Beds are like thrones. Situated front and center (with royal Egyptian textiles, of course) the price of your square footage just doubled. That is, unless you have a Murphy bed.

Telemaco 90, vertical wall bed unit.

Developed over one hundred years ago by William L. Murphy, the modern Murphy bed (also known as the “wall-bed”) began as a practical piece of furniture. It allows for your area to be used for living and sleeping with the disappearing act of your bed into a cabinet built into your wall. Present-day Murphy bed companies, namely CLEI UK and Moddi, attract individuals looking to both revitalize their small space while adding a state-of-the-art piece of modern furniture to their collection.

CLEI UK, based in London, uses modular shelving and cabinetry to flawlessly disguise your wall-bed. Going above and beyond the call of duty, their vertical wall bed systems, swivel vertical wall bed systems, and horizontal wall bed systems leave no room for doubt. I suppose that dwelling in London – a city whose cars alone cost approximately 30% more than list price with UK’s “congestion tax”- helps create variations of any space-saving technique given their tight quarters.

Moddi offers a very popular do-it-yourself method. Being easy on the pocketbook and to construct, a Moddi system realizes the utility of a Murphy bed without the bells and whistles. Not to say it is any less classy: the tile-like wood cabinetry of Moddi looks less like a hidden bed and more like larger-than-life gameboard. This fact alone is reason enough for a giant tic-tac-toe shindig.

Building a murphy bed all by yourself is now easy thanks to Moddi.

In each case, substantive mattresses are sized to preference- twin, double, queen, or king- and unlike the foldable hotel trundle, they aren’t wafer thin.

CLEI UK and Moddi aren’t just another company or two looking to get a piece of the modern furniture market. They’re the bedroom coup d’etat we’ve been waiting for.