Murphy bed room size calculator
A wall bed is two different objects. Folded up it is a cupboard, and almost any room takes it. Folded down it is a bed reaching seven feet into the floor. This checks both, from the same drawing.
Waiting
—
Enter your room and your cabinet to see whether it works.
| Check | Verdict | Figure |
|---|
- Smallest room, bed down—
- Floor left past the bed—
- Ceiling this cabinet wants—
Drag the cabinet to slide it along its wall. It stays fixed to the wall you chose, so there is no turn control — use the wall buttons instead. Objects can be focused with the Tab key: arrow keys move the focused object, and the [ and ] keys turn it.
Wall to wall, left to right on the plan. Type 12' 6" if you like.
Wall to wall, top to bottom on the plan.
Floor to ceiling, measured where the cabinet will stand. This is what stops most vertical wall beds.
Across the front, the way it sits on the wall. Side cabinets and trim are extra.
Floor to the top of the closed cabinet. Not the mattress length.
How far it sticks out from the wall with the bed up. Published figures mostly run 16 to 21 inches, more with shelves built in.
Wall face to the far end of the bed. Longer than the mattress, because of the frame and the fold-down leg.
Clear floor you want beyond the foot of the open bed. Around 30 inches lets you walk; below that you turn sideways.
Room to stand the cabinet up and fix it to the wall. Makers quote two to five inches. Only asked for a vertical bed.
What this assumes
- The cabinet stays on its wall. A wall bed is fixed, so dragging slides it along the wall you picked and nothing else. Change the wall with the buttons.
- The open bed is drawn as an object, not as clearance. It is a solid block on the floor in front of the cabinet, because that is what it is. The dashed band past it is the walking space you asked for.
- The bed is drawn as wide as the cabinet. A real mattress is an inch or two narrower on each side. Taking the cabinet width is the safe way round.
- Height is checked against the cabinet only. Makers size the cabinet to hold the swing of the bed, so the cabinet height is the number that matters. A light fitting, a fan or a sloping ceiling in that space is invisible here.
- Nothing else in the room is counted unless you measure round it. A radiator, a skirting board, a door that opens inwards and a rug all take space this plan knows nothing about.
- Fixing is not part of the verdict. Whether your wall will hold the thing is a question about studs, blocking and floor fixings. No plan can answer it.
How this calculation works
- Cabinet on the wall
- Swing the bed down
- Add walking space
- Check the ceiling
room depth = reach into the room + walking space
Two sums, run separately. The floor sum starts at the wall the cabinet is fixed to and measures out. Folded up, that is the cabinet depth. Down, it is the full reach of the bed. Whatever is left over is compared with the walking space you asked for.
The height sum is its own thing, and it is the one people miss.
ceiling = cabinet height + gap above it. A vertical cabinet
has to be tilted upright during the fit, and fixed through its top rail,
so it wants a few inches of air. A horizontal cabinet is fixed lower and
swings sideways, so it only has to fit.
What each verdict means
Fits means the object is inside the walls with the space you asked for. Tight means it is inside the walls but short of walking space, which plenty of people live with. Doesn't fit means something goes through a wall or is taller than the ceiling, and no amount of tolerance fixes that.
| Bed | Cabinet W × H × D | Reaches out | Smallest room | Ceiling |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Twin, vertical | 44 × 82¾ × 16⅝ | 81⅞ in | 3' 8" × 9' 4" | 7' 2" |
| Twin XL, vertical | 44 × 87¾ × 16⅝ | 86⅞ in | 3' 8" × 9' 9" | 7' 7" |
| Full, vertical | 59 × 82¾ × 16⅝ | 81⅞ in | 4' 11" × 9' 4" | 7' 2" |
| Queen, vertical | 65 × 87¾ × 16⅝ | 86⅞ in | 5' 5" × 9' 9" | 7' 7" |
| Twin, horizontal | 80 × 47½ × 16⅝ | 44⅝ in | 6' 8" × 6' 3" | 4' |
| Full, horizontal | 80 × 62½ × 16⅝ | 59⅝ in | 6' 8" × 7' 6" | 5' 3" |
| Queen, horizontal | 85 × 68½ × 16⅝ | 65⅝ in | 7' 1" × 8' | 5' 9" |
The closed answer is not the answer
Folded up, a wall bed is about as deep as a wardrobe. Sixteen to twenty-one inches, on the figures makers publish. Almost any room takes that, which is why the closed check nearly always passes and why it is not worth much on its own.
Down, a queen reaches about seven feet three inches out from the wall. In an eleven foot room that leaves about three and a half feet to walk past the foot. In a seven foot room the bed goes through the opposite wall, and the plan will say so. Flip the drawing to "down" and watch the block grow.
Ceiling height is what usually kills it
Queen vertical cabinets are published at roughly 84 to 88 inches tall. Standard ceilings are 96. That sounds like plenty until you measure your own: basements, loft conversions and older flats are often well under eight feet, and coving takes another inch or two.
You also have to get the cabinet upright in the first place. It is assembled flat and tilted into place, so a ceiling that clears the cabinet by a whisker can still make the fit awkward. That is what the gap above the cabinet is for. Two inches is the tightest figure quoted, five the most generous.
When to turn it on its side
A horizontal wall bed swaps one problem for another. The cabinet drops to around 68 inches tall and the bed reaches only about 66 inches into the room. Both of those help a low, shallow room.
The cost is wall. A horizontal queen cabinet is about 85 inches wide against 65 for the vertical one. That is seven feet of wall instead of five and a half. Load the two queen presets in turn and the plan shows the trade directly.
Measure the reach, not the mattress
The figure people get wrong is how far the bed comes out. A queen mattress is 80 inches long, so 80 inches of floor sounds right. It is not. The frame, the head end and the fold-down leg add six to nine inches, and the published projection is measured from the wall face. Take it from the spec sheet, and if the cabinet has a thick back panel, measure from the wall.
Common questions
How much floor space does a Murphy bed need when it is down?
A queen vertical bed reaches roughly 86 to 89 inches out, so about seven feet three inches of floor. Add what you want to walk past the foot of it. At 30 inches that is around ten feet of room depth in total.
What ceiling height do you need for a Murphy bed?
Measure the cabinet, not the mattress. Queen vertical cabinets run about 84 to 88 inches tall, and you want a few inches above that to stand it up and fix it. An eight foot ceiling takes most of them. A horizontal bed only needs the cabinet to fit, which is usually under six feet.
Is a horizontal Murphy bed better for a small room?
It depends which dimension you are short of. A horizontal bed reaches about five and a half feet into the room instead of seven and a quarter, and its cabinet is about five foot nine tall. In exchange it eats around seven feet of wall. Short room, horizontal. Short wall, vertical.
For the reasoning behind these numbers, and how to measure your own wall before you order, read how much space a Murphy bed needs. If the room turns out to be big enough after all, check what an ordinary bed would do to it with the bed size room fit calculator.
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