You've probably heard of the classic Murphy bed — a great installation for a small children's room to double as an open-floored playroom. But there are many other great types of Murphy furniture that belong in any customized home. Murphy designs are practical and simplistically elegant by nature. They often appear as normal cabinetry, doors, and shelving when folded away. Then they open to add significant functionality and surface area to any room. Let's dive into the six coolest types of Murphy furniture that effectively opens the floorplan and adds storage every room.
1. Hidden Murphy Doors
The classic Murphy door design is a type of hidden door. Cabinetry that looks like bookshelves or secured display cases can fold away to reveal a hidden doorway. Murphy doors are an excellent way to politely enforce privacy at home or security policies in a business. Those who know the mechanism can easily pass with a variety of methods, from physical switches to wireless sensors. Hidden Murphy doors can also be included in your security system to layer your types of property security against intruders.
Murphy doors have been used for many purposes. Often, a Murphy door replaces a closet door, creating a hidden storage area. But you can also install a Murphy door to hid entry to a section of the building, like hiding stairwell entries or the entry to private hallways.
2. Fold-Away Murphy Beds
In a small home, beds take up a lot of real estate. Murphy beds allow families to reclaim the floor space in bedrooms. A Murphy bed is basically a mechanical headboard, tall as the mattress. When triggered, the bed folds up into the headboard, clearing all the floor space it once occupied. Under-the-bed space can now be used as a play-room or provide space for meditation, walking, exercise, crafts and homework, and more.
Many Murphy beds have something interesting on the underside. Desks are the most common because the desk surface folds easily below the bed when it opens.
Everything To Know About Murphy Beds
3. Multi-Purpose Murphy Desks
Desks are the bulkiest part of any office, especially home offices. A Murphy Desk is designed to fold up into the wall or into another piece of furniture instead of taking up space all the time. If you're the kind of person who only needs the desk a few minutes or hours at a time, you don't have to dedicate a whole square of the room to the workspace.
Murphy desks tend to look like shelves or sometimes framed pictures when they are folded away. Then, when it's time to work, the desk folds out from the wall, a support leg drops down (or brackets fold out), and a comfortable desk surface is available. You can even build the cable channels and secured equipment you need for a fast, smooth workspace transition.
4. Murphy Dining Tables
Murphy tables work much in the same way as the fold-out desks. Like other types of Murphy furniture, the table folds up into the wall instead of taking up space all day when meals aren't occurring. Murphy tables are most popular for kitchen and breakfast tables in smaller homes. If there's no room for a dining table or you have other needs for the space, a fold-out table is a perfect solution.
5. Custom Fold-Out Surfaces
When exploring the options of Murphy furniture, it's important to remember that customization is key. Not only can you have hidden doors and fold-away beds and tables, but you can also fold away other things. Kitchens are ripe with opportunity for Murphy-style upgrades. Why? Because you always need both more space and more surfaces. Slide-out cutting boards, extending island countertops, and secret cabinetry compartments are the essence of a versatile kitchen.
6. Secure Murphy-Hidden Enclosures
The last of today's uses for Murphy design is secure enclosures. Locked cabinets, hidden safes, and disguised valuables storage are all hallmarks of Murphy furniture design. You can hide a closet that contains valuables. You can buy a disguised secure gun cabinet. You can hide the location of your jewelry or valuable displays in the bedroom. Murphy designs are focused on security through both good carpentry and obscured appearance.
Customizing your home is an opportunity to enact all your best hidden door ideas about home building. Often, the best designs include hidden compartments and multi-purpose room designs. It's actually quite possible to transform a normal drywall-framed home into a fold-out masterpiece with some applied carpentry. Can you picture your home with a Murphy door? Contact us today to make it happen!
