Murphy bed. Hide a bed. When we hear those names we think, "Hidden in the wall," right? Not so with these hidden beds, as they pop out from here, there and everywhere. 

Our first entry, pictured above, lowers just like an elevator. As the retailer notes, there's no need to move any furniture when it's time to use it.

This next bed takes up more room than a ceiling bed, but it IS hidden. A shove of the bookcase reveals all!

This one is a home theater/bedroom combo.

Of course if you want to watch TV in bed, you're out of luck.

Here's another one from the same retailer as above. 

With the bed in the down position, the space looks like a traditional bedroom.

If only every college dorm room would look like this.

How about this crazy combo? A zipper foam-y thing that hugs bookcase cubbies during the day, only to be pulled apart and reassembled on the floor. Now that's a clever way to hide a bed. (I think it's totally DIYable, no?)

How about a Murphy bunk bed situation? As shown, the price on this one clocks in at $3,718.

Just so the fur-children don't feel left out, here's a Murphy just for them:

Okay, the bed isn't hidden for this next entry, but it was too cool not to include in our roundup. The bed in this home slides to the side and reveals a spa bath.

These next two hidden beds are made one-of-a-kind by their owners. Perfect for the sports fan:

 And for the Dr. Who fan:

And, finally, is this table turned bed. I spotted it an an antiques website. It was called the Ta-Bed, and, by the look of it, it was kinda genius. Of course, you had to stash the mattress elsewhere. 

Table to....

bed.

How to Reupholster a Hide-a-Bed

By Sheller Leer

A hide-a-bed was my first paying upholstery job. The funny thing was that I was putting a big blue plaid back on the sofa sized hide-a-bed. You can only imagine how I agonized over the plaid matching nightmare. When I met my husband, he owned this same type of Herculon plaid sofa hide-a-bed. I used to say you could drop a cheeseburger onto it and it would disappear. I mean this stuff NEVER showed the dirt. The downside was you had to live with the ugliness, unless you were willing pay an arm-and-a-leg, or tackle the reupholstery yourself. Local blogger and online bud, Beckie of Infarrantly Creative, just sent me over a fully photographed tutorial of her reupholstered hide-a-bed project.

It's much easier to move around it when you take out the bed mechanism.

Note her attention to the the detail on the front arms and on the side. Very impressive.

See it all right here. Thanks Beckie. I'm sure loads of people will now be inspired to tackle their ugly hide-a-bed.

Magic Sofa Bunk Beds 

Check out the absolutely fabulous magic Doc sofa/bunk bed available through London's Bonbon. According to the retailer’s website, they ship directly from manufacturers to customers all over the world, which is good news for us not in the UK. Contact Bonbon for more information, including pricing.