My friend Andrew Odom over at Tiny Revolution has just published the video below of his new roll out guest bed. With the help of Malissa Tack a fellow tiny houser and 3D grpahics Designer they together produced some great plans. He built a dual wooden accordion mechanism which opens up to become the bed platform and then the other one opens to be the bed support. Watch the video and then you go to Drew’s website http://tinyrevolution.us/ where you can download the plans for free!
Roll Out Guest Bed Plans
Simply brilliant! This idea would work for any small home and I’m so sold there’s no doubt this will be an addition when we build our guest house. A space saving design that works! I would like to see this design as a single bed option – other than that, it’s a winner!
The great thing about these plans Bob is they are not set in stone. Everything builds on the basic “box foundation” so you can build whatever size you need; both width and length. I would suggest finding your mattress first and then build the bed around that size.
Neat design. But. While it’s true that beds take up a lot of space, I hypothesize that the accordion design lends itself better to a table than a bed.
Rationale:Mattresses need to be kept dry and clean – and they need to be a certain thickness to be comfortable. The same thing is not true of a table.
So what should we do with our mattresses? I don’t like bumping my head on the ceiling of a loft ceiling. Nor am I thrilled about climbing down a ladder in the middle of the night to pee. My solution is to raise the bed 4-5 feet off the ground, put pull-out storage below, and call it quits.
Several possibilities…A.) inflatable B) or roll up (ie IKEA),
This is cool; combine it with a quality inflatable mattress and you could reasonably accomodate the occassional guest without having to go to a Murphy Bed or Futon or store a larger mattress somehwere else.
We use an inflatable air mattress almost exclusively on this. We hardly use the mattresses. We put a down mattress comforter on top and some soft sheets and voila! An awesome nights sleep.
Great idea!
Love this! I’ve always wanted a Murphy bed and this is close to it. Thank you for sharing.
I would love to download the plans for this bed which you say are free…..but there is no site to click on. Could you please email them to me.,Thank you
The link is right above the video. Here it is again http://tinyrevolution.us/2013/12/11/holiday-gift-tiny-revolution/
Quite Clever! Of course, I’d want to build extra support on the sides, as I’ve got some family members with a bit of *ahem* ‘extra to love’, but even that seems like it would be an easy addition!
I’m curious as to the weight load on this. Without seeing the bottom completely pulled out I’m thinking there is a lot of load on a small amount of wood? Just wondering if someone heavy lays on one side of the bed if it will topple? Or even if two heavy people lay on it will it hold them?
I would encourage you to watch the video carefully Mrs. K. The weight is not supported just by a piece of plywood. The weight is supported by the plywood which is supported and balanced by the bottom side panels that extend out accordion style. I know we have had 450 lbs. on it and there was no issue whatsoever.
This is the best idea for downstairs sleeping I have come across for a tiny home! I could see a small version fitting in the alcove of the fencl (old name) style for guests or even when you get too old or feeble to climb up to the loft! I could see making it so a desk could reach forward over the top to pull a chair up to also.
Great idea and i have never seen one like this before, i think that the small front box should come out when you pull the box, I mean the edges and the top of the box, this would eliminate sitting up in bed and falling into the box(which is the cover for the base) does that make sense, Any way the plans are free and can be custom made to however you want them, looks great.
Peter
Genius!
I love this alot…such a great set of plans. Thanks for sharing. I can envision an easy addition of a fold out table to the front adding one more layer of functionality.
Actually, something like this would be really easy to incorporate: http://diyworktable.blogspot.com/“
Cute and great idea. My husband said he saw a murphy bath tub on that American Pickers show, how that works I have no idea. Thanks Belinda
Thank you – I love this clever use of space (non-space)!
My husband and I had our own plans for twin beds on rolling platforms that could be pushed together to form a king bed. Now, we can go one better, by utilizing these boxes so two /hidden/ beds of can roll together and apart
(We’ll keep our original plan for sliding, fabric-covered headboards that hang from and slide together and apart on a wall rail.)
I thought the rolling beds would be a temp idea until we could afford Murphy hardware, but this is even better since it lets us utilize – and /keep/ or first idea!
This is a really nice idea. It is rare for someone to come up with such a fresh and innovative approach. Love it ! Gotta try it out on my next build.
Wonderful! I have been strugglung with the bed problem in my tiny space. This is perfect. Thank you for the gift of this idea.
Excellent use of space. Such a bright and cheerful man to show us his design. The video was great too 🙂 THANKS !!
I just want to thank everyone for your kind words and signs of support on this design. As I said in the original blog post (http://tinyrevolution.us/2013/12/11/holiday-gift-tiny-revolution/) it is loosely based on a design from a few decades ago that was seen in a woodworking magazine and then customized and built by my dad for my folks’ house. It was then further modified for a tiny house experience such as our guest house. That is the beauty of it though. It is a great foundation for you to build exactly what you need for your personal space. I encourage each of you to just go for it. Build and see what happens. And if you do? Please email us the photo(s).
We’re working on the design for a tiny apartment, and this is just plain AWESOME! And the idea of combining a flipdown table top above the rear storage chamber only makes the whole thing more versatile. Best design I’ve seen all year!
What a great idea! I love all things “tiny house” but also love hosting guests, so this is a great solution to living small but still letting them get a good night’s rest. The interior storage is perfect. Thanks so much for sharing!!
It’s only half done at the point where you say how simple it is. You still have to add the sheets and blanket(s) (and comforter) and pillows.
That’s where there’s an advantage with a Murphy bed. You can leave the sheets, etc in place and so you can go right to bed without all the extra hassle.
this is going into my kids rooms right now. there at the age where rooms is a big deal. I think it will help when they have Friends over to play xbox or something else.
Brilliant! Thank you for sharing!!
Awesome. Great presentation and video skills!
This is awesome!!! I am doing some research on how to build a Murphy bed on my home office, and watched this video. It’s just great, and it looks very compact (as opposed to the size of Murphy bed). I am trying to download the plans but an error (Bandwidth Limit Exceeded. The server is temporarily unable to service your request due to the site owner reaching his/her bandwidth limit. Please try again later. ) is coming up. Is there any other way to download it? (email maybe :))
Thanks for sharing!
What about removing the handle in front and puting a fold out desk or table then you could get three uses of it.storage,the table,and bed
Is there a weight limit for using this bed?
You know what, that is pure genius. I got to thinking after watching g your video, that would be perfect if you have two little kids and they share the same room. Have the boxes built separately, but put side by side, divided by a night stand. The kids have their play area and then at night when it’s bed time, they have their beds beside each other. Thanks for your awesome video.
THIS BED HAS BEEN MADE IN EUROPE FOR AT LEAST 30 YEARS AGO AS MY HUSB AND MADE ME ONE AT THAT TIME. ALL YOU TINY HOUSE PEOPLE SHOULD LOOK TO EUROPEAN DESIGN,LOTS OF SMALL SPACES. IT IS WONDERFUL TO SEE THIS PATTERN AGAIN.\