How to Build a Hidden Guest Room w_ a Murphy Bed

Today , I'm working on a really fun project .

I'm calling a hidden guest room .

What's a hidden guest room ?

Well , you're about to find out .

All right .

So I'm in about a 10 by 12 bedroom and this is a pretty typical bedroom size .

Now , this space needs to be used as a guest room for when company comes over .

But company only comes like maybe five or 10% of the time , the rest of the time the room could have another function .

So my idea here is to hide the guest room portion .

I eat the bed , the nightstands behind a hidden wall .

So when guests come , we open up the wall , open up the nightstands , instant guest room while only sacrificing about two ft to hide my guest room .

I'm now going to have a completely multi purpose space .

My contractor friend Ben is going to be helping me out throughout the entire process .

It's kind of a custom build , but you can take everything that we're doing here and translate it into your space .

First step in this project is to take measurements and we have a lot of different measurements that we need to take to determine how big we build our wall and also to make sure that it can be done .

So the first thing that you need to know is the size mattress you're going to use , we're going with the queen mattress from blows .

That means it's 60 by 80 .

So the first thing I need to do is make sure that I have enough space along this back wall that our width will accommodate for that .

So then what do we have ?

One 13.5 ?

So the mattress is 60 inches .

You want to make sure that you not only have enough room for the mattress , but also for people to walk and get to the bed on either side .

So we'll have enough .

Now , the bed is 80 inches long .

So we just want to make sure that when it's folded out , we're gonna come to be plenty of room in this space .

All right , and the final measurement that we need to come up with is how far our full wall is going to come off .

I only need to come about 20 inches .

I have plenty of clearance .

I'm not blocking the window and that wall over there is solid .

So I have no issues there as well .

Those are the measurements and the things you need to consider to make sure this project will work for you .

Now , we're just going to start marking our measurements on the left and right walls and using a level to make sure that our lines are straight .

We're finished up with our measurements and now we're going to move on to the build .

So I have a rough sketch here of what the wall is going to look like .

The bed is in the center right here .

And then I have some built ins on either side that are going to be seen all the time , whether it's in guest room mode or not , we need to start this build out by building the bed frame .

And this is really important because within the faux wall , the bed has to be able to open and close into the wall .

So we need to make sure that when we stud it out , we know exactly where to put our studs want this wall to look as seamless and hidden as possible .

So what we're doing is building a frame that will case around our mattress for our standard queen .

We're going to be building this 60 by 80 so that the mattress will drop right into it .

My mattress is 10 inches deep .

So I'm going to make my sides about nine inches just so that the mattress sits just above the lip .

So we're going to use just plywood for the edges and the back and then one by material for the slats .

Now , it's important that you use finish plywood for this .

If you think about it , when the bed is up in the wall , the plywood is actually going to be our wall .

So you want to use something that has a really nice finish to it .

All right .

So we finished up the plywood for the frame of the mattress .

Now , we use two pieces of plywood as we needed to and this seam here , we'll get to that later when it's in the room .

Now , what we need to do is lay this down and add slots that will support the mattress .

So we finished up the frame in the box that will hold the mattress .

And you kind of need to think of this almost like a platform bed because there's no box spring .

So these slats here or what's going to support the mattress , right ?

And then this brace in the middle helps support the slats and acts as a nailer for the two sheets of plywood on the back , so they don't slide past each other .

Yeah .

And now that this is fully built , we know the exact dimensions of it .

We can go in and frame out the wall , leaving a space for this to be added in later to frame out this wall properly .

What we need to do is to remove the baseboard and the crown molding , the studs need to sit flush against the wall .

So , Ben is using an oscillating tool to cut through the baseboard and then to remove it .

We're using kind of a combination of a utility knife , a mini little pry bar and a hammer and that way we can just pop it right off the wall .

We'll do the exact same thing with the crown molding up at the top .

Definitely want to make sure that you take the time to cut along with the utility knife first that you don't damage the ceiling .

Now , you can tell that a little bit of dry wall peel happened here .

That's ok .

This is all gonna get hidden behind our faux wall .

So while we wanted to be careful of the ceiling , and we were , the wall down here , doesn't matter quite as much .

So we are going to start framing out our wall and we are gonna start from the bottom and work our way up .

This is gonna act as our base plate .

We're gonna add a bottom plate and the top plate up on the ceiling so that we can frame out our studs .

Now , Ben , why are we starting at the bottom and working our way up ?

We're going to start with the bottom plate so that we can mark out where our studs go find the center , center , our mattress and lay out the studs from there .

We're using 2.5 inch screws doing two screws about every 16 inches straight down into the floor .

Now to install our top plate , then use the level to create plum lines on the left and right to make sure that our bottom plate and our top plate are aligned .

All right , we have our top plate and our bottom plates installed .

And now what we need to do is find our center point .

When framing out this wall , we need to remember that we need to leave an opening for our mattress and frame .

So to do this , we're marking our center point and then adding our studs that will go on the left side in the right side of the mattress frame and then filling in from there .

So , Ben , what's our center ?

Right around 57 a half , 57 a half inches and the frame that we built for our queen size mattress is 61 a half inches .

We're going to add an extra inch to the left and right of that to allow for clearance as we're framing out this wall .

One really important thing to remember is that not all studs are created equal the ceiling in the floor , very likely are not level .

So , what we need to do is actually measure each individual stud and then cut it to that exact size .

And then we'll put the studs in exactly where each one goes .

All right .

The next step with framing and our build is to add these plywood pieces to the left and right side .

And this is gonna do a couple of things .

It's gonna basically close off our opening when the bed is down .

Also , it's gonna add structural stability for our pivots that we're about to install .

So we're just going to attach these with a couple of nails and then scare them with some screws too .

You also notice that we notched around this two by four in our plywood .

So we tacked it into place , but now we're gonna add just a few extra screws to give it added stability .

Now we're ready to install the bed frame and the pivots that are going to be the mechanism that help open and close the bed .

And then down here , Ben has installed a temporary bracket that will hold the bed when we bring it in and work on the pivots .

This is at the height that I want the bed to be at when it's open and out .

All right , we're just sticking a couple of pieces of leftover plywood up here and we're gonna put just a temporary brace so that while we're working on this , we're safe and it doesn't fall down onto us now that our bed is in place and temporarily held up there for us while we're working on it .

What we need to do is to add the rotating mechanism , basically the pivots or what will act as a hinge for when the bed opens and closes .

So to do this , I have a flange inch and a quarter pipe and a cap .

We're gonna be putting these together and then running it through the side .

So , Ben , how is this gonna work out the flange here will attach to the bed frame and then we're just gonna drill a hole through the plywood that we installed and the whole bed will just pivot on this pipe .

Yep .

And we're actually gonna install them about six inches from the bottom .

And now that the holes are drilled for our , it , we were able to take off our safety brace up here because we're going to open the bed up and we need to attach the flanges onto each side .

All right .

Now , we know exactly where to put the center of our flange because when Ben went through with the whole saw , he let it score this wood just enough that I can tell where my dead center mark is .

I am marking my plan so that I can go ahead and pre drill each of these .

So our flanges are attached so now we can close your back up and thread the pipe through .

All right , the tricky part now is that we need to re line up our flange and our hole so that we can put our pipe through .

So you may need to shim it a little bit .

We're just putting a little shim under here .

So the Ben can kind of get two lined up now that the flanges are on , they stick out beyond the actual frame .

That's why we added the extra one inch to both sides when we were creating this opening .

So now that the pivots are actually holding this bed in place .

This brace , we won't need anymore , check it out , check it out .

Awesome .

It's great .

So our pivots are working great .

They are actually holding the weight , holding this end in place and you'll notice that it's not quite level , that's ok .

We have some legs coming later that will level out the bed , that'll be kind of towards the end of the build .

But what we can do now is finish our framing .

So when this bed is closed up , we need to finish framing out the wall there .

And we also need to do a little bit more work in the framing to get ready for our shelves that are gonna go in on either side .

All right .

So we're reattaching our safety brace just so that we can continue working .

And now we're gonna frame the header above the top of the bed before we finish framing out the wall .

We're actually going to pause for a minute and build some custom shelving .

I wanted to have open , built in shelving on the left and the right side of this bed that you'll see when it's in guest room mode and not guest room mode .

Now , we are using a one inch pre primed to build this .

We're just gonna do kind of a basic rectangle with some shelves in it .

If you wanted to buy a piece of furniture and just set it into the wall , you could do that as well .

So we're tacking our shelves in place and then using a square to make sure that our shelves are going to be straight and level .

We have our shelves and our basic structure .

We need to add a plywood back .

We're gonna tack that on again , using the nailer .

Ok .

So the back is on and now when we stand it up , I want to add one more thing to this and this is kind of part of the hidden guest room functionality .

I have one extra shelf here and Ben's notched out a little hole here for me , reason being is that we're gonna attach this here with the piano hinge so that when we're in guest room mode , we can open this up and it will act like a nightstand .

Alright .

This is ready to go so we can install it and finish framing around it , pop this guy in , ok .

So we've got a stud on the top and bottom here so that it can rest at the height that I want it to .

One thing to keep in mind before attaching is that we don't want to keep our shell flush with the studs .

There's gonna be a piece of finished plywood over these studs .

So it's helpful to use a cheater piece so that , you know , exactly , let's see how to keep it flush .

Now , we're pretty much done with our framing .

So we're going to come through with our finished plywood case everything out to hide everything , basically mimic what we have going on here with the back side of the bed .

Odds are that somewhere in your hidden guest room wall , you had an outlet and that's actually awesome if you do because I want to be able to have my guests able to charge their phones at night and plug in a lamp , things like that .

So what we've done is drill the hole through the back of our shelving unit and we were in an extension cord with multiple outlets on it .

But the thing to mention is we can't stop there .

That wouldn't be up to code .

You can't just bury an outlet , so you need to have an access panel for it .

So I chose a very low profile location on the inside of the bed and then we cut out a square that we can cover up with an access panel that's spring loaded .

This part of the project is all about making our guest room actually hidden right now , there's definitely some visible seams in areas where you can tell that we've built a wall and hidden a bed .

So right now we're working on trimming the outside of the wall and around our built in shelves .

I have a second method that we're gonna use to actually trim out where the bed is .

So we'll get to that in a minute .

But for all of our trim , we're just using one by pine material .

We're almost done with this build , but we still need legs for the bed to level it out when the bed is open for these legs .

We're using five quarter pine .

We're drilling through the five quarter pine , then the bed frame and attaching the two together with the carriage bolt .

We're tightening the carriage bolt tight enough that it's very secure but loose enough that the pine can also pivot when it's not in use .

There's a few seams where the plywood are meeting that we don't plan to cover with molding for those areas .

We're just giving it a quick coat of spackle .

So the wood looks seamless when we paint it .

Let me show you how it actually functions .

So when you're lifting it up the legs pivot back in and then we left enough clearance .

So that left and right side , we're good .

So to secure this , we're actually going to use these really large eye bolts .

We're gonna thread it through the shelving through our framing and into the side of the bed frame and it'll hold it securely in there .

When our are in this bed is secure , we don't need to hold it .

It's not going anywhere .

It is very secure .

But if you want to open it up and turn it into a guest room , it's helpful to have two people view it on either side , thread out your eye bolt , bring her down , give it the legs , let's set her down .

We need to finish this up and get it ready to style .

So we're gonna fill in any holes and cracks with spackle and cock .

Then we're gonna paint the entire thing that will really make it all look very seamless .

And we'll have a guest room , a hidden guest room .

We've given everything some time to dry and now we're gonna start working on the non permanent part of this bill and that is hiding our openings here .

There's still some seams that have to be there to make this bed functional , but we want to hide them up because the whole idea is to make this as hidden as possible .

So , what we're going to be doing is continuing to frame out the bed with molding .

But we're going to actually hatch it onto the wall using industrial strength velcro .

We're going to apply it to the backs of the wood and to the surface .

So we're gonna use scissors and just cut short pieces and put a few pieces on the back of each of our molding .

Give it 15 minutes to adhere and then you can pull it right on and off when this is going to be used as a guest room , you'll come up , take it off , slip it underneath the bed and there you go .

And just like that , we've got ourselves a guest room and a pretty awesome looking one too .

It's crazy to think that all of this functionality and style basically hidden behind the wall .

I know this project is a little different and kind of outside of the box or outside of the wall depending on how you want to say it .

But I would love to know what you guys think of it .

If you are going to create a hidden guest room , what would the second purpose be for your space ?

Would it be an office ?

Would it be a workout space ?

Leave a comment below and let me know and remember as always , all the products and tools used throughout this entire project are linked below .

Thanks guys .