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player ready...It’s hard to look at a wall bed without thinking of the Three Stooges. Whenever Larry, Moe or Curly opened a closet containing a wall bed, it was only a matter of time before the wily contraption either landed on his head or snapped shut, swallowing the unsuspecting Stooge.
The beds have improved a lot since 1900, when W.L. Murphy introduced the original. For one thing, they have come out of the closet.
Instead of sacrificing storage space, the beds today can be stashed in a cabinet attached to a wall unit with a handy desktop and credenza. Or the beds can be used as room dividers in lofts and one-room efficiencies.
More importantly, today’s frames are built to support conventional mattresses in the size of your choice for more comfort than the old sleeps-like-a-sofa-bed variety.
And you need not worry about the bed snapping shut with you inside, says Charles Williamson, advertising manager for Minneapolis wall bed manufacturer Sico Inc.
“The beds will not raise up by themselves,” he assures. “They won’t even go down by themselves. You have to pull them all the way down.”
Most of Sico’s wall beds are sold to residential clients, Williamson says. People who work out of their homes can put a hidden wall bed in a home office and have the room serve guest and office functions, he says.
Sico has two types of wall bed systems to choose from, the Room Maker and the Eurobed. The Room Maker can be attached to the floor independent of a wall or cabinet. The Eurobed has a wooden slat design that must be attached to a wall or cabinet. Either can be recessed into a wall.
The beds can be bought with a face panel to mask the underside of the bed and provide a surface for artwork, wallpaper or paneling. Or you can order a bed-in-a-box with a custom cabinet built to your specifications.
Traditional furniture buyers may opt for a wood finish with a raised panel design. Those looking for something more contemporary might prefer a sleek laminated surface in a bright color or granite finish.
A basic frame (twin or queen size) without bedding or surrounding panels costs about $1,200, Williamson says. Installation is left to the customer, who can hire a handyman or tackle the job himself using the instruction booklet and video provided.