How to Build a Folding Bed

Someone renovating a vintage camper told me he is going to make a murphy bed using the hardware from a sofa bed. A thrift store sofa bed costs less than murphy bed hardware. Huh! That might work!

He asked for some photos of what the metal hardware inside my sofa bed looks like and how it works. I found instructions to build a bed that folds back up against the wall out of wood. That’s at the bottom of the post.

You often see a bed/dinette combination. The table legs telescope to slide up or down, then the bench cushions become the mattress.

I have slept on these and they aren’t wonderful.

This is another idea you see. A bed folds up against the wall.

Using the parts from a sofa bed to make a Murphy Bed

My friend’s son has completely gutted an old trailer camper. Among his many many ideas is to have a murphy bed. Murphy bed hardware he has found costs more than he expected, so he asked for some photos of what my sofa bed hardware looks like to see if it will work. I thought I would share it here, too.

After you take the pillows off, you pull up with this handle. It lifts easily, then pulls forward.

There are springs inside that make it easy to open with just one hand.

The straps help to support the mattress.

This is the way it lifts out at first, while it is still all folded up.

This is a closer view at the folded mattress and frame. You can see how the metal hardware slides and folds.

This is a closeup of the hinge over the leg support.

The bed frame is hinged to unfold and lock as the legs unfold.

This shows the hardware at a 45 degree.

I don’t know if this is going to work to fold up against the wall, but the metal mechanical parts ought to work somehow to do what you want.

This piece keeps the mattress in place.

This is with the mattress pushed to the side to see the spring supports.

There are springs on each side of the metal rods to support the mattress.

This is the hinges with the bed completely unfolded.

So, this is what the hardware looks like inside my sofa bed. It holds a queen-sized mattress. It was made by La-Z-Boy in 2005 or so.

These are probably the most important pieces. They are sturdy metal that holds each side of the metal bed frame onto the wood couch frame. They have springs to make it really easy to open and close the sofa. I am little and can do it easily with one hand.

This is the part that attaches to the sofa frame.

He plans to have the bed fold up against the wall, instead of folding flat into a sofa.

Before we settled on sofas, folding beds were put into a lot of different kinds of furniture. This bed folds up into a table. (I’m a little too “princess and the pea” for a mattress that thin.)

Here is an old plan for a folding bed. It was in the May 16 1904 Tacoma Times.

The top of the folding bed will make a good mantel. The back of the bed should be boarded up or well braced to keep it from racking. The “swivel,” or bold around which the bed turns to fold on, should be set as far forward in the end boards as possible, and the same distance up from the lower shelf. Thus the bed will partly balance itself, making it easier to fold up. By tying weighs on the short ends of the headboards, next to the back of the bed, it can be made very easy to handle. The two legs are fastened on with hinges, so as to fold up. The bed clothes can be held in place by canvas straps. The movable part of this bed consists of little but the two end boards and the front board with strips on the inside of these on which to rest the spring mattress.

A pretty curtain hung on a brass rod makes the bed when close an inconspicuous piece of furniture.