Off the top, I've been a professional cabinet & furniture maker for 20 years. I've built Murphy beds previously with other systems, but this was the most comprehensive How-to manual I've seen with high quality hardware at a very fair price. (My project is more elaborate than the guide provides for but was designed client specific.)To meet client design expectations already established, I had to deviate from the instructions here and there but the instructions were so well thought out that it made it easy to do that and maintain critical measurements.A Murphy bed is a considerable undertaking for a novice but I believe anyone willing to take it on would be successful if the instructions were followed to the letter.I have 2 more to do and this is my go to product now.

This is a quality product. The pistons, legs and brackets are solid. The hardware functioned properly on the first try. Parts are clearly labeled. The parts list and cut list are precise. Thanks for designing this for beginners.These are the most thorough instructions I've ever used. When combined with the multiple videos on the web page, they provide a clear path to completion. Pay particular attention to the warnings. If the instructions or videos warn against skipping a step or recommend a helper, follow their instruction.Lessons learned construction phase. If you don't have a large work surface, at least 4' X 8', I recommend some simple saw horses and 2 X 4s. It will speed up your work on the bed frame. Double and triple check your cut dimensions. If you're not using a table saw, you must use a quality rip guide for your circular saw to keep the big pieces square. Any rip cut on the cabinet that is off will show up during final assembly. I made a small error and it created a gap on the upper left cabinet. Because many of the edges are visible, a new saw blade for your circular saw, miter saw, or table saw is a good idea. Errors compound and there isn't much tolerance. When drilling holes for the hardware, attempt to keep the walls of the hole perpendicular to the surface for good seating. Always use a backer board when drilling through. Birch plywood splinters and chips without a backer. If you're using Baltic Birch or any 3/4" plywood do not scrimp on edge banding material or the trimmer. Buy a quality product with good adhesion. Sand all your edges before banding. It's much easier to do this big work in a garage away from the room if possible.Lessons learned assembly phase. Clear out the entire room. I attempted to work around a desk and added time to the project. It's very easy to get mixed up on header and footer when gluing the bed frame to the cabinet. Triple check which side gets the 3/4" gap. This was a major error I made that almost derailed a bunch of work. I was able to flip everything (luckily) and keep moving. The instructions recommend drawing a line on the cabinet to outline the 1/2" side gap and the 3/4" gap on the footer. This is the only deviation I made. After messing this up, I brad nailed 1/2" and 3/4" leftover plywood strips to the cabinet. This forced the bed frame to fit properly and will immediately show you if your cut dimensions were wrong. The construction glue they recommend is unforgiving. You will not easily remove any pieces of the bed frame from the cabinet without damaging the product. When installing pistons, you may have to really move the cabinet back and forth to get them to seat. Your partner needs some strength to help do this. The shim step during anchoring is critical! Buy a quality stud finder for the 5/16" anchor bolts. You need to know where center is.I'm an amateur woodworker with decent skills and this project was physically hard. I'm also a bit older. There is quite a bit of lifting, twisting, cutting, moving and assembling that requires physical strength. Part of this was moving parts from a separate garage on the fourth floor to a first floor condo. The construction phase took about 20 hours and the assembly phase 15 hours. Another individual painted and took about 6 hours. Buying lumber etc. was another couple hours. Home Depot delivered so this helped.Definitely not easy but a great value for experienced DIY folks.

Great kit, if your handy its pretty easy to follow.

The hardware came with detailed instructions, tips, and recommendations. It's an awesome DIY kit. The finished product is really what you make it and I am very happy with mine. Perfect for my guest room X secondary X spare room. Would recommend to friends and family and anyone looking to build a murphy bed :)

I’m going to rate this product in three parts.READ GENERAL EXPERIENCE BEFORE YOU BUY1) Hardware2) Instructions3) General ExperienceHARDWAREThe hardware that comes in this kit is solid. The lift pistons, pivot plates, screws, etc are solid. They are high quality, and I have no doubt in my mind that will last for hundreds if not thousands of cycles. I am a little skeptical on the plastic washers and spacers, but only time will tell. They are painted in black and have nice weight to it. 5/5INSTRUCTIONSThe instructions are extremely clear. It comes with 3 booklets. First booklet is what cuts to make, second is instructions to assemble different pieces, and third is final mounting. The dimensions are exact, the instructions are very clear, and overall everything is well written. There are areas for improvements, but they’re so minor that I can’t deduct points from.GENERAL EXPERIENCEThis is something you have to be honest with yourself. Will you persist when things get tough? Are you handy that you’re not scare to use a saw, drill, stud finders, etc? The instructions cite that home depot will do the cuts, but realistically they probably won’t. I used a table saw and circular saw to do all the cuts and it took longer than I wanted. As expected my garage was dusty until I did a deep clean. I sanded everything, primed, sand again, and painted to get a nice finish. It probably took about 30-40 hours for 2 people to build 2 Murphy beds. We enjoy the work and we are very handy. It was exhausting. If you don’t see yourself committing, buy a prebuilt they will be worth every penny. If you’re excited for the adventure go for it. It’s not entirely an easy process, beware.Overall, I loved it. The beds look great. Got to spend sometime with everyone involved. Painted the beds just how I wanted them. Everything came out to my liking (or at least I couldn’t blame anyone but myself). Worth every penny if you are down for the challenge.

Very detailed instructions on how to build and cut everything. I modified the cabinet to accommodate a mattress that is 14" thick (there max was12") and a 7" deep shelf behind it. I was concerned it would be to heavy to close and open but to my surprise it is easy to close for me, however my wife technically can close it, it's a lot more difficult for her. I also have 3/4 MDF panels that they don't recommend because it's heavyer. I would highly recommend putting a floating shelf instead of the metal legs the kit comes with. It will support the bed more and will not bend over time.

I returned the horizontal double to Amazon when I saw it wouldn’t work in my space. Then bought the vertical double directly from the company ($20 less and faster delivery).The finished project is great, fulfilling all expectations. There are a few places—not serious—where I goofed up. The making was harder than expected. I found it difficult to predict which aspects required the utmost care in relation to others. E.g., the position and squareness of the bed frame on the panels is crucial. The installation of the pistons was much easier than the instructions made it seem.Getting the plywood cut at Home Depot imposed a restriction of 9” on any width, which meant using my home table saw a lot. Most of the crosscuts were not accurate within 3/16” and that made a difference in assembly. There was a lot of leftover plywood. Cutting the twelve 1-1/2” bed supports from plywood instead of buying pine will save you $80.Another time I’d use 1/4” fir plywood under the mattress where the more expensive hardwood veneer plywood isn’t needed. There are several places where the video provides useful assistance not in the manuals such as using a hand screwdriver instead of electric drill. (I cross threaded two nuts).I’d suggest using something like a one-coat polyurethane on pieces before assembly for the sake of convenience. And handles that are fastened from outside with screws (see pic) are preferable as they can be put on at the last. In my town Lee Valley has the recommended self drilling screws; Home Depot does not.Finally, I am in my eighties and worked entirely without a helper. Do a lot of assembly at the site of installation so you don’t make the unit too heavy to move.P.S.I wonder why they don’t make the upper back panel of one piece with the back of the topper instead of two separate pieces. They abut anyway.

This is a very nice DIY kit if you are thinking about building your own Murphy Bed. I was a little hesitant about the price of the hardware, but it is high quality hardware that I do not worry about breaking. The pistons are high quality and when the bed was fully assembled, it took about 40 pounds to hold the bed down. About the weight of the mattress. I would not say that this project is for the faint of heart as it does require some woodworking skills and tools too complete, but, if you take your time, read the directions and use the "measure twice, cut once" methodology, you will have a great piece of furniture to be proud of. The directions are thorough with good photographs and the instructional video is helpful too. Make sure to watch the video, don't think your "too skilled" for it.If you have some woodworking skills, you can certainly tweak things a bit to make it your own. The plans do not come with a full top shelf, just an empty space, but even the horizontal queen is over your line of vision so you cannot see it. But to make things fun, I built a top shelf on it to put trinkets and stuff on. Plus, it makes for a cool secret hiding spot!Here are the tools that I used for my bed.Contractor table sawSkill SawMiter sawDrill (drill press is handy if you have one)Jig sawSanderLots of ClampsThis took me about 2 months to complete, mainly because I have a small shed for a show and I was working with the weather. I would say in total I put close to 10 full days (I mean at least 8 hours) to build this. Please see the pictures attached.