I really liked Eddie Valiant’s murphy bed in Who Framed Roger Rabbit. Looked like a nice set of filing cabinets. Pretty.
I lived in a studio apartment in Belmont Heights in Long Beach for a couple of years that had one. I didn’t use it. I’d say the apartment dated from the 1930s or so.
Back in the early nineties I stayed in a condo in Cape Canaveral for several weeks (business trip) - the condo had a Murphy bed and a fold out couch.
You can always buy the hardware.
Same site has related gear and instructions. (and a bazillion other Shineys besides…)
My parents have two, so rooms used for other functions can also be guest rooms. We are going to put one in when we remodel. They’re much more comfortable than sofa beds.
My husband and I slept in one in the historic General Palmer Hotel in Durango, CO. It was an odd experience.
There’s actually a Murphy bed store on the corner of my block, which is right across the street from Bloomingdale’s here in Manhattan. I’d think NYC is a perfect locale to promote Murphy beds – we all have too little space, and sometimes even a futon is too bulky.
I’m not discounting your setup but I have a futon doing exactlly that. It’s a nice couch when folded up and it even has storage underneath for office stuff. Of course, I can’t find it on the net but it’s a 4 drawer metal frame version of this.
We once looked at an apartment (1920’s era) that had a Murphy bed. Only time I’ve seen one in real life. I really liked the place (a 2 room plus a bath with French doors between the living room area and the bedroom) but we nixed it due to the neighborhood and it being a bit run down overall.
I think it’s a great idea IF the bed itself is a decent one. This one felt a bit like the worst fold out couch you’ve ever been forced to sleep on. But if done right…
No reason for the floor space to remain unoccupied and unusable during the day. Wouldn’t take very long to move furniture or other stuff to the sides at night and pull the bed down. I think they are a great idea for one room or small open lay-out dwellings.
Another favorite of mine is the pocket door. I love those.
I had one in an apartment, it was a full size bed. To put the bed down we had to move the coffee table up against the couch. When the bed was up, the room looked like a normal living room. It was comfortable, more comfortable than any futon or sofabed I have slept on. I liked it because making my bed was a snap, just make an even pile of pillows and covers and then lift up and close the door.
I am seriously thinking of building in a queen sized murphy bed so I can better use my bed room as a home office.
I had one in my 17.83 square meter apartment in Tokyo. The apartment had carpet and not tatami. It was part of a floor to ceiling wall unit of shelves and cabinets. I thought it was cool. I could fold it up when there was someone over and had a lot more room.
My parents had one in their Florida condo. The doors that hid the bed were mirrored, and the ends of the unit had shelves. The bed had the same fatal flaw of every sofa bed I ever slept on. There was a steel reinforcing bar across the bed right under the small of my back. When I got up the next morning, I couldn’t stand up straight. Dad told me, over coffee, that if I looked under “massage” in the local Yellow Pages, I’d have to call several to find one who wasn’t a thinly disguised prostitute.
For the rest of my stay there, I slept on a row of sofa cushions on the floor.
In old movies, getting folded up inside a Murphy bed was a popular sight gag.
I think that particular gag killed the Murphy bed.
I used to live in an apartment that had a closet where a Murphy bed was originally installed. It was pretty useless as a closet and I would have much preferred the additional bed. I have no doubt they are more comfortable than those horrible fold-up sofa beds, the type that have those two terrible metal bars across that stick right in the ribs of those of us who sleep on our sides. I did experience one, and only one, comfortable fold-up bed - this one had an air bed folded up inside and a built-in pump for inflation and deflation.
I had never seen one until recently. My company was at a fairly expensive, kind of old downtown Boston hotel for a department meeting and I got to look at a few different rooms. One of them had a murphy bed. I was blown away… never really expected that in a nice hotel.
Quite literally, in You Only Live Twice. 
We have a very nice one, installed in our city studio apt less than 8 years ago. The cabinet it folds up into is beautiful cherry wood, folding it up creates a living room (who wants to have guests over and have them sit around your damn BED? unless they are that kind of guest, I suppose…). Oh, and the ability to fold the entire bed up into the wall obviates the need to make the bed. At night we just shake out the top sheet & blanket and lay it down afresh. Bottom sheet of course stays attached to the mattress. (Which is a regular premium-quality extra firm mattress purchased from a standard mattress store, not some awful murphy-specific uncomfortable thing). Nice springs in it so you can lift it up into the wall with one finger, and when lowering it the springs take up the weight so it’s easy to lay it down without a thud.