Murphy Bed Renovation

Hey y'all!

I am finally getting around to making a post about our Murphy Bed reno! We have been living with the finished product for a little while now and we are TOTALLY in love with the transformation! BIG HUGE GIGANTIC shoutout to my dad, Carlos, who did all the brainpower, manpower and woodworking behind my idea!

First let me warn you that doing renovating a playroom will 100% chance cause chaos in the rest of your home for the entire project time. *OMG* However, I survive to tell the story.

A murphy bed is a very functional piece of furniture. We can have guests over and flip the bed right down turning it into a guest room in two minutes flat. The problem was it was such an eyesore and I had dreamed of giving it a facelift since we bought the house over a year ago. Here are some before photos:

Disaster Central, y'all.

Do you get anxiety just looking at the before mess? Because I sure do. Then you get used to it and it becomes just another thing you ignore (on top of the laundry that piles up all over the dining room!)

If you follow me on Instagram (@heycaitlyntorres) you know that it took time, patience, elbow grease and a lot of love to get the job done. We also had to wait to stain until the weather cleared up so that the toxic fumes didn't take over the house

I used KILZ chalk paint to paint the existing drawers and side cubbies. I bought it at my local Walmart. FYI - Painting this massive contraption with a roller brush takes a LOT out of someone. If you can work a paint sprayer, I would recommend it.

I bought the stain and hardware from Home Depot. I did some research and decided that Varthane - Briarsmoke stain was the exact color I had in mind. Some Home Depot's don't carry this stain so check before you decide to make something! The hardware was legitimately less than half the price of the ones I found on Amazon.

I really put my dad to work. He worked right in our garage and put his master carpenter skills to work. He used tongue and groove pine and 3/4" plywood from Home Depot for the doors. He measured his cuts and used a miter saw, a table saw, an orbital sander, a kreg jig, a compressor and a nail gun to get the cuts he needed and assemble them. As pops was working his magic, I was slaving away at the paint inside and simultaneously watching my kiddos. Intricate details on how to make the barn doors are foggy because my dad is a man of few words. -- Shameless plug: If you're interested in a custom build by Carlos, send me a message!

I got the oversized buckets at Home Goods around Christmas time for a super steal <$10 each. We keep the stuffed animals in there :)

Do you see that kids table by the window up there ^ ? Yep. That was one of the side projects I had inquired about mid project. He said he could "probably make what I had in mind with the scrap wood" and he nailed it! Every detail. Now it's custom to match the murphy bed.

Not only did this murphy bed project/facelift bring me utter joy ( #MarieKondo), it made this multipurpose room something to really be proud of and it finally fits in with the rest of our home. This project brightened up the entire room, created a ton more space by eliminating the door shelves, and forced us to re-evaluate the amount of toys we have and donate the less age appropriate toys we were still holding onto. It stays so much neater without the overwhelming amount of visible toys. And best of all, we can still have guests spend the night and store our toys in the most beautifully remodeled murphy bed on this side of the sun. This room now brings me so much peace! I actually take my laptop in there to do work while the kids play. I'm extremely grateful for all the hard work and effort that went into this project.

I'm giving my dad a little break before I ask him to replace the awful fan that's in there. (Hey dad, if you're reading, let me know when you're ready!)

BEFORE:

AFTER:

SHOP THIS POST:

With grace & gratitude,

Caitlyn