Murphy Bed With Storage: How It Compares to Cabinet Beds and Loft Beds

A Murphy bed with storage is a wall-mounted or freestanding bed that hides into a cabinet during the day and includes integrated storage drawers, side towers, or headboard compartments. Compared to cabinet beds (which double as chests) and loft beds (which free the floor below), Murphy beds give back the most floor space because the bed itself disappears vertically.

Having a hard time fitting everything into your living space? Compact urban living and smaller home footprints have made multi-functional furniture mainstream, and beds with built-in storage are the single highest-leverage piece. A Murphy bed with storage lifts the sleeping surface entirely off the floor and adds drawers or side towers inside the same footprint, so the room serves two purposes without two pieces of furniture.

Our cabinet Murphy beds from Night and Day Furniture and Arason combine the lift mechanism, the sleeping surface, and built-in storage drawers in a single freestanding piece, available alongside the rest of Archic Furniture's whole-home range. Here is how Murphy beds with storage compare to cabinet beds and loft beds, where each format earns its place, and which configuration suits which room.

Why Murphy Beds Are Inherently Storage Beds

The Murphy bed is, by design, the original storage bed. When closed, it stores itself vertically inside a wall cabinet or freestanding chest, recovering the full bed footprint as usable floor space. That is the first kind of storage. The second kind is the integrated storage that modern Murphy beds add inside the same footprint: rolling drawers underneath, side towers flanking the bed cabinet, headboard compartments above, and shelf systems built into the wardrobe surround.

The brand named for William Lawrence Murphy patented the original counterbalanced wall-bed design in the early 1900s, and the engineering tradition since then has consistently added more storage into the same piece of furniture. According to NAHB analysis of Census Survey of Construction data, the median size of new single-family homes fell to a more-than-decade low of 2,191 square feet in 2023, meaning each room has to work harder. Murphy beds with storage answer that directly: bed function, storage function, and free floor space, all in one piece.

The demand for space-saving furniture is no longer just a city-apartment trend. Compact homes, condo conversions, and multi-purpose guest rooms are all pulling toward furniture that combines functions. Beds with built-in storage are the single most space-efficient option in that category.

Wall Beds: The Original Murphy Bed With Storage

The wall bed is the format most people picture when they hear "Murphy bed." It folds vertically into a cabinet anchored to the wall, lifts off the floor entirely when closed, and recovers the full bed footprint as usable space during the day. Wall beds maximize space efficiency because nothing about the bed remains on the floor when stored.

Modern wall-bed systems extend the storage beyond just the bed cavity. Side tower cabinets flanking the bed hold linens, clothes, books, or office supplies. Pull-down desks fold out from above the bed. Bookshelves wrap around the bed cabinet. The complete wall-mounted system can fill an entire wall with storage while still functioning as a bed at night.

The downsides are real. Wall beds need to anchor to wall studs, which makes them less suitable for renters. The installation is more involved than placing a freestanding cabinet (often professional). And the upfront price tends to be higher than cabinet bed alternatives because of the larger cabinet system. For homeowners who can drill into the wall and want maximum floor recovery, the wall-bed format remains the strongest option.

Cabinet Beds: Murphy Beds With Built-In Drawers

Cabinet beds are the most renter-friendly version of the Murphy bed concept. They are freestanding, so no holes in the wall, no anchoring, no permanent installation. The whole unit ships as a credenza or chest that opens into a queen or full sleeping surface. Inside the cabinet, the mattress folds in three sections; outside, the cabinet face often hides a large rolling storage drawer at the base.

The cabinet bed range at Archic from Night and Day Furniture and Arason includes models with single bottom storage drawers, models with side compartments, and models that double as TV credenzas (the cabinet top holds a flat-screen television while the bed is stored inside). Construction is solid hardwood with tri-fold gel memory foam mattresses sized to the cabinet.

Daytime, the cabinet bed looks like a chest or credenza and functions as bedroom or living-room furniture. Nighttime, the cabinet opens and the queen sleeping surface unfolds. The storage drawer holds bedding, pillows, or guest-room supplies. Some Arason Creden-ZzZ models include integrated USB ports and an electrical outlet at the base, so a guest can charge devices without searching for a wall socket.

The trade-off is footprint. A queen cabinet Murphy bed footprint sits in the 13 to 25 square feet range when closed (deeper for TV-credenza style cabinets), versus 10 to 15 square feet for a wall-mounted Murphy bed cabinet. The cabinet stays in the room whether the bed is in use or not.

Loft Beds: Leveraging Vertical Space

Loft beds take the opposite approach to space saving. Instead of folding the bed away, they lift it up. The sleeping surface sits elevated above the floor, and the area underneath becomes usable for a desk, lounge zone, dresser, or storage.

The format works particularly well in dorm-style rooms, kids' bedrooms, and small studio layouts where ceiling height is generous but floor space is not. A loft bed with a desk underneath turns a single bedroom into both a sleeping zone and a working zone, similar conceptually to a Murphy bed with storage but without the daily fold-and-unfold routine.

A few things to consider when choosing a loft bed: ceiling clearance (at least 30 inches above the mattress for sitting up comfortably), guardrail height, and ladder or stair construction. The sturdier the ladder and guardrails, the safer the bed for nightly use. Loft beds also do not fold or store, which means the bed itself takes up the same footprint whether it is in use or not (the floor below is what gets recovered, not the bed area itself).

Storage Capacity Across Bed Types

How much storage each format actually offers depends heavily on the specific model and add-ons, more than the format itself. A bare-frame loft bed offers no integrated storage; a fully-built wall-bed system with side towers and headboard cabinets can hold an entire bedroom's worth of clothes and linens.

For practical comparison, our cabinet Murphy bed range gives a directional answer for two of the three formats. A typical cabinet Murphy bed includes one large rolling storage drawer at the base that fits a full bedding set with pillows. A wall-mounted Murphy bed system with side towers can extend that capacity by an order of magnitude (the side towers function as full wardrobe cabinets). Loft beds vary the most: a bare loft bed offers only floor space below, while a loft bed with an integrated dresser, desk, and shelving offers complete bedroom storage in a single piece.

Storage features vary with the model in each category. Specific things to look for when comparing Murphy bed with storage options include: integrated drawer count and dimensions, side tower availability, headboard compartment options, USB and electrical outlet placement, and finish options that coordinate with existing bedroom furniture.

Murphy Bed With Storage vs. Standard Storage Bed

A Murphy bed with storage and a standard storage bed (platform bed with under-bed drawers) both add storage to the bedroom, but they solve different problems. The Murphy bed reclaims floor space when not in use. The standard storage bed adds drawers to a bed that always occupies its footprint.

Choose a Murphy bed with storage when the room needs to serve two functions, when you want to reclaim the bed's footprint daily, or when the bedroom doubles as an office or living area. Choose a standard storage bed when the bedroom stays a dedicated bedroom and the only goal is replacing dresser drawers with under-bed drawers.

Conclusion

Space-saving is more than a luxury in compact homes. It is the difference between a bedroom that feels cramped and one that breathes. Beds with built-in storage solve the problem in three different ways: Murphy beds lift the sleeping surface off the floor entirely and add drawers or towers in the same footprint; cabinet beds hide the bed inside a chest with a built-in storage drawer; loft beds elevate the bed and free the floor below for whatever the room needs most.

Each format has its strengths. Wall-mounted Murphy beds give back the most floor space daily, with the most storage when paired with side towers. Cabinet Murphy beds match most of that benefit without the wall installation, which makes them the renter-friendly choice. Loft beds work best in rooms with tall ceilings where vertical clearance is the strongest asset.

Browse Archic Furniture for furniture across every room of the home to find a Murphy bed with storage that fits your room and budget. Free shipping on orders above $199 and 0% APR Affirm financing on qualifying purchases.

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