Guide
Murphy bed sizing
6 min read
Clearances, mattress depths, and the wall build-out you actually need.
The two numbers that matter most
A Murphy cabinet bed needs clearance in two directions: depth when closed and swing space when open. Our cabinet beds are 12–14 inches deep when folded — shallower than a dresser. When the bed folds down, it needs roughly 78–82 inches of clear floor space in front of it (the mattress length plus a few inches for the mechanism). That's the number people underestimate. A 10-foot room has 120 inches; a fully open queen bed (80 inches) plus the cabinet depth (14 inches) leaves about 26 inches at the far wall — enough to stand, not enough for a desk. Plan the room with the bed open, not closed.
Wall requirements: what 'no hardware' actually means
Our cabinet beds are freestanding — the cabinet sits on the floor and requires no wall anchoring to operate. The mattress and frame are supported entirely by the cabinet structure. You do need a flat wall behind the cabinet for stability; the cabinet leans slightly against it. Stud location doesn't matter for installation, but if you want to secure the cabinet against tipping (recommended in households with children), two lag bolts into studs at the top of the cabinet take about 15 minutes. We include the hardware. Drywall anchors alone are not sufficient — locate studs.
Mattress depth and the fold mechanism
Cabinet beds ship with a specific mattress: typically a 5–6 inch memory foam or innerspring that is engineered to fold in thirds without cracking. Standard mattresses — including the futon mattresses we sell separately — do not work in Murphy cabinet frames. The fold mechanism relies on the mattress being the right thickness and having a tri-fold design. Substituting a thicker mattress creates resistance that damages the hinges and voids the warranty. If you want a thicker sleeping surface, look at models that accommodate an 8-inch tri-fold; most of our queen cabinet beds support this.
Sizing: queen vs full
Most customers choose queen. A full cabinet bed (54 × 75 inch mattress) is the right choice when the room is genuinely narrow — under 10 feet — or when the primary use case is a single adult. A queen (60 × 80 inch) gives two adults a comfortable sleep surface and reads as a proper guest room rather than a space-saving compromise. The cabinet widths differ by about 8 inches (full runs ~66 inches wide; queen ~74 inches), so measure your wall. Height is similar — both close to 87 inches, so standard 8-foot ceilings work with a few inches of clearance.
What the room looks like closed
The main reason people buy Murphy cabinet beds over traditional wall beds is aesthetics when closed. The cabinet looks like a wardrobe or armoire — it has doors, a finished top, and in most of our models, open shelving flanking the cabinet. That shelving is load-bearing in the sense that it's structurally part of the unit, but you can use it for books, plants, or display. One thing to note: the shelving on either side of the cabinet adds to the total footprint. Our standard queen with side shelves runs about 102 inches wide. If you want only the bed cabinet without flanking shelves, the unit is closer to 74 inches. Measure both configurations before ordering.
Still have questions?
Call the Hendersonville showroom at (828) 252-9449 or start a free consultation.