Our modern, historic mahogany “Murphy” bed + a bit of furniture history

The Oakview project was a dream job on many levels, as we had a chance to collaborate on many of the cool elements featured in this new home.

One of those was the “Murphy” or “wall” bed that the clients requested for their only guest room. At Dark Horse, we love the challenge of using seamless design to make the most of a space, and it was a kick to create our own version of what may the most famous home space-saving invention ever.

So who was Murphy? 

A Smithsonian magazine article from a few years back summed up the history of the Murphy bed:

Inventor William Lawrence Murphy (1856-1957) began tinkering with hideaway beds while living in a one-room apartment in San Francisco in the late 19th century. He was falling for a young opera singer, and courting customs at that time would not permit a lady to enter a gentleman’s bedroom. But according to family legend, Murphy’s limited finances and a strict moral code didn’t spoil his chance at love. His invention allowed him to stow his bed in his closet, transforming his one-room apartment from a bedroom into a parlor. The couple married in 1900.

Murphy beds even made their way into movies and cartoons. The sight of one snapping back up into its hiding place before the sleeper has a chance to get out of it has a lot of comic/sight gag possibilities, as noted by Design Sponge in its detailed look at the Murphy beds (not to mention cabinet beds and piano beds):

Perhaps the reason the Murphy bed stills hold such fascination is the bed’s comedic potential. One surefire way to get a laugh? Fold someone into a Murphy bed! From early Charlie Chaplin (watch Chaplin battle the Murphy bed in the 1916 short One A.M.) to Popeye’s battles with a tiny mouse in Shuteye Popeye (1952) – a Murphy bed gets laughs. The bed even has dramatic potential – James Bond was shut up in a Murphy bed in You Only Live Twice (1967) (watch Sean Connery’s close encounter with a Murphy bed in the movie’s trailer here).

On the flip side, this Mental Floss piece on Murphy beds features a bizarre, tragic twist from the historical footnotes:

After the San Francisco Earthquake and Fire of 1906, the beds were placed in many new and rebuilt buildings to maximize space (according to Gladys Hansen, a curator at the Museum of the City of San Francisco, some of the beds already installed in the city folded up violently during the quake, injuring their occupants and killing at least one).

In 1989, courts ruled against Murphy’s grandson in a case centered on use of the name “Murphy bed.”

According to the New York Times, “… the judges, in reversing a lower-court decision, also said that many people had come to use the term Murphy bed ‘to designate generally a type of bed.’ The dictionary says a Murphy is ‘a bed that may be folded or swung into a closet.’ Thus, the judges said, ‘Murphy bed’ has become a generic part of the language that cannot be owned by anyone.”

The Dark Horse version

Our modern version of the Murphy bed or wall bed was part of the clients’ plan to have one of their rooms do triple duty — storage, guest room and kids’ play room.

We worked the bed into a wall of cabinets that are topped by small bookshelf nooks, and if we did our work well, no one would guess the secret that these cabinets hold.

I can honestly say we enjoy just about all of the projects that come our way — even if we do five kitchen projects in a row, each one brings unique challenges — but it’s always nice when a project brings something unexpected that you’ve never tackled before.

There’s one detail that makes this project a piece of history in addition to being a crafty use of space: The bed and surrounding cabinets are crafted from mahogany rescued from the cancelled US Navy PT Boat program.

Several upcoming projects call for Murphy beds, so I think it’s safe to say that William Murphy’s  influence is still going strong.

~ Chris Dehmer