The hide-a-bed Guide to Wall Beds
What is a hide-a-bed?
A hide-a-bed is a bed which can be tipped up, or pivoted away flat against a wall, when not in use, freeing up valuable extra space for other uses during the day.
What are the advantages of choosing a hide-a-bed?
Unlike many other space-saving bed designs, such as sofa beds and z-beds, hide-a-beds are designed to pivot flat against a wall, without first having to be folded in half. This gives them two major practical advantages over most other space-saving bed designs.
i) Comfort: Because neither their bases, nor their mattresses need to be folded, well designed hide-a-beds can be used with a proper interior-sprung mattress of the same type and standard as those used on good quality conventional divan beds.
Advantage: A really comfortable night's sleep every night.
ii) Convenience: A good quality hide-a-bed will have been designed in such a way that there is sufficient space to leave all the bedding, including the pillows, in place when the bed is pivoted away. When the hide-a-bed is stored, the mattress and bedding are usually held in place by means of straps. This eliminates the need to strip the bed down each time it is put away/take up valuable storage space, elsewhere, for the bedding when not in use and to make the bed up again, every time it is required for use, as is necessary with most sofa bed designs.
Advantage: A high standard of convenience and substantial time savings, especially if used every night. Because well designed wallbeds will take a proper sprung mattress and can be folded away fully made up, they are ideal for REGULAR NIGHTLY USE in studio flats, for instance, or children's bed/playrooms, teenagers' bed-sitting rooms, granny flats, etc.
What to look for in a hide-a-bed?
Whilst there are numerous hide-a-bed designs around, many of them fail to provide the comfort, convenience and ease-of-handling available from a well designed model, even though they may look appealing in brochures.
Points of hide-a-bed design you should consider:-
Does it fold away complete with a proper mattress and all the bedding – including the pillows?
A good hide-a-bed design will allow sufficient space for a deep (20cms/ 9ins.) mattress, plus winter duvet, or blankets/quilt and pillows.A well designed wallbed will take a top quality interior sprung mattress, will store away complete with all the bedding and will be suitable for use EVERY NIGHT.
Does it have a good base?
Many Continental European hide-a-bed designs come with wooden slatted bases and, whilst these generally provide good lumbar support and are usually perfectly adequate for normal domestic use, wooden slats are breakable and are not recommended for more heavy-duty applications such as lettings, younger children who are likely to jump up and down on their beds, etc. Another disadvantage of wooden slatted bases is that they are better suited to use with foam, rather than interior sprung, mattresses. This is because, depending on the size and spacing of the springs in interior sprung mattresses and of the slats on the base, a situation can arise where some of the mattress springs fall wholly within the gaps between the slats and are not therefore supported by the base. This can result in excessive wear on the mattress and poor support for the occupant(s). Hide-a-beds are designed with steel slats which support a 'base-board' for maximum comfort ensuring the life of your mattress. The best bases combine strength and proper support for both the mattress and the occupant(s).
Is it quick, safe and easy to use?
Many hide-a-bed designs are based on having the ‘doors' of the cabinet in which they are housed, attached to the bottom of the bed. This looks good in catalogues, but has several practical limitations in use.
DISADVANTAGES of fixed ‘doors' (front panel) underneath the bed:-
(a) You often have to tuck ALL the bedding in meticulously, on ‘front panel' beds EVERY TIME you fold the bed away: By far the biggest drawback of having the ‘doors' (front panel) fixed underneath the bed is that, on many such designs, before the bed can be folded away, you have to go round and tuck all the bedding in carefully, along both sides and at the foot end of the bed, otherwise the bedding will become trapped between the front panel and the sides and top of the housing, when the bed is folded away. Catalogues featuring designs like this often only show pictures of the beds stowed (with the bedding tucked neatly away, or with no bedding), and folded down, (usually with a duvet, or bedspread deployed to cover the front panel and any unsightly ‘mechanism' underneath). Such illustrations imply that you can simply take the folded down bed, as pictured, and flip it away. This is usually not the case.
(b) Fixed ‘front panels' are prone to damage and can cause injury:
Because the front panels (doors) fixed underneath many wallbeds are normally somewhat larger than the wallbed mechanisms themselves, you end up with a sharp edge all the way round the bed, on which to bump your shins! It is also quite easy to damage the edges of these panels when the bed is deployed and to damage the underneath (front) of the panel, by lowering the bed onto something which has been inadvertently left in the way and which will then spoil the appearance of the ‘doors' when the bed is stowed away again.
(c) ‘Front panel' bed legs can be hazardous: Many wallbeds with a panel underneath have rotating front legs which stick out beyond the front panel at the foot end and are ideal for stubbing your toes on! In most cases these legs have to be operated MANUALY, with one hand, as you bring the bed down/stow it away again, with the other hand.
(d) ‘Front panel' housing widths are not flexible: Wallbeds which take a panel underneath need to be fixed through the sides of their housings. This means that they usually have to be purchased complete with housings, or that bespoke housings have to be produced to very precise dimensions, which cannot be varied.
(e) Many ‘front panel' models have weight problems: Attaching the ‘doors' of the wallbed to the bottom of the bed can add very considerably to the weight. This, in turn, can result in excessive demands being made on the counter-balancing mechanism used. The outcome is often that the wallbed is suitable only for use in conjunction light-weight mattresses and bedding or that, if used with a good quality sprung mattress, it becomes heavy to lift up and down. From a practical point of view, it is generally more satisfactory to have independent doors to conceal a wallbed, rather than doors fixed underneath the bed frame.
ADVANTAGES of 'foldaway' sliding doors:-
(a) They're much quicker to operate: Although you clearly have to open the doors before you can pull the bed down and close them again after the bed has been stowed away, this takes just seconds. You don't have to tuck the bedding in carefully, every time you want to put the bed away, as you often do with ‘front panel' designs. These beds can be stowed away with the duvet left hanging down the sides/end of the bed (as they would be on a conventional divan bed) and can also be used with box valances and other traditional bedding such as bedspreads, etc., which can all be stowed away with the bed.
(c) They're suitable for most situations: There are very few situations in which a hide-a-bed cannot be incorporated into a cabinet with independent doors:
Most situations involve hide-a-beds incorporated into a ‘run' – (i.e. a whole wall) of cabinets. Such situations lend themselves to use with hide-a-beds concealed by simple left- and right- hand opening doors, provided there is sufficient space to swing the doors out of the way. If the hide-a-bed is to be incorporated into a run of cupboards, we recommend that the doors concealing the bed open by at least 165 - 180 degrees – (i.e. flat against the adjacent cabinet(s)) or 'slide' into the bed cabinet (this would require 'folding' doors to reduce the length of the doors to enable them to 'dissapear'.
A variety of suitable hinges are readily available from hardware shops, including adapted ‘concealed' (kitchen unit type) hinges. This does not mean that you cannot access the adjacent cabinets, when the bed is down, ready for use. You simply swing the bed doors against the sides of the (lowered) hide-a-bed, access the adjacent cabinet(s) and swing the bed doors back flat against the adjacent cabinet(s), afterwards – (all in just a few seconds). Bi-fold doors are usually used to conceal wider (double) wallbeds. These are quite straightforward to construct – (the two panels being simply butt-hinged together from behind). They should ideally not be tracked, but should just be hinged off the sides of the hide-a-bed housing, since tracked doors tend to ‘bunch up' at each end and stick out at 90 degrees, in the way of getting into and out of bed, making the bed up, etc. Even in situations where there is just room for a hide-a-bed to be fitted between, say, a doorway and a return wall, subject to the appropriate hinges being used, independent doors are usually still the preferred choice.
(d) The size of the hide-a-bed housing can be varied at will: As the bed does not have to be fixed through the sides of the housing, the sides can be located at whatever distance from the bed is convenient, or appropriate, which makes this type of hide-a-bed ideal for incorporating into your own design of cabinet, to exactly suit your situation. If you are short of space you'll select a housing which fits fairly closely around the bed. Alternatively, space permitting, you could incorporate night shelves, or even night tables and inglenooks next to the hide-a-bed and within the housing – (all concealable, in seconds, by means of independent doors).
(e) There's quite a range of independent door designs to choose from: Apart from simple left- and right-hand opening ‘wardrobe' type doors and bi-fold doors (already mentioned), there are numerous other types of independent door systems to choose from. These include simple sliding doors, pivot sliding doors and other more complex tracked door systems – (not dealt with here). Sliding doors (often sliding mirror doors which can make a small room appear much larger) are quite a popular solution to concealing wallbeds. If you are planning to use sliding doors remember that the length of wall in question will need to be more than twice the width of the bed, (e.g. you will need a 305cm/10ft. long wall in order to conceal a 137cm/4ft.6ins. wide wallbed, by means of sliding doors). This is because the doors need to slide out of the way to allow a sufficiently wide opening for the bed to be brought down. Remember also that with sliding doors, when the bed is deployed, you cannot access the adjacent cupboard space, without first putting the bed up out of the way again. Although quite costly and relatively complicated, pivot sliding doors (of the type of used on many TV cabinets nowadays), which first open at 90 degrees and can then be pushed straight back into the housing itself, are becoming increasingly popular. Cabinets using this type of door often have ‘double' sides with space in between the two, for the doors to slide back into, when open.
Is it easy to install?
The simplest and safest way of fixing a hide-a-bed is to the floor. The best designed models can be fitted directly to the floorboards.
Can the hide-a-bed be used with a headboard?
Most ‘vertical' hide-a-beds lend themselves to being used in conjunction with some kind of headboard. Sometimes this is a conventional headboard mounted on the wall behind, but the best headboards are operated by the bed itself and are simple to construct and use.
How quick and easy is it to secure the mattress and bedding in position, for stowing away?
Various methods can be used to hold the mattress and bedding in place when the bed is folded away. Most hide-a-beds use some form of strap and, again, some methods are far more practical/quicker than others. Webbing straps with buckles which do up in the middle. Only one strap is needed to hold the mattress and bedding in place. When it's time to stow the bed away, retaining straps can be deployed in literally seconds.
Horizontal or Vertical hide-a-bed?
hide-a-beds come in both ‘horizontal' (sideways folding) and ‘vertical' versions, here are some tips on how to choose between the two:-
In general, the rule of thumb is to opt for a ‘vertical' hide-a-bed unless there is a really good reason for choosing a ‘horizontal' hide-a-bed instead. This is because ‘vertical' hide-a-beds have a number of advantages over ‘horizontal' hide-a-beds, namely:-
i) ‘Vertical' hide-a-beds use up less space along the wall, as they fold away widthwise, up the wall, as opposed to lengthwise, along the wall. They are therefore generally better suited to incorporate into a run of cabinets, along an entire wall, for instance. ‘Horizontal' hide-a-beds can also be incorporated into a run of cabinets, but this is more awkward to do.
ii) A ‘Vertical' hide-a-bed is usually accessible from both sides and from the end, making it easy to make up in the morning and enabling the two occupants of double ‘vertical' hide-a-beds, to get ‘in and out' on their respective sides. ‘Horizontal' hide-a-beds are more difficult to make up, as you only have access to the two ends and one side at best and, if the ‘inside' member of a couple needs to get out of bed at night, they will have to either climb off the end of the bed, or over their partner to get out and subsequently back in again.
iii) Because ‘Vertical' hide-a-beds have their head end against the wall, they are usually suitable for use with some sort of headboard. Unless ‘Horizontal' hide-a-beds are sited in the corner of a room, they cannot be used in conjunction with a headboard – (other than one which clips on when the bed is down and is removed again before the bed is folded away). There are however a few situations in which ‘Horizontal' hide-a-beds ‘have the edge'. These include narrow box rooms, dining rooms and rooms with sloping ceilings: - If you want to fit a hide-a-bed in the middle of a wall, in a narrow room, a ‘Horizontal' bed is the only option. The incorporation of a single ‘Horizontal' bed into a sideboard-type cabinet in a dining room is quite popular, particularly as the bed can usually be lowered, without the need to move the table and chairs. The other situation in which a ‘Horizontal' hide-a-bed is the preferred option is
where there is a sloping ceiling (in loft conversions, for instance) and there is insufficient height for a ‘Vertical' hide-a-bed.
Choosing The Right Mattress
We all know how important it is to buy the right kind of mattress. If a mattress is too hard, too soft, or just plain uncomfortable it can make for a long night, and the next day can be even worse. Bad mattresses can lead to back and neck pain, sleepless nights, and even long-term health problems. Selecting the mattress that works best for you is important.
As with all mattresses, you will want to find something comfortable. Mattress shopping really comes down to personal preference, so spend a few minutes lying on several different mattresses before you select one. There are two basic types of mattresses to choose from: innerspring or foam. Innerspring mattresses are the more common of the two, and these types of mattresses rely on wire coils to determine firmness and durability.
Generally, the wider the coil, the firmer the mattress will be. Foam mattresses, on the other hand, have no coils, and are made up completely of foam. These mattresses have become more popular over the years, especially with memory foam available.
If you decide to go with a foam mattress, keep in mind that the quality of the foam can make a big difference in comfort and support, and prices can vary widely with these mattresses. Either of these mattress types can work for your bunk bed; again, it’s really a matter of personal preference.
With both innerspring and foam mattresses, one of the biggest components that separates a good mattress from a bad one is the padding on top. Some mattress manufacturers refer to this as the “comfort layer,” and this is really a fitting name. Having sufficient padding to separate you from your mattress springs can make all the difference in comfort with an innerspring mattress. Good padding is also a must if you opt for a foam mattress. Soft, quality padding will give you the comfort for a restful night.
With both innerspring and foam mattresses, look for padding that is soft and thick. Lie down for a while, give both mattress types a try, and see what feels good. It’s also important to note the material of the top layer of the mattress, or the quilt. Quilts with cotton blends are known for allowing the mattress to “breathe,” and this can lead to more comfortable sleeping and a longer-lasting mattress.
Finding a good mattress is not hard to do, and you should make it a priority. A comfortable mattress that offers good support will be your best option, and will assure you many restful nights.
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