What it's Like Living with Wall Beds

Wall bed in the background by Amy Highton of Modern Nest Photography

This is an update of a post compiling the most common questions about living with wall beds. I’ve updated it answering questions about wall bunk beds and how they work in our new space. Don’t miss a special offer at the end of the post.

What wall beds do you have?

We have the base model Ulisse (Queen size) from Resource Furniture (linked to similar Penelope, the Ulisse is the more basic model with visible hardware) in the matte white. The kids have the Kali Duo wall bunks with the metal upper safe guards and grey headboards.

How much did your bed cost?

Honestly it’s been 9 years, I don’t remember the exact cost but it was definitely thousands of dollars and a big investment. I’m sure the price has changed over the years. You should ask Resource Furniture for a quote. You can also shop around for other options, I believe the wall bed market is growing, just be careful to ensure safety of mechanisms and installation. As always I recommend a professional installation to ensure the bed is safely secured to your wall.

While a wall bed is a big investment compared to say a new bed frame, we always thought of it as the investment of a second bedroom. A second bedroom in our city is a jump of $200-300,000 or about $500-600 more rent per month. When you compare the cost of the high end wall bed compared to the cost of moving and increasing rent or mortgage payments, the cost doesn’t seem as prohibitive. I’m still shocked our wall bed has allowed us to stay in our apartment for 7 more years! We initially thought it would allow us to stay for 2-3 years.

Will your children be crushed if you stepped away from the bed while putting it away? How do you ensure the children’s safety with the wall bed?

This question actually prompted this post. I assume that the reader’s experience with wall beds is the vintage versions that sort of free fall from the wall. This new version has pneumatic pistons so that it is easier to raise and lowers slowly. I can put the bed away or pull it down with one hand.

Also I like to think that I wouldn’t walk away while my kid is helping put away the wall bed. I haven’t yet ;). But even if I did, the bed would lower slowly onto them and stop when the legs came out so I doubt any serious damage would occur. There is also a fail safe on the bed so that you need to unlock the bed (far above child height) and then pull it again to bring the bed down. This feature also ensures that if the bed isn’t put away properly and locked, it still wouldn’t fall down. All I am saying is, us and the kids have definitely been hurt over the years but none of the injuries have been from the wall bed.

I was wondering what mattress you have that allows you to keep your pillows and bedding on when you close the bed? Do you like it? 

We purchased our mattress from Resource Furniture. I'm pretty sure we bought the most firm option as we wanted it to last a long time. We were really nervous about the whole wall bed concept and the store sold us on the idea that a traditional mattress would sag over time.  We are happy with our mattress though I can't say I am a mattress expert. I do wonder if another (more affordable memory foam mattress) would accomplish the same thing. I measured our current mattress and it is approximately 6.5" thick.  We've had it now for 9 years and it has held up very well and is still very firm.

Our bed is put away by making the bed and tucking the duvet around the edges. Then two straps are buckled across the bed to keep everything in place.

Also, what bedding/covers do you use in the winter that are warm enough and thin enough to be closed into the bed? We have a big down comforter, but I have a feeling that will need to be replaced.

We use a thin down comforter (with a Last Light Linen duvet cover) and my guess would be a big fluffy comforter might not fit or be hard to tuck in every morning. I would opt for a thinner comforter that offers similar warmth and comfort. Sometimes if it gets really cold we add our throw blanket from the couch as extra warmth but mostly we just crank the heat. Smaller apartments tend to mean lower electric bills.

Same for Theo (who is still in the bottom bunk) he has a thin down comforter (twin size) and one pillow that all folds away easily but keeps him warm. I just bought Ikea comforters as bed wetting and throw ups happen and I didn't wanting to be upset about a very expensive duvet. I figure we can invest in a better duvet in a few years.

We only use 2 pillows on our bed. I have tried fitting a third and it doesn't work. So my advice would be, just really like the 2 pillows you have  :)

We were also looking at the Kali Duo bunk beds for the children's room since we would like to have another child fairly soon. Did you get those mattresses from Resource, or did you find them elsewhere?

For the bunk beds we got foam cut to size at our local discount foam shop. The mattress sizes are a slim European so I couldn't find anything off the shelf. For the same reasons I didn't want to invest in nice duvet covers, we didn't want to invest in nice mattresses for the kids. We will upgrade when the kids get older and heavier but for now these mattresses are just fine and were a great way to save some money on a very big investment.

We...just invested in a wall bed.. YET I am having so many doubts! The bed is arriving in March and I keep worrying we're making our lives harder instead of easier. What do you and your husband do for nightstands? Your books next to the bed look great but what about alarm clocks, phone chargers, ear plugs (my husband snores), etc.? Our clothes are still going to be in the bedroom... where do you keep your PJs? And do you get your clothes out for the morning work day the night before? 

I totally understand your fears and nervous energy. I felt exactly the same way waiting for our wall bed to arrive (and similarly waiting for the bunk beds!). I can assure you from my perspective that all these fears subsided once we got our bed and most of the things you are mentioning aren't even considered a loss to me at this point. But let me address each point individually...

Nightstands - yes, we each have a floating shelf with a stack of books and a bedside lamp for reading. Trevor has a lot more electronics so he has one of those cord hiding boxes beside his side of the bed to safely stow those electronics. I just plug my phone in on the kitchen counter which is in reach of my bed and out of reach of the kids. My phone is my alarm clock too.

Clothes - our clothes are still in the bedroom. I try to take out my pjs before the kids go to bed or tip toe in after (risky move!!) . The only time this really bothers me is if I want to pack for a trip at night and I can't access my clothes. Also Trevor gets up for work early most days so he will usually take his clothes out the night before so he doesn't risk waking the kids. But usually if the kids are up, we are up and then we can access anything we need. It's the kind of inconvenience you get used to when living small that just becomes second nature. Update: Not much has changed in our new space as we still have one shared family closet. And we still walkthrough the kids room to access it.

Wall bed photo by Amy Highton Modern Nest Photography

Do you ever find it hard to sleep in the main living space? I struggled a lot with sleep in the first year of our baby's life and turning my brain off. I'm worried that sleeping next to the kitchen, the laundry closet, the living room clutter will make it difficult to relax. 

Clutter drives me crazy and I can't relax with lots of it either. So I clean and tidy before bed or after the kids go to bed so I can relax. Or sometimes I am so tired I just sleep even when the house is a mess.

As for turning off your brain... that is a constant struggle for me too. I figure it is for most people these days, Mothers or otherwise, in small spaces or big spaces. I have learned to do things to wind down after the kids have gone to bed that slow me down and help me fall asleep. For me it's reading a book, listening to calming music or a podcast (or watching Netflix with a glass of wine). And on the subject of music I definitely recommend having music or tv as background noise when the kids go to bed until you go to bed. This helps mask any louder noises you or your husband might make in your space.

Hope this helps!  And all you can do is try. Listen to yourself and your family and if the wall bed doesn't work for you, you can always move to a bigger place and use the wall bed in the guest room. I still think a wall bed is a great investment as so few of us will ever own large properties.

Why did you keep your wall bed in your new space, you don’t need it?

While we now have two bedrooms (or a large one bedroom and den), we knew we wanted to keep our wall bed. We had become accustomed to transforming our space and didn’t want to give that up. Honestly, we have become lazier about putting the bed away daily. Without the pressure of needing our living room back it can be harder to find the daily motivation. But where we do find the motivation is when the kids have play dates, we put the bed away so they have more room to run around. Also when we have people over we just find it makes the whole space feel bigger to put the bed away.

I’m sure we will find other uses for the space, potentially a home workout area. I did think I might work there when the bed is away but I preferred the lighting upstairs. If we ever found ourselves both working from home, one of us could work upstairs and the other downstairs with the bed tucked away. Anyway, the long-story short of it is our 900 square foot one bedroom and den feels ample to us and I believe that is from the flexibility of our wall beds. Whether we stay here long-term or find another space, I believe we will continue to view spaces uniquely due to the flexibility of an “extra bedroom” afforded us by this life changing purchase.

Oh and for fun here is my pinterest board of wall beds. I’m particularly a fan of integrated storag, bedside tables and millwork. I hope one day we can do that in our space.

How do you feel about the wall bunk beds now that you are in a bigger space?

The wall bunk beds were the best thing to happen to our 600 square foot one bedroom apartment. The kids room was quite small and the narrow bunks and the ability to fold them away made all the difference for staying in that space for years after our kids weren’t babies anymore. I remember when Mae was tiny, we could remove the ladder so she couldn’t climb up to the top bunk when we weren’t looking. I remember folding the beds away when we had lots of friends over so there was more room to play. I don’t regret the purchase. I would recommend them for a small apartment or a small room that is trying to be many things…. for example a kids room and a play room, an office and a guest room. The investment was worth those additional years in our small space.

Now in our new space, the beds aren’t solving any problems at the moment. Though as the kids grow and I need to split their room in two, it could make sense to keep the bunks on one side of the room for sleepovers and guests. The small overall footprint of the bed and comfort of sleep is unmatched in my mind. If you are asking if a wall bunk is right for your space, I would want to review your space but in my opinion, the investment only makes sense if you cannot fit a standard bunk bed in your space comfortably.

I hope that captures everything you have wondered about wall beds. If there is anything further please ask below. A few home tours with wall beds HERE, HERE and HERE.

Resource Furniture BC has kindly offered the code 600SQFT for 10% off wall beds. Mention the code when purchasing a wall bed through Resource Furniture (Vancouver location only). And as always, you can ask me anything about our wall bed experiences.