Have you ever completed a DIY project, were proud of it, pinterest it, and, then you lived with it….Finally realizing…This sh—(stuff) ain’t workin for us!

Remember I had hacked an Ikea day bed, turning it into a trundle bed/ dog bed. Everything was going fine except one problem, “WE” were the problem.

It wasn’t a bad concept, and it was useful some of the time. We admittedly just got lazy, (like letting pups sleep on the comfy bench portion). Also it took up too much space in our little place.

Honestly I seriously started to miss the functionality of the old dog Murphy beds from our first home. This is also when I look over at the hubs, and say “you were right…you know your project obsessed wife was going to change her mind like 4 more times” then ask him sweetly to help me lug the daybed up into the guest house.

Some bleach, new mattresses…We have an actual bed again! Now on to recreating dog Murphy beds…

This time the design was going to be a cross between this…

And this…

We still had an extra Ikea mattress, and the piece of birch we used for “upholstering” the bench. I was hoping to piece the Murphy bed together with scrap wood lying around the house, when I found this…

Waited a week, they knocked it down to $49.90…Huzzah!
I had a frame/box that perfectly fit the twin Ikea mattress.

The only modification we had to make from the instructions was move the bottom/side a half inch to fit the piece of birch by re-drilling new holes.

Next came the front piece, which was pretty easy, just bought some pieces of birch the same 6ft length, and with finishing nails and wood glue attached them to the front.

Followed by staining the piece with minwax polyurethane & stain in pecan

The last part was the easiest, by adding a piano hinge.

And also a locking mechanism…

Overall you’ll noticed we set the piano hinge and front of the Murphy bed halfway in the box, to allow for more space on the floor when the bed is down.

Here is our final “Progress” pic, we’re still in the process of adding trim, etc to make it look less like a random box and more like a tall bar.

But oh how functional it is! Dog beds disappear! You can also re-create this side Murphy bed ikea hack as an extra bed for guests. Cause I guess that’s what most people would use a Murphy bed for. (Com’on you’re not all crazy dog mamas?!)

Happy Sunday everyone!

Psst…We’ve recently improved the design for our Side Murphy Bed, click here for more details.