Nspecial section furniture
By Christina Guerrero
WHETHER YOU LIVE in a small apartment
or you want to make the guest room into
something you can utilize more than once a
year, a wall bed just might be what you are
looking for to transform that area into a
multi-use space.
“Traditional beds can occupy a large percentage of the available space in a bedroom,”
says Martin Tardif, vice president of sales for
Bestar, a wall bed supplier for Costco. “A wall
bed allows someone to fold the bed out of the
way when it’s not being used to reclaim the
space for other purposes.”
Wall-bed origins
Known as Murphy beds, closet beds, disappearing beds, fold-down beds and pull-down beds, wall beds, which fold up into a
wall or a cupboard, were traditional furniture
pieces sold through department store catalogs
in the early 1900s.
“During the Industrial Revolution in the
United States, there was a large in;ux of
immigrants into the cities,” Earl Dozier, vice
president of sales for Bed & Room, a wall bed
supplier for Costco. “Housing was expensive,
and in most cases the space people could
The Costco Connection
A variety of wall beds, air mattresses, futons
and cots, as well as traditional, trundle and
bunk beds, can be found at Costco.com.
a;ord was relatively small. Out of
necessity they had to make the
most out of the space they had.”
Dozier says wall beds fell out
of popularity as the country recov-
ered from the Great Depression,
and especially a;er World War II,
when families began migrating to
bigger houses in the suburbs.
Now, with more professionals living in the
city, and space at a premium, the trend of living in less square footage has increased wall
beds’ attractiveness.
Wide-ranging appeal
Wall beds appeal to people who live in
small apartments and need to use their traditional bedroom for several purposes. ;ey
likewise have fans among owners of larger
homes who want to turn an extra bedroom
into an o;ce or an exercise, sewing, music or
cra; room. People are also using wall beds in
vacation properties to maximize the number
of beds, while not restricting the living space.
Also, families with multilevel houses where
none of the bedrooms are on the ;rst ;oor are
using wall beds for family members who can’t
go up and down stairs easily.
“Wall beds are once again a fun feature in
the home,” Tardif says. “Millennials to baby
boomers see them as a cost-e;ective solution
to limited space.”
Old idea, modern features
While the functional and space-saving
bene;ts of wall beds have remained constant,
the materials, ease of assembly and safety features have improved. ;is all aids in the raising
and lowering of the bed, as well as preventing
the bed from springing closed.
And along with opening in the traditional
orientation, many wall beds are now built with
attached storage, desks and entertainment centers and in a sideways-oriented design, which
reduces the bed’s height so that it can be used
in rooms with a restricted ceiling height.
“;e attraction of a wall bed is that the
space easily transforms between bedroom to
any number of these choices, and just as easily
transforms back,” Dozier says. “When closed
the bed can blend into a living or dining
room, while at night the bed easily deploys,
o;ering the guest a good night’s sleep on a
regular mattress.” C
An old trick made new again
Inset: Bed & Room Porter
full landscape wall bed.
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In our digital
editions
Click here to see
a clip of a wall
bed demonstration.
(See page 14
for details.)
Top and bottom: Bestar Audrea
queen wall bed with two 25-inch
storage units in Tuscany color.
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