Anyone who knows me knows that I'm an art lover.  I collect it, I make it, and I hang it everywhere!  For a while my house looked like a hap-hazard art gallery, with pictures placed wherever I could find some spare wall.  After my previous entry about clutter bugs, I took a look around my place and decided that perhaps I needed to take some of my own advice.

I went through taking down the many pieces I had in the strange places I had them until I was left with pure white bare walls.  It felt a bit awkward at first, but after the day went on, I began to enjoy what I call the "blank canvas".
My "blank canvas" was painfully apparent behind my large couch, where a wide open space continued to stare at me.  Although I'm a fan of large art, I don't have much - especially nothing in the right shape to fill that vacant space.  So what did I do?  I decided to fix it up with some nice cluster art.

Cluster art is a wonderful way to fill some space and display various images together.  I also love it because I don't have to stand there with a level making sure that everything is perfectly lined up.  With that said - I also didn't want to attack my wall, filling it with holes as I figured out what piece would go where - so I began this project by fanning my desired pieces out on the floor in front of the couch.

It took me a good 20 minutes, but after moving some pieces around, adding some, and changing out others, I finally had my desired arrangement.  This was the perfect way to fill such an oddly shaped space!  Most of my pieces were still on display - and the ones that aren't, well I know what I'm going to do with them now, I think I caught cluster fever!

My camera is elsewhere at the moment so I searched online and found some excellent examples of cluster art at it's best.  Here you go!

Twenty or thirty years ago, if you would have used “Murphy beds” and “style” in the same sentence, I probably would have thought you were crazy. 

I have to say that I’m not overly impressed with how the Murphy beds from 30 or more years ago look, even if I consider the styles and fashions of the day.  Most of the time the bed cabinet did not match the room and it stuck out like a sore thumb.  Come to think of it, that might have been part of the reason for the relative obscurity of wallbeds during the latter 20^th century. 

But times change, and with those changes has come a rebirth of sorts for the ubiquitous Murphy bed.

Today, the new Murphy bed is not only technologically improved but some companies are moving away from the old, non-customizable DIY kits and are now into creating what works (and looks!) best for their customer.

So, to give you an idea of how a Murphy bed can be stylized into a room, I’ve included a few pictures with this article.

For the first example, I have to say that having matte Lucite^© inserts on the doors enclosing the wardrobe closet to either side of the Murphy bed is one stylish way to put a bed into the room.  Plus, it still leaves plenty of space for other activities during the day.  Using crown moldings and raised panel doors give the unit a richer, more traditional kind of look and having it fit precisely from wall-to-wall gives it that truly custom built-in look that today’s homeowners really want.

This next example illustrates taking full advantage of the space in the room for dual purposes – home office by day and bedroom by night!  Check out how the style of the room is Timeless Modern and how the style of the Murphy bed fits right in, regardless of whether the bed is opened or closed.  In my opinion, the bed cabinet and the surrounding furniture blend in together beautifully making this a wonderful design.

If you don’t want to go the route of having extra cabinetry surrounding your new Murphy bed, that doesn’t mean that you can’t make it look great.

Creative choices like having the stain color on the wood of the cabinet match the wood flooring color, having the unit tall enough for the crown moulding to meet the ceiling, raised panel styled doors, and the right choice of door handles all combine to make this unit stylistically fit into this room as well as it does physically.

As soon as I saw this photograph, I knew that I had to share it! 

It is a simple and elegant design for a child’s room, utilizing decorative crown moulding mounted all the way to the ceiling to give the unit that much desired, built-in look.  The open shelving keeps the unit feeling light and airy. 

The small and large arched handles in brushed chrome add to the simplicity theme.  The star-shaped and knobs on the drawers are “oh-so-cute” and add a sense of fun for this kids.

By using a beautiful bright white melamine to hold the queen sized wall bed, it makes cleaning up after the little one much easier too. 

What is “flex space”?  It is space that can be used for multiple purposes – like a room that is an office during the day and a bedroom at night.  Flex space is a key concept being utilized in many of today’s new and existing homes. 

For example, as children grow up and leave the nest, the parents typically no longer devote the use of whole rooms to their children and end up reapportioning their abode. They use the emptied spaces for hobbies, a home office, a study or any number of other uses.

But what happens when the kids come home for the holidays?  Are the kids expected to sleep on the couch, the floor, or some local hotel?  Not when the parents planned ahead and embraced the flex-space concept when they remodeled the room.  By including a Murphy wall bed in the re-design of the room, this type of situation is very conveniently handled. 

The “empty nest” situation is not a requirement to take advantage of flex space either.  You might be single with limited living space or a couple that likes to entertain friends and have them stay overnight just so that they can make the long trip home refreshed from a good night’s sleep.  The reasons and situations that can benefit from owning a Murphy bed are as varied and unique as there are people.

The Murphy bed is not a new solution, but an older one reborn.  Wall beds can be hidden away when not in use, and can drop down to convert the room into spare bedroom when needed.  Modern technology and custom design techniques make aesthetically integrating the Murphy bed into the room not only attractive, but functional as well.

So, if you’re thinking about ways to take advantage of the available space in your home, consider flex space – and Murphy beds!