/placement. Write a comment if you have a question though!

Step 1: Supplies

So the supply list here is really going to vary by how much time saving you want to have vs your budget.

At a basic level you'll want:

• 6 Sheets of 3/4" Plywood
• 2 - 1x2 Furring Strips
• 3-4 - 1x3 8ft boards for bed slats
• 1 - 2x4 or 2x3 for a support brace
• Table Saw
• Jig Saw
• Drill + Bits
• Crescent Wrench
• Pocket Hole Jig Set
• Edge Banding
• Clothing Iron
• Finish Supplies (Brush, Finish, etc)
• HiddenBed Mechanism Kit

Depending on your desire to expedite things, here are some supplies I might recommend as "upgrades:"

• Forstner Bit set
• Cheap-ish HVLP Set (~$200)
  
  • Air Spray Gun + Accessories (see HVLP step) Harbor Freight
  • 6-8 gallon Air Compressor
  • Lacquer Thinner + Lacquer

Step 2: Design

While I would love to show you the highly detailed plans that come with the hardware kit, there is a reproduction notice on them. And frankly, they are more fit for a patent office versus any average human being's understanding. The plans called for specialty cabinet hardware that you can't even find at your local hardware store or without special (expensive) ordering.

All in all, they are not setup for any DIY'er to easily understand. So that's why I went through the process of reinterpreting their plans into my own hand drawn version. Trying to maintain the position and measurements of where the hardware mounted but simplify the attachment of shelves and other pieces.

Note: If you are a close observer in the following steps, you will notice that I didn't even follow my own plans 100%. I adjusted placement and pocket holes as I felt were needed in the moment. So please interpret them as you see fit. I hope they are simply a more logical/clear depiction of the various pieces for the bed.

Step 3: Cut the Materials

I didn't include an exact cut list as my assumption is that you are going to buy a hardware kit to construct your Murphy bed. You should follow the dimensions listed out there versus any that I could give you. If you are not buying a hardware kit, and smelting steel ore into the various pieces and welding it together...well, I might ask why you're reading this beginner article.

So all I really have to say at this point is follow the measurements and cut your pieces out! While I could've done this with my own table + jig saw, for me, it was worth saving my time to bring it to a local cabinet maker and having them cut the panels. This saved me easily 6-10 hours of work, and they delivered with almost no tear out, but it cost me $600. So consider that at your own cost/benefit analysis.

Step 4: Apply Edge Banding + Sanding

So now with your plywood cut, you'll want to apply edge banding (pre-glued, like this) on all the exposed edges where the plywood will be visible. This gives it a seamless look and make it appear to be solid wood without the cost!

The process very straight forward,

1. Roughly measure out the piece, giving an extra 1/4"
2. Break it over an edge or cut it
3. Slowly iron the piece onto the edge
4. Trim extra flush

$ Tip! There are the fancy edge band "trimmers" for like $15-30 out there. But I found it super fast and easy to just run a sharp chisel down each side.

Lastly, before applying the finish, I briefly sanded all the pieces with 220 grit sandpaper. Maybe unnecessary with the quality of the veneer, but I thought it was helpful.

Step 5: HVLP Finishing

As with any project, I recommend you determine your budget ahead of time. For us, we determined we would cap this project at $2000, about 50% of the retail cost for this furniture.

That budget allowed for me to save some time and invest into a small HVLP (High Volume, Low Pressure) paint spray set. With lacquer's quick drying time, I was able to finish all of the pieces for this project in about 6 hours. Including multiple coats and drying time! Once again, the ~$200 cost in equipment was worth the day or two in time that I would've taken to finish these with a brush.

If you're interested, here is one of the better videos I have seen on how to use HVLP in woodworking.

My general setup was a spray gun, 3/8" air hose, filter, regulator, and connections from Harbor Freight, and a 8 gallon air compressor from Home Depot.

The process is easy:

1. Mix a 30-40% thinner to 60-70% Lacquer Mixture
2. Strain into spray gun tank
3. Make parallel passes down the material
4. Overlap 50% between passes

Step 6: Drill Holes for Hardware

So, I split up this step into two, attaching some of the hardware outside, and some once the bed was partly assembled. My thought was to use the exact placement of the hardware rather than depending on the measurements to reduce error. While this did help somewhat, because of the awkward drilling angles, dust, etc. I would highly recommend you drill and attach all hardware before.

Once again, this is where I recommend you refer back to your schematics to know your exact placement of the hardware. Even 1/8" difference here can cause a lot of headache later!

Mistake alert! You might notice in first photo above that I have placed 4 bolts into the bed arm. This was following (as best I could tell) the company's recommendation. Do not buy bolts like these or -at least- fill all of the holes in the mounting plate. They will block the arm from moving the full range that it needs to. Either get barrel bolts like these (which will be flush), or place less bolts.

Tip! To help reduce blowout when drilling through these materials, I would use a small drill bit to make a pilot hole through the material (this eliminates the need to measure both sides). Then come back with the forstner bit and pre-drill ~1/8" before drilling all the way through from the other side. You can see the difference between the hole I did with this method versus not in the last photo!

Step 7: Drill Cabinet Pocket Holes

Now, I honestly don't like pocket holes. Pretty sure I lost a little of my soul when I actually broke down and bought my pocket hole jig. I have nothing against all y'all who use them, but sometimes I find them to be the hallmark of a novice or a lazy way to get around proper joinery. *Insert snooty glare here* That said, this project wasn't going to be some heirloom furniture, and pocket holes seemed to be a fast, strong, and easy way to attach panels without doing a lot of measurement/dowels/etc.

You can refer back to my hand sketched plans earlier to see where I drilled pocket holes. Sometimes I found that I incorrectly estimated how many I would need and drilled more (or less) as I thought appropriate.

Step 8: Assemble Frame

So you got your panels cut, you got the spots for your hardware drilled out and attached as needed, now you're ready to start putting some of this together! Two sets of hands will come in handy here!

1. Having your spouse/roommate/dog holding the side panel, take the top panel and bring it flush.
2. Screw in top pocket hole
3. Adjust panel and make sure it's flush again
4. Screw bottom pocket hole
5. Screw in middle pocket hole(s)
6. Repeat for shelves

After you have the top + shelves in place, I pushed the frame upright. I then took a piece of wood and placed it under the bottom stretcher then screwed it into place.

Step 9: Assemble Bed Frame

So your cabinet is upright in your house, now it's time to put together the bed frame! At this point, I deviated from the original plans and simplified them.

Taking two 1x2 furring boards, I cut them to length and screwed them into the side of the frame. I placed them 3/4" down (up?) so they would be hidden, as the bed frame bottom will be the visible front of the Murphy bed. You can use a spare piece of plywood to measure quickly.

From there, I screwed a 2x4 flush into the furring strips to serve as a stretcher/support bar for the frame and for the bottom panels. I thought was worried you'd feel it while sleeping, but after a test sleep, not so!

Note: The placement of this bar was kinda random, I didn't want it in the dead center because I was afraid of that "futon bar" effect you get from cheap futons. If any of you have slept on a cheap IKEA futon, you are very aware of the steel bar where the futon hinges. Also happens to be in the middle of your back and horrible to sleep on. My wife and I couldn't feel this bar under the 8" mattress we got at all.

Step 10: Bed Slats

Read up on what is best for the type of mattress you bought, but we decided on using slats as support for our mattress. I read (after we bought our mattress) that memory foam does better on plywood, but we found slats to work just fine.

I bought some vertical grained Douglas Fir for better strength, only to find out (again, after) that with lumber prices being what they are, I could've done them in solid Red Oak for the price I paid!

Generally it is recommended to have slats placed every 3-4" down your frame. I first tried 6" and found it to be too little.

Tip! Cut out a spare piece of plywood 3-4" L and 2" W to use as a quick spacing guide.

Step 11: Assemble Desk

Now we are in the final stretches! The desk is a relatively easy assemble, particularly if you eliminate a couple of the extra pieces like I did.

Originally, the desk calls for a complicated "tube concealer" to hide a steel reinforcement rod. Additionally I believe there's another front stretcher. I disregarded both.

In the second photo, you can see the underside of the desk and my pocket hole placement. After assembling, I pressed my weight into the middle of the desk and felt that it was very sturdy. I don't expect you will be placing 100+ lbs (50 kg for you Metric's) on top of your desk, so I thought it fine to skip these complications.

Step 12: Attach Desk to Bed Frame

If you already cut out your hardware holes + attached the hardware you could, this step is as simple as:

1. Place bed frame on top of desk
2. Align the position of the hardware holes
3. Tighten pivot triangles together with an allen wrench

Mistake Alert! Hopefully you were diligent in following your measurements and didn't have the "g'nough" attitude I mentioned earlier. If not, you might run into some issues in these final stages like not cutting off the corners of the bed frame legs. Very important for the desk to pivot underneath! So if in the process of attaching you have a square corner like I did, cut/round this off now.

Step 13: Attaching Bed Frame + Desk to Cabinet

At this point all you should hopefully need to do is push the bed frame + desk back and use an allen wrench to attach the trunnion bolt through the bed frame into the arm mounting plate.

Mistake alert! I already mentioned this in the hardware step, but I thought I would mention it again here. See that red circle on the second photo? Yah, that bolt shouldn't be there. Make sure you refer back to the hardware step to understand why.

Step 14: Attach Arms

With the frame now attached, you can:

1. Lift the frame up and lock it into place.
2. Go to each side of the frame and pull the arm back
3. Lock the arm into the metal pin you attached to the side of the desk.

I realize that these photos are not too helpful as the design of this desk doesn't allow for too much visibility. You can watch this 30 second segment from a video that a cabinet maker in Oregon did to get a better visual of this step. As his design has better visibility.

Step 15: Mount to the Wall

So with everything in place, now for the final step!

Break out your stub finder, locate a couple studs, and attach some brackets! Hiddenbed does sell some fancy wall mounts for about $40, but I found simple 3" L brackets for $10 to suit the job well enough.

Step 16: Done!

Are we truly here? Is this it! The finish line?!? For me, I had a couple of hiccups, so it felt more like this. Remember those bolts I mentioned?

But I know you're more perfect than me, so you knocked it out of the park!

Step 17: Optional Customizations

Whaa?? I thought we were done?! So did I when my wife asked for quick tweak.

If you were like us and bought a shallower (8") memory foam mattress, you might notice that when you sit of the side of it that your legs hit the bed frame. In other words, it's too deep and makes sitting on + getting in/out a bit uncomfortable.

So I drew a quick cut out of the sides of the frame and cut it out with a jig saw. Now our legs don't hit the frame when getting in and out!

Step 18: Final Mistake Alert

Final Mistake Alert! I thought about putting this in the Frame step, but it already had too many photos and steps and I didn't want to confuse people.

In trying to be conservationist that I am, I thought I could use the same plywood for the entire project despite the plans calling for different thickness material for a couple pieces. This turned out to be an incorrect assumption for two areas. The concealers for the bed frame.

You can read the captions in the images, but it is important that:

1. The horizontal concealer is thick enough to give a strong fit for the locking pins
2. The vertical concealer is thin enough so that the frame legs don't bang against it.

With that, Adios!