How To Build A DIY Modern Murphy Bed

[Music] hey friends it's sam from diy huntress and i am so excited about today's video over the past two weeks or so i have been working super hard to build a custom murphy bed for what is gonna be a future guest room and home office for my mom while she works from home today i'm gonna be covering how i built this murphy bed from start to finish with the exception of those custom shelves i'll be spilling all the details on those in my next video when i reveal this entire space so definitely make sure to subscribe to my channel and click the notification bell if you are interested in seeing the full room reveal as well as the shelving tutorial in the meantime though i am so stoked to show you how i built this murphy bed so let's get started [Music] i wanted to start this project by talking about the inspiration for this build and i'll be tackling this so much more in my next video so definitely make sure to check that out if you're interested but long story short my mom is a physical therapist who works with kiddos who have disabilities and she'll be working from home a couple days a week so i wanted to transform partial space in her guest room into a home office space without taking up a lot of real estate and in my mind there is no better way to do this than to build a murphy bed which is something i've been intimidated by for the longest time so to help tackle this build i partnered up with my friends at rockler to try out their diy murphy bed kit which comes with all the hardware required to build the murphy bed as well as comprehensive woodworking plans and a full materials list so once i had figured out which kit i wanted to use i was able to jump right in and start building now depending on what type of kit you choose for your murphy bed will basically dictate the materials that you need for your project for my project i needed four sheets of three quarter inch plywood two sheets of quarter inch plywood and a whole bunch of pine but as always you can see the full list of materials and tools that i use for this project by clicking on the link to this project post which is on my website and i've listed that below this video now to get started on this project i actually began to break down all of my three-quarter inch birch plywood into the pieces that were labeled in the cut list in rockler's woodworking plans i actually decided to use a track saw to break down all of my pieces in my shop because i am limited on space but if you don't have a track saw you could use a circular saw with a straight edge guide or if you're able to you can lift the plywood onto the table saw this was just the easiest method for me in my own workshop now at this point i actually didn't have the hardware it was on route in the mail so it was really cool to be able to print the plans i needed from rockler's website and just get started on this build without having the hardware in front of me but to make my life easier i definitely labeled every single piece that i cut that way i didn't misplace anything during this milling and cutting process now after getting all of those plywood pieces out of my way it was then time for me to cut all of the pieces for the bed frame which was primarily made up of pine and just like i did with the plywood i just followed the cutlass to figure out what needed to be cut or what needed to be milled down to a different size and i used a combination of my miter saw and my table saw to make all of these pieces happen according to that list now if you have been following me for a while you will know that i work in a really small space like 12 by 12 shed space so it was so helpful to be able to pre-cut all of the pieces according to the cut list and then organize them because i ended up having to essentially just pre-fit things in my shop and then actually build this murphy bed in the space but after pre-cutting everything it was time to get started on assembly bed frame first we're doing it now i learned the hard way that a lot of these full pieces were not going to fit up the staircase into the bedroom where the guest room is so i actually decided to assemble whatever i could in the shop that would fit first and then took anything apart or put it back together as i needed to as i went along but one of the components of this bed that i definitely made sure to do in my workshop first was make sure that this bed frame was square this was so important because if the bed frame is square then the murphy bed is not going to like fit together and close the right way later so i did take time here to just pre-drill and glue together any of the pieces that needed to kind of stay together permanently and then just dry fit the actual frame itself before pulling it all apart and then installing it in the space later now the cool part about the kits that are offered on rockler's website are that they do offer an array of them so if building a bed frame is not something that you're comfortable with doing they do offer a kit that comes with a pre-made bed frame already so my recommendation is to definitely do some research as to what kind of kits they offer before jumping into a build once i was done building the actual bed frame itself there were a couple of plywood pieces that needed to be dry fit to the outside and that included two side rails which i had to just round over the edges and cut using my jigsaw but essentially after making that final cut all of those three quarter inch plywood pieces we're now prepped and ready to go for this entire build so at this point i took some time to sand down all of these pieces to 220 grit and then also add some edge banding to hide all of the edges of the plywood so as if these woodworking plants from rockler couldn't be great enough already with a cutlass it also tells you exactly where to place edge banding on your plywood to make the plywood look like solid wood so i just followed those diagrams i ironed on the edge banding i used a screwdriver just to press it down so that it didn't come up at all and then i trimmed the edge banding using an edge band trimmer and sanded everything nice and smooth to blend in those seams there were a couple of spots that i had to be patient with and work on a little bit but once all of the edge banding was finally on and i was happy with the way everything looked it was then time to start pre-finishing the pieces so that they could dry before i installed them in the space now prior to settling on a color i probably tried out about 16 different colors and finishes before finally choosing one and the reason i did this because i chose some other pieces of furniture for the space and i really wanted the murphy bed to complement those pieces and if you follow me on instagram you will know what a fiasco it was choosing a color because i basically absolutely loved this one color that was a combination of stain and poly and it looked awesome when i finished but it definitely required a lot of maintenance to get it to dry correctly now i've used this product so successfully on my sliding barn door project but because of the humidity i was having some issues with the finish so i did end up adding a couple of extra coats of poly just to make sure that everything was smooth and beautiful at this point after fighting with this finish for a couple of days all of the pieces minus those door fronts we'll talk about those later were dry and ready to be installed so i did start this process by breaking down whatever portions of that bed frame were too big to fit up the staircase and then i assembled everything into place permanently making sure to double and triple and probably quadruple check square at this point because i was so paranoid but everything worked out great one thing i do want to mention is that at this point i had clearly cleared out this entire room and gave the wall a fresh coat of paint and figured out exactly where it was that i wanted to install this bed and that was so important because when you're assembling in the space you need the room to be able to do that so i was so stoked to have all of this floor space to kind of just like roll around on the floor and make this thing happen now once the actual bed frame itself was assembled it was time to start bringing in some of the other pieces that went on this bed frame and that included the side rails as well as the header board and the footer board as well at this point i had received the hardware in the mail and i was actually really excited to start installing it on to some of the portions of this build and the cool part about the hardware was that it also came with its own separate set of plans and as part of those plans it had a few templates that i was able to tape to my pieces and cut around or in depending on where the hardware needed to go so this is part of the project where i admit that i made a mistake and basically as fool proof as this template was i still messed up i actually drilled these holes perfectly in exactly where they needed to go but when i installed the side rails which you'll see in a little bit this opening was supposed to go on the inside of the bed and basically be touching the mattress and for some reason i must have read something wrong or wasn't paying attention and i ended up installing these so that the hardware was on the outside of the bed and i didn't notice this until later and how to fix my mistake so my best advice for you for sure is to just like take your time with the instructions because there are a lot of them and it is easy to want to jump ahead and get overwhelmed and i'm pretty sure that's what happened here so don't do what i did but other than that little mistake that i noticed later the rest of this hardware installation process went really really smoothly without a hitch i just followed the directions i cut out any templates i needed to cut i measured like 60 000 times before installing anything and i just went with the flow and followed those directions and it was actually pretty easy to get everything into place after installing all the hardware according to the plans and the diagrams it was then time to attach those pieces to the actual bed frame itself again these plans came with awesome diagrams to show you exactly where everything needs to go as well as how to install it so i just followed that minus of course the mishap with those two side pieces but in the words of bob ross we don't make mistakes we make happy accidents i was able to fix it later and just add a little decorative element to the side of the murphy bed to cover up my mistake so i will show you that a little later in following the plans for the murphy bed after assembling the bed frame it was then time to focus on the door fronts for the murphy bed and i actually couldn't do this with the other pieces in my shop because my shop was way too small to fit everything so once i was able to clear out those pieces it was then time to just get started on the decorative element that i wanted on the front of this murphy bed when i first started this build i envisioned something super modern and beautiful and sleek and let's be real if you know me at this point you know how obsessed i am with chevron and beautiful arrow looking patterns so obviously that's what i opted for for this murphy bed now to make that happen i actually picked up a couple of these rolls of pressure sensitive white birch veneer from rockler and it's essentially a peel and stick veneer that you are able to apply to any piece of wood using some pressure so i started by cutting these veneer sheets in half just to make them a little less beefy looking and i did that using a typical box cutter and then i began to mark out my pattern the same exact way that i actually mark out my geometric art pieces and i'll link one of those below this video for you to check out that process but once i was happy with those lines this process was as easy as literally pulling away that backing from the sticky underside of the veneer and then firmly pressing it into place where i wanted it to go i also just gently trimmed the edges but didn't worry about making it perfect here because i am going to be flipping these doors over later to just trim everything perfectly when i'm done in full honesty though there are a couple of things that definitely could have made this so much easier for me one being that they do make specialty rollers that do help with applying pressure to the veneer which would have made my job so much easier instead i kind of just pressed it into place using a straight edge and actually the other thing that i do wish that i did before i started applying these was just to sand the edges down because i did have a couple of places where the edges were a little jagged and i did have to do some extra sanding and blending while i was applying the pieces to the doors but other than those small things even with what i had on hand this process was actually super easy and it was probably one of my favorite parts of this project probably just because chevron makes me super super happy for some weird reason but once i was done adding all the pieces i then flipped those doors over and used that box cutter to cut away any of the excess that was overhanging [Music] like i mentioned earlier because i didn't sand those gaps completely flush when i was applying the edge banding i did have a couple of noticeable gaps that i ended up filling using a tinted wood putty and i actually didn't love that a couple of these gaps were filled and others weren't so in the end i ended up just tinting all of those gaps which honestly ended up being the best accidental choice ever because it totally made the chevron pop a little more because all of those seams ended up staining a lot darker than the rest of the door and i'm so happy i ended up doing it but as you can see once i was done with the wood putty i then applied edge banding to these doors as well and then sanded everything to 220 grit at this point it was then time to stain and finish the doors but i actually ran into a couple of different snags here the first coat of finish that i used on this door did not dry the right way again because of those humidity issues and then i sanded that off tried to use the regular stained version of that color which did not match at all and then i had to sand that off as well and then third time's the charm i reapplied my wood conditioner to the doors and then decided to go with a custom color instead and that worked absolutely beautifully again honestly i think that this project probably would not have taken me two weeks if i was able to just get the finishing right without it taking me a couple of days on each pass but in the end it ended up working out totally fine and the extra work ended up being worth it moment of truth yes finally finally so obviously after having to restain those doors three times and then finally seeing that the custom stain color that i made matched the rest of the cabinet i did a happy dance and was finally able to focus on the rest of the build with a clear mind and a full heart and i couldn't lose quick name that show but anyway as i was waiting for those doors to dry i just didn't want to be held up anymore so i began to install the hardware that i needed for the actual cabinet portion of this build which i obviously went back inside to do and just like i did with the actual bed frame pieces i just followed the diagrams and instructions that were given to me with the hardware for this build and i was able to install everything without a hitch so obviously my best advice after doing this project for anybody who's looking to make a murphy bed is to just make sure you're measuring a ton of times and installing things square and where they need to go you definitely don't want to like guesstimate anything on a build like this because you need everything to be perfectly square and where it needs to go in order for the bed to function properly obviously in an ideal world i would have loved to be able to fit this murphy bed in my shop and kind of just pre-fit everything together before building it in the space but i wasn't able to do that and that's totally fine because it all worked out perfectly in the end anyway so basically once all of the pieces of the murphy bed were ready to be assembled it was time to focus on that back wall and the plans include some options for cutting notches in the back of your murphy bed to put them over your trim but i was so emotionally attached to my murphy bed at this point that i just decided instead to remove the trim and to just patch and paint this wall instead what is this i found a secret note okay maybe not a secret note but i found some old measurements i guess when they were doing the molding it's funny like it's nothing crazy but it's fun to see what you find in the walls of a home that you live in for like years right so honestly after patching i definitely looked for some other hidden treasures in this room but after doing that the doors were finally dried and ready to be assembled to the bed frame so i had my brother help me carry them up the stairs and into the room because they were heavy now in a normal situation this probably wouldn't matter very much but because i had a chevron pattern on the front of these doors that i needed to line up perfectly i took a couple of scrap pieces of wood and just screwed them together to hold the doors in place so that the pattern wouldn't shift when we were assembling the frame to the actual door fronts we then checked all of the measurements made sure that everything was fitting together perfectly and then jordan carefully lifted the bed frame while i applied some wood glue and then eventually screwed everything into place according to the diagrams on the plans so once everything was lining up really well with the bed frame it was time to move on to assembling the cabinet to the bed frame itself and one of the things that i actually needed to add was a backer board for the headboard and the original plan said to screw this in using screws from the outside of the cabinet but again attachment issues so i actually decided to use pocket hole screws instead which worked just as well but actually hid the screws that i didn't have to drill through these beautiful cabinets that i worked so hard on but after following all of the steps to install those cabinet sides and the headboard to the bed frame itself i then focused on creating some custom door handles for this cabinet using some 2x2 poplar pieces now originally i was going to use some really beautiful pre-made knobs for this build but i just didn't like the scale of them i felt like they looked way too small for a cabinet of this size and in order to kind of fix that problem i basically just took some six foot long poplar pieces cut them down to an inch and a half square and then notched out a really awesome groove as well in the back so that my fingers could grab the back of the groove whenever i wanted to pull the murphy bed down i then sanded and painted them using a metallic spray paint and then once they were dried it was time to call in some help to install them time to call in some help dream team assemble we're gonna rotate this up towards the wall you screwed it to the floor i didn't screw it to the floor one two three come on so after some general tomfoolery because that's what my family does because they are awesome my brother and my dad slowly lifted the cabinet size while my mom and i lifted the front of the bed which looked epically stunning by the way and i had my family hold on to each part of the bed frame while i measured where to place these handles basically the reason why i needed so many hands is because at this point the bed is not secure and there's nothing in the back to hold up these doors so my parents held the door and the sides up while i pre-drilled all the holes for the handles and my brother drilled them into place from behind the doors to make sure that they were lining up perfectly not gonna lie i definitely made this more difficult for myself than it needed to be in a normal situation you can just basically install your door handles the way that you want to without having to have an army of people help you with it but i am a perfectionist and i just wanted it to look good but once those handles were installed i obviously at this point as you can see from those gaping holes in the side of the bed fixed the problem with the hardware on the bed frame and then began to assemble the header of the murphy bed and as if i didn't torture my family enough at this point i did have them hang out to still hold up that bed while i completed this because the bed was not secure [Laughter] why are you sleeping on the job i'm sorry are we boring you so after quickly assembling the header and then waking up my entire family it was then time to install the bottom support to the legs of the murphy bed and then also install those bottom panels which are going to be holding up the mattress over the frame at this point then we were able to work together as a team to install the header to the top of the bed and then also install the pistons which are the mechanisms that actually pull the bed up and down and because the space is so small my brother actually had to do that from behind while we kind of like maneuvered the front of the cabinet but luckily those instructions for installing them are outlined so super well in rockler's plans and honestly if there were two things that i was super grateful for at this point it was those comprehensive plans from rockler and my amazing family for just being so epically awesome now before i could get excited and really start to do some finishing touches on here i did have to fix that big oopsie that i spoke about at the beginning of this video so i decided to plug up that giant gap using a dowel and also use some tinted wood filler to fill in any of those voids i then came back later and stained them to match the murphy bed and you can barely tell that i made a mistake at this point but once that dried it was then time to bring in the mattress so we then loaded it into the murphy bed together as a team and once it was in place we just made some adjustments to both sides of the bed until the bed stayed down all by itself but was also not too hard to pull down or lift up and these adjustments were made by simply just adjusting two plates that i installed earlier in the process on the bed frames at this point it was time to apply any trim and adjust any spacing and add some final details it was also time for its inaugural test run and i was so super nervous to see if this thing worked for real but to my surprise it did and i could not have been happier oh my god this is the best day ever i can't believe i built this i literally don't know how to explain the feeling that came over me after being done with this build after about two weeks of working on it but it was like pure magic but at this point all that was left was final touches like installing the trim work around the sides of the murphy bed that i removed as well as installing a bottom trim piece to the bottom of the murphy bed itself that does move when i want to open the bed you'll see that in a second and actually the reason that i did this is because really the plans recommend that you put a piece of trim on the outside of the doors when you're making the murphy bed but i didn't like how that looked i wanted something modern but by keeping that trim piece on the bottom flush i was unable to open the door so i just slide it underneath the door whenever i want to open the murphy bed and then when i close the murphy bed back up that piece of trim just gets replaced super easy super simple solution overall i am beyond thrilled with the way that this murphy bed turned out and even though it took a lot longer to build than i was anticipating due to space constraints and weather and all of those fun things that i cannot control i seriously feel like my patience and persistence on this project completely paid off and i know that i was so super intimidated to begin this build and get through it but i totally did it and i honestly truly believe that if i can do it then anyone can now that the murphy bed build is done i can finally start focusing on transforming the rest of this space into a workspace for my mom and i cannot wait to get started on that part of the project and like i mentioned at the beginning of the video i also have already tackled those floating shelves as one of the first projects in that new space so definitely make sure to subscribe to my channel and click that notification bell to check out how i built those in the next video but until then friends thank you so much for your support for your encouragement and for just being awesome and until next time friends happy diying

Channel: DIY Huntress

Views: 779,032

Rating: 4.9152083 out of 5

Keywords: diy murphy bed, diy murphy bed hardware, diy murphy bed hardware kit, how to build a murphy bed, how to build a murphy bed diy, modern murphy bed, modern murphy bed ideas, guest room bed ideas, home office guest room ideas, how to build a bed frame, murphy bed cabinet diy, diy wall bed kit, rockler murphy bed kit, rockler murphy bed hardware kit, diy hidden bed ideas, murphy bed with shelves, murphy bed with floating shelves, fold away bed wall mounted, diy folding bed

Id: SJckZ6lAeHg

Length: 24min 3sec (1443 seconds)

Published: Fri Sep 11 2020