San Francisco–based designer Alison Damonte has the same outlook when it comes to basement guest bedrooms as she does TVs: If you don’t want anyone to know it’s there, there’s always a way to hide it. Of course, it’s much easier to disguise a black screen (a simple tapestry will do!) than it is to camouflage a full-size mattress. That’s where Murphy beds come in. But there is more to this magic trick than just buying the hardware that lets you to store it vertically against a wall.
Damonte, along with local architecture firm Level Design, was tasked by her clients to transform their unfinished basement into the ultimate flex zone; somewhere their teens can hang out during weeknights and guests can sleep when they come to town. She knew from the get-go that a Murphy bed was a necessity, so she went online and browsed Resource Furniture, a brand known for its design-focused and small-space–savvy wall beds (many of them come with integrated sofas, dining tables, and desks). In the end, she went with its rotating LGM design, which is clad with open shelves.
