A guest room that’s also a home office
The short answer
Put the Murphy bed on the wall with the most clear floor in front of it, keep your desk and chair outside the bed’s reach, and use side cabinets for the storage a desk room needs.
- Shut, the bed is a cabinet 15-7/8″ deep. The rest of the floor is the office.
- Down, it reaches 87″ from the wall for a vertical Queen. Keep the desk clear of that.
- Side cabinets either side give drawers, doors or open shelves for files and books.
- A horizontal bed leaves the wall above it open, and suits a low or sloped ceiling.
- Measure first: the wall, the ceiling and the floor in front.
One room, two jobs
Most of the time the room is an office. A few nights a month, or for a longer stay now and then, it’s a guest room. A bed that stands up against the wall when nobody is sleeping in it is what lets one room do both.
Shut, a Murphy bed is a cabinet 15-7/8″ deep against the wall. Everything else on the floor is yours for a desk, a chair, a bookcase, or simply room to work. When a guest comes, the bed comes down, and the room is a bedroom for the night.
Which wall gets the bed
Put the bed on the wall with the most clear floor in front of it. When it comes down it reaches into the room: 87″ for a vertical Queen, 83″ for a vertical Full, 67″ for a horizontal Queen. Measure that distance out from the wall and picture the bed there, with room to walk around its end.
The wall also has to hold it. The cabinet is screwed into the studs, so check what’s behind the drywall before you decide; What wall does a Murphy bed need? explains why.
Where the desk goes
Keep your desk and chair outside the bed’s reach, so a guest’s bed never means moving the office. A desk on the wall beside the bed, or across the room from it, usually works. A desk right in front of the bed means clearing it every time the bed comes down.
Leave a walkway too. A bed that is down with no way around it is hard to make up and hard to get out of.
Storage beside the bed
An office needs somewhere for files, paper and books, and a guest needs somewhere to put things down. Side cabinets either side of the bed do both. There are four styles: three drawers, doors, a drawer over doors, or open shelves for books and baskets.
A tall cabinet is as tall as a vertical bed (87-1/8″ beside a Queen) with open shelves over its drawers or doors; you choose 1 to 5 of them. A low one is 28″ tall with a finished top, a handy surface beside a horizontal bed. They’re cut from the bed’s own plywood and finished in its color, so the whole wall reads as one piece. Choosing side cabinets for a Murphy bed goes through them.
Small rooms and studio apartments
In a small room or a studio, the floor the bed gives back is the whole point. A vertical Full’s cabinet is 59-7/8″ wide; a vertical Queen’s is 65-7/8″. If the ceiling is low or slopes, a horizontal bed is lower: a horizontal Full is 60-7/16″ tall and a horizontal Queen 66-7/16″, and it comes out less far when it’s down. Vertical or horizontal Murphy bed? compares the two.
Measure before you plan
Get the wall’s width, the ceiling height and the floor in front, each to the nearest 1/16″, before you place anything. How to measure for a Murphy bed walks through it. Then build the wall on a bed’s page: choose the size and color, add side cabinets either side, and see the price and a measured plan as you go. Start from our Murphy beds.
Questions we get
Can a guest room really work as an office too?
Yes. Shut, a Murphy bed is a shallow cabinet against one wall, so the rest of the floor is free for a desk and chair. Keep them outside the bed’s reach and the room switches over quickly.
Do you sell a desk to go with it?
No. We build Murphy beds and the side cabinets that stand beside them. Side cabinets with drawers, doors or open shelves give an office its storage.
How much floor does the bed need when it’s down?
A vertical Queen reaches 87″ from the wall; a horizontal Queen 67″. Every bed’s size is in How to measure for a Murphy bed.
Is a Murphy bed a good idea in a studio apartment?
It’s one of the best uses for one: the floor is yours all day, and a real bed comes down at night. Check the wall’s framing first, because the cabinet is screwed into the studs.
Ready to plan yours?
Every bed is priced live on its page, built to the measurements you give us.
