A couple of weeks ago, I shared the Inexpensive Storage Cabinet Refresh in my spare bedroom and I mentioned that I was giving the whole room a makeover. I'll be sharing the whole makeover soon.

This room will serve two additional purposes aside from storage for my Etsy shop inventory and shipping supplies. Today, I am sharing one of those two extra purposes. It is now ready to act as a guest bedroom when needed! I don't have many people stay over except my daughter but I'm ready now if the need arises!

As I mentioned in the post about the storage cabinets, this room is pretty small... about 10' x 10' is all... so how is it possible that it stores all my Etsy shop inventory, holds my shipping supplies, serves as a guest bedroom, and one additional purpose??

In order to cram all that is needed out of a small space like this, I built a poor man's murphy bed!! 😄

DIY Poor Man's Murphy Bed

This was actually very simple, I did this all by myself! The only part I had help with was measuring to make sure I got it correct and shopping for the supplies!

The mattress I had is a full-size, so I measured for a full-sized Murphy bed. The wood I chose was pine and I had them cut at the hardware store where I purchased them. These are the cuts of wood needed for my full-sized Murphy bed:

• 2 - 55"  x 10" for the top and bottom of the bed
• 2 - 77" x 10" for the sides of the bed
• 2 - 55" 1x4's for attaching the bed to the wall
• 2 - 28 1/2" x 77" plywood sheets to create the mattress platform
• 2 - 57" 1x4's for the top and bottom trim on the front of the cabinet
• 2 - 75" 1x4's for the side trim pieces on the front of the cabinet

Once I had all the supplies purchased, cut, and ready to go, I started by creating a basic box that will hold the mattress. I used the corner braces to attach the sides and bottoms of the box together.

Then I test fit the mattress and crossed my fingers!

Next, I added the cross support boards. These are what are screwed into the wall studs to hold the bed on the wall.

Locate and mark the studs on the wall.

The box was put in place on the wall and then screwed into the studs.

So far, so good!

Next, I laid the two pieces of plywood next to each other on the floor and attach them together with 1x4's on both ends.

To attach this to the frame on the wall, I used three door hinges.

Then I trimmed out the front with trim boards to make it look like a cabinet. (Pay no attention to the white pieces in the corners on the right... I messed up on my measurements because I did not have help measuring for trim! 😂, it will be corrected with caulking and paint)

I used a basic hook-and-eye to close the bed up when it's not in use. I attached the hook to the frame that is attached to the wall and the eye to the platform that the bed sits on.

Then I painted the whole thing and I have a Murphy bed.

What do you think?! 😃

By making this Murphy bed as simple as I could, I kept the costs down too!

It was just $303.45!

Pongo approves!

Here's a scary picture, this is what this corner of the room looked like before!! 

And now this!

PIN ME!