More than a Murphy Bed

Hey everyone Michael Alm here. So this week  I'm not in my workshop, I'm actually at a   client's house. I'm working on a built-in  bedroom so this is going to be a murphy bed   but it's also going to have a bedside table and  a bunch of features like like led lighting and   stuff like that I'm excited to share this build  with you guys because if you've ever considered   making a built-in a lot of the same techniques  are going to apply you can never really trust a   wall to be perfectly flat and plumb so I like to  design my built-ins with basically like a false   wall somewhere it's something that I can I can  build up off of that I know is perfectly plumb   flat level true that's what I'm doing right here  I'm I'm peeling away this baseboard so that I can   put in some framing lumber uh so that I have  something to rely on for the rest of the build so I'm just using some regular framing lumber  on this and you can see my laser level is a   super handy tool to have but you can always just  use a standard level to do this sort of stuff   and then I'm setting up this wall so that it's  nice and parallel to the bookcase on the right   hand side I'm referencing everything off of that  bookcase and now I'm building a soffit I designed   this soffit basically to bring the height  down so that the bed kit would fit properly   it also allows me to run electrical inside of the  ceiling this is a handy trick if you don't know it   if you don't have an extra set of hands on  a job site you can just cut a 2x4 to the   correct height and it can hold things up to the  ceiling for you once the soffit was in place I   could remove it and I noticed that one of the  sides was kind of twisted a bit so I just took   a piece of scrap wood and used it as a lever arm  and then twisted it back so it was nice and pump when I came back to the job site the  second day I realized that that two by four   was too thick I needed to reduce  it because I'm gonna be putting   a piece of mdf over the surface of it so that  I could have a paintable surface there so it   was super easy fix I just replaced the 2x4 with  a 1x4 and I could keep going with the framing so I added this cleat to the back which basically  just gives me something to nail the ceiling onto   and again I checked it for a level um I'll  secure one screw in the center and then level   it out and then secure multiple screws from  there then I also wanted to make sure that the   back and the front were coplanar and they weren't  there was a little dip in the center so I was able   to screw up into the ceiling studs and kind  of bring that section up just a little bit   and then I could use my big level  to make sure it was nice and flat with the soffit leveled out I could start  framing up the right hand wall and this   is a really shallow wall I just needed enough  space for an electrical wire to be hidden inside   I also added a piece of three quarter inch plywood  at the bottom this is because the bed hardware   sits right up against this wall I want to make  sure it was nice and strong so now you can see   that mdf's piece which is going to get painted  this is why I changed out that board and then I'm   just building a little bit of structure so  that I have something to nail the ceiling into   since this is a ceiling and it's going to be above  people's heads I decided that I would just screw   those in as well they probably would have been  fine with the nails but this just makes sure   that they're extra secure so the next day my buddy  josh came over to help with the electrical I'm not   an electrician but josh is and he actually runs  a lighting design company so he sort of talked   me through all the steps that I needed to know in  order to run the electrical and he helped me out   throughout the whole build so one of the things  that he told me was that I I don't need to break   into these walls um basically what we're going  to do is we're going to make a little false wall   that hides all the electrical and the drivers  that control the leds so now that we had a plan   we could actually start organizing wires and  figuring out where the power was going to come   from the main source of power is going to be this  outlet right here and josh put an extension on it   so that we can lock it in underneath the bedside  table but we didn't need this second outlet this   is going to be behind a plywood panel and so what  I did was I cut out the drywall around it just   enough to get this cover plate to sit  nice and flush to the surface of the wall with josh's instructions I was able to plan out  all the wiring these are low voltage wires because   they're only controlling leds this one's going to  go to a bedside table lamp that isn't made yet so   it's not actually going to be included  in this build but we just buried that   that wire in the wall for later use the rest  of the electrical is going to sit above the   bedside table and um so I'm just putting in a  little block here so that I can I can have a   place to anchor a three gang box I I need a  switch for the headboard light a switch for   the soffit light and a place to put an outlet  I put in this little spacer block to make sure   that the three gang box was nice and centered and  then I could secure the three gang box with some   screws I had to trim out some sections using my  multi-tool to um to just get some areas where the   the cords can go this one's gonna light up the  headboard and this wire is for the soffit light I notched out this lower section so  I could collect all those wires back   to that original main source of the power and  again secured all the wires with with staples and with all the low voltage  secured now I could bring up   the romex which brings power to the switches whenever I work on a job site I try and pre-cut  as much material as possible and in this case   I measured out all of the the panels that I  needed to cover that space and cut them in my   shop just because it's way easier to maneuver in  there and it's definitely way easier to throw them   in the back of all gold with that said I I don't  usually like to cut the panels perfectly to size   because I like to scribe the back wall again  that wall is not super flat so I use a scribe   draw a line and then trim it to fit   the other thing that I like to do is I  leave the front long so I I can trim that   flat at the very end so I can actually  take a couple tries with the scribing with that frontage trimmed I can be pretty  confident that it's going to be perfectly flush   every single time and then the other panel which  was a little bit more complicated because I had to   cut open a space for the electrical box  um but it's not too bad you just kind of   measure off of the floor off of the walls  and make sure that it's nice and tight I also needed to cut out a  relief notch for the electrical   that one's for the soffit and this one's for the  headboard and then I could secure it into place   the next panel to go in was the ceiling panel and   in order to get this really nice and  tight I again scribed to the back edge   but it was so wobbly that I had to use a  jigsaw for it one thing that I like to do   with the jigsaw is tilt it back because jigsaw's  never really cut straight and I'd rather cut away   excess material on the side that's not seen and  have that stick out and cause an unwanted gap with that in the right spot I traced out the  spots where I had structure and then just applied   a bunch of glue to that again it's a ceiling  so I want to make sure that it doesn't fall   so I ended up gluing it on and putting a  few nails in it to make sure it was nice   and flush so all of the surfaces outside  of this built-in are going to be painted   and for that I like to use mdf mdf stands  for medium density fiberboard it is basically   a whole bunch of sawdust that's been glued  together it doesn't have any structure but   it's great for painting on so I secured those you  can see I I glued that edge that meets up with the   walnut ply because I wanted that to be nice and  tight I didn't have space to put wood filler in so   I just wanted to make sure that I  got a really nice tight joint there   the next element to build is the floor and I'm  using my improvised workshop out here in this   beautiful back patio from my client's house  um this was this was my setup and I'm not   complaining so the floor is made up of a series  of strips that are they're just scraps that I had   left over from cutting the walnut panels and all  I'm doing is gluing and nailing these pieces in   this isn't going to take a lot of  weight it's really just the base for   the bedside table the bed doesn't actually  secure to this at all so nobody's ever going   to stand on it um it's just a really basic  structure that essentially is just a toe kick   with the frame built I could nail it to  the side walls and I just used a little   three quarter inch spacer because I'm gonna  have a strip of walnut that goes across the   front of it and that's three quarters of  an inch I did add liquid nails underneath   uh certain sections of it because there's a  little bit of a dip in the floor and I didn't   want this thing to squeak at all if anyone did  actually end up stepping on it so I glued down   the surface panel this is actually what's  going to get finished applied to it and then I can add that solid  piece of walnut as the toe kick the last little bit of walnut plywood that I  needed to cover up the end grain of is up here and   this is actually it's set back because it's where  the bed rests up against so I just added a little   quarter inch piece of walnut to there after that  I could use my mirka sander to clean up all the   edges and make sure that everything is nice and  flush it made short work of it and then I could   start applying finish I wanted to get to this  pretty early because I knew I wanted at least four   maybe five coats on this thing and so every time  I was on the job site I would just apply another   coat at the end of the day so gradually building  it up I was also working on the bedside table   uh while I was building up this finish so um it's  kind of a an order of operations thing you can see   this is the first coat and it looks kind of kind  of splotchy um and it'll get better and better   so while that that finish was being applied I was  also working in my shop um I built the bedside   table which is its own video uh if you haven't  seen that yet that is already on my channel this   is the headboard that I'm working on that matches  up to that bedside table and the main little uh   design feature that I was adding in was this this  sapwood inlay so this is also walnut it's walnut   sapwood and I'm lining it up right with the  sapwood inlay that I put on the bedside table   I trimmed out that top edge  with another piece of sapwood   and I was able to use my rockler  bandy clamps to hold them into place with my palm sander I sanded  everything nice and flush and then I was ready to cut out for the bedside  table so made sure the bedside table was nicely   aligned with that new inlay this was definitely  a nerve racking cut because if it's off by   even a 32nd of an inch you're going  to notice that so I took my time   I labeled everything I have a tendency to just  cut right through parts if I don't label them   because of muzzle memory so I I made sure and put  that blue tape on which helped a lot and then I   cut the the back of it at a 15 degree angle this  was actually specified by the manufacturer of the   of the murphy bed hardware so if you guys remember  and you've seen that that's a table build I made   a little void in the back and that's because  I discovered that even though I put a lot of   effort into trying to make those walls coplanar  they were not perfect so I had to trim out the   side of this cabinet it was a little bit of brute  force just to get this done uh I had to use the   tools I had on the job site I didn't really  think this through very well but I managed   to get through it with a couple of old chisels  that I usually just use as pry bars so it worked   in order to secure the bedside table to the floor  I decided to use dominoes you could use dowels if   you have dowel jigs domino is just such a quick  way to do this kind of work and super strong so   if you haven't heard of a domino it's  basically a floating tenon that you can put in   pretty much anywhere you draw a  line and you put these little uh   dominoes into into the hole and it  lines everything up super nicely the next element to install was this back  panel and this again is the reason why   I had to cover up that outlet and then with that  in place I could add in the murphy bed hardware   this is a kit that comes from murphybeds.com you  guys may have seen the other murphy bed video that   I put out and that one I installed the rockler  hardware kit I've had good experience with the   rockler hardware kit the reason I didn't use the  rockler one on this one is because uh it wasn't   gonna actually fit with the bedside table that I  designed the piston was actually gonna sit above   it this is a spring actuated system as opposed to  the rocker one which is a air piston my experience   with this the murphy bed system is is generally  pretty good I think the instruction manual is   really cryptic and hard to hard to get get through  but when it comes to the mechanism it worked great so the next day josh came back to help me install  the lighting he's working on the headboard light   this is going to go behind the  headboard and up light that wall   again it's very nice to have an electrician  on site to problem solve things I'm not an   electrician and I like to have someone  who has a little bit more experience   with it on the on the site so make  sure that everything's nice and safe   we secured that cleat into the studs  and tested it out and it worked great   so now it was time to secure the headboard  these are just some little cleats that I made   I decided to I mean it was really hard to figure  out a way to you couldn't get screws in behind   there I didn't want hardware on the surface  so I just made these little blocks and added   dominoes into the headboard and the blocks  themselves this was a quick little jig so   that I had something to hold the part  I just nailed it off to my sawhorse with those made I could screw  them into the bedside table   and the right side wall I also added a  little nailer onto the left-hand side wall   to make sure that that left side of  the headboard wasn't floating in space I could then tap in the dominoes into the cleat  and slide the headboard into place took a little   bit of maneuvering to get it all to lock in but  once it was locked in it was really nice and   strong one thing I did notice was that the  center of the headboard was kind of wobbly   so I made this wedge piece that I just  glued against the back side of the headboard   back in my workshop I started making the  panels that are gonna go on the outside   of this murphy bed I want that whole outside  to be painted so I'm using this material called   armor core it's mdf on the face and and plywood  on the inside I edge banded that with some poplar   edge banding and then I could sand it flush  and get it ready for veneering I'm going to be   veneering just one of these panels and it's going  to be the door that covers up the bedside table   I haven't done a lot of veneering but I watched  a couple videos by john peters he's got a bunch   of videos on how to veneer I'll put links down  below um but the basics of it are you just add   a contact cement uh to both the surface of the  the plywood as well as the surface of the veneer   once you have both surfaces completely  covered in the contact cement   and they're nice and dry you can bring  them together and I use these strips   just to keep the contact cement off of both  panels while I'm aligning it this stuff is   as soon as it sticks it is stuck it's not coming  back up so you got to be really careful with it   take your time and get it aligned really really  nicely you want to apply a good bit of pressure   as you're going and make sure that you're not  getting any air bubbles underneath the surface   after that you come back with a board and kind of  burnish it out make sure that there's absolutely   no place where it hasn't come into contact and  then you can flip it over and trim off the excess   I just use a razor knife for this  with a nice sharp new blade in it after that I sand the edge down make sure  that there's nothing that's overhanging   and then I can start applying finish   other than this door panel I need  two more panels that I cut out and   primed these will make up the bed panels  the actual panel that the bed goes on back at the job site I took those bed panels  and dominoed the sides of them so I could   bring them together in the instructions they  have you keep these two apart but my client   requested it to be one panel so in order to  do that um it's I think it's something like   60 inches wide so a four by eight  sheet is not wide enough to make it up   so I I ended up gluing it together this went  pretty well fortunately the structure of the   bed hardware actually pulls it into square  so I didn't have to worry too much about it   I also left them long so that once they're  glued up I could cut them down to length with the panel all glued up I could  lay out the hardware for the kit   the kit comes with some super strong  rails that manage to pull that plywood   nice and flat and a ton of screws that  you screw in along the whole length of it it also comes with corner brackets  that hold the corners nice and tight the kit also comes with this aluminum stiffener   that'll pull any sort of belly or  sag out of the middle of the panel with the bed panel complete we're  ready to set up to install it and   in order to do that you pull back the tension arm  and it has this little lock that holds the arm in   place and then you're ready to go so we brought  in the panel definitely needed an extra set of   hands for this so thank you josh and you lift  it up and it has like a little catch there which   you later add a couple bolts to and that's  pretty much it it's pretty easy to install   I sanded up that glue seam that uh was  formed from the glue up and then I was   able to prep the door I used this little jig  from craig it's a really really convenient jig   that I wish I had a long time ago it's made for  european style hinges and makes it super simple   and the number one question that I got when  I was building this bedside table is why I   need that cutout in there and this is  why it was made for the inside hinges   um because the the door frame actually sits  on the inside of that that bedside table the next little detail is to  add in the soffit light cover   this was just made out of a couple  pieces of wood walnut in the front   and uh and it's set at just a like a 15 degree  angle this just gives a little bit of shielding   so if you were to look up at the light you  don't see the actual light fixture itself with that installed I was able to start prepping  for paint when it comes to something like this   I I don't take any risks it seems like if  I ever leave anything exposed uh paint gets   on it so I covered every single surface of  this took my time with the edges of stuff   and and made sure that everything was nice and  burnished so paint would not get underneath it I also caulked all the joints where  the wall met the face of the built-in I started off with a primer and  primed all of the exposed mdf and then went over the top of that with  three coats of wall paint fortunately   the client had the original paint from the  rest of the room so it was easy to match and now it's just down to the final touches  I reinstalled the door and added a door pull   and added in the foot hardware for the murphy bed so and with that it was all done so hey everyone thanks so much for watching  and if you've got any questions feel free to   ask them in the comments down below if you want  to know what tools that I use all of them are   linked in the description down below and if you  want to watch some more videos here's a playlist   right here big thank you to my patreon supporters  you guys are the best you support me every single   month and if you've been following along watching  a bunch of my videos and learned a bunch of stuff   maybe consider kicking in a couple  bucks and joining the patreon crew   there's exclusive sketchup files on there  there's a bunch of rewards exclusive stickers   all sorts of things really appreciate  it and I'll catch you in the next one

Channel: Michael Alm

Views: 2,979,648

Keywords: Murphy Bed, Hidden room, hide-a-bed, wall bed, michael alm, almfab, alm fab, builtin, finish carpentry, walnut wood, LED lighting, high end, interior design, decor, how to install a Murphy Bed, Murphy Bed Hardware, bed hardware, Guest Bedroom

Id: CGpolHzCEMA

Length: 25min 48sec (1548 seconds)

Published: Thu Aug 06 2020