How to Find the Cheapest Murphy Bed
There was a time when most homes had a Murphy bed whether they needed it or not, it was one of those things that people just wanted to have and seemed like a status symbol of some sort. The Murphy bed was invented out of necessity and a bit of romance, which makes for a good read. It was said that William Lawrence Murphy was a budding inventor and he had a knack for inventing things that involved some mechanical design. Murphy lived in a studio apartment with a bed, a small kitchen, and a dining table, and this did not suit the kind of social life he wanted. He was smitten by an opera singer whom he wanted to spend time with, however, his small studio apartment was too cramped and during those times no self-respecting woman would go inside the bedroom of a man. Murphy found a way to make his bed disappear so that he could transform the space into a sitting room where he could entertain. This all happened in the 1900s and it is not clear whether Murphy and the opera singer did have a relationship, but in 1916, Murphy was granted a patent for his design of a disappearing bed. There were existing pull-up or wall beds during that time but what made Murphy’s design different was that he used a pivot and counterbalanced design. This allowed the bed to disappear into the wall and transform itself into a cabinet or a shelving unit. No one could guess it was a bed. This made Murphy a wealthy man, and his design became a hit with working-class men and women who had to live in small and cramped apartments or rooms in the city. They had such good use of the Murphy bed that it became a staple in most homes. However, after years of holding the patent, the federal government decided that the Murphy bed has become commonplace that the patent was no longer needed. This made way for other manufacturers and designers to create their own Murphy beds and sell them.
What is a Murphy Bed?
A Murphy bed simply put is a kind of bed that you can pull down and push up into the wall so you can make space for some other activity or it can be another area for you to use when you do not have the floor space in your home. A bed indeed takes up so much space and during the day, you do not use it for sleeping at all. The murphy bed allowed the homeowner to utilize precious space during the day and have a full-sized bed to sleep in at night. As the years have gone by, there have been many variations of the Murphy bed, from wood to steel frames, in all sizes and mattresses but the one thing that remained was the use of the pivot and the counterbalance to make the bed stand upright and disappear into a cabinet or wall. There have been more advanced designs to the Murphy bed since the most cumbersome part of having it was being able to push it upright when it is not being used and to pull it down safely when you are going to sleep on it. Somebody found a way to pull and push the Murphy bed with a touch of a button which involved attaching hydraulics and remote sensors to move it. This made the bed heavy and expensive that it soon became too pricey for most consumers. People wanted a Murphy bed but the price range was so steep that only those with fat bank accounts could afford it. The functionality of the Murphy bed remains to be valued by consumers, but they wanted to have one without breaking the bank they wanted a cheaper alternative.
Where to Find a Cheaper Murphy Bed
Luckily, there have been manufacturers and designers who felt the need to make Murphy beds cheaper and more accessible to consumers. The thing that made the automatic Murphy bed expensive was all the mechanical moving parts in it, thus, to make it cheaper, all they had to do was remove those parts and make the bed fold up and down manually. This would mean that to safely move the bed from its position to either vertically in the wall or down on the floor, at least two people should be doing it for safety purposes. Most Murphy beds are made from original wood and with a built-in mattress, pulling it down or pushing it upright will be a heavy task. You might run the risk of getting crushed by the bed if not done properly. Most home depots and furniture shops in your locality might carry the design or you can have a carpenter do it for you. The original design for the Murphy bed is now available online and you can download it and ask a furniture maker to do it using the said plans. Alternately, you can go online and use your favorite web browser and search for Murphy beds, the search engine will then give you its top results and you can look at each of those results to find what you are looking for. You can further narrow the search criteria by adding the keyword cheap. For sure you will have enough choices to choose from.
How to Order Cheap Murphy Beds
Once you have found the Murphy bed that you want, you need to check first the dimensions of the area or room you are going to place the bed in. although the bed itself is a space saver, you would still need to have ample space to put it in, like if it is a queen-sized bed, then you should determine the floor area that would fit the particular size. You also need to decide on the kind of material and how thick the mattress will be so you can get an estimate of how heavy the bed will be and whether you can safely move it around on your own or not. Now, you will be ready to order and enter your delivery address and wait for the bed to arrive.
