# Horizontal murphy beds: the answer for low ceilings and narrow rooms Horizontal murphy beds for Utah basements, narrow rooms, windows and soffits. Twin, full and queen sizes, horizontal with desk, and when sideways wins. Source: https://beehive-wallbeds.pages.dev/horizontal-murphy-bed/ A horizontal murphy bed folds down from its side instead of its head, so the cabinet is wide and short instead of tall and narrow. In a state where half the houses have basements and a lot of those basements have 7 foot 6 inch ceilings, that one change is what makes a wall bed possible at all. Here are the sizes, the rooms it solves, and the trade it makes. ## Horizontal sizes Size Mattress Cabinet width Cabinet height Depth closed Reach when open Horizontal twin 38 x 75 in about 81 in about 46 in 16 to 18 in about 45 in Horizontal full 54 x 75 in about 81 in about 62 in 16 to 18 in about 61 in Horizontal queen 60 x 80 in about 87 in about 67 in 16 to 18 in about 65 in Twin, full and queen are the real options. A horizontal king exists on paper but at roughly 83 inches tall it gains nothing over a vertical, so we do not recommend it. The mattress is the same 10 to 12 inch mattress a vertical bed takes, with no box spring. ## What you give up A horizontal bed needs wall width: 81 inches for a twin or full, 87 for a queen. On a 10 foot wall that is most of it. It also hinges along the long edge, so a horizontal wall bed with side cabinets grows wider still. If the room has a tall ceiling and a short wall, go vertical. If it has a long wall and a low ceiling, this is the bed. The other trade is headroom when you are lying in it. The open bed sits inside the cabinet frame, so the head of the bed has a cabinet wall behind it like a tall headboard. People who sit up to read in bed want the queen, where the cabinet top is a few inches above head height. ## The rooms it solves **The older Utah rambler basement.** A 1960s to 1990s rambler in Sandy, Murray, Orem or Layton usually has a basement ceiling of 7 feet 6 inches to 8 feet, with a soffit along at least one wall carrying the furnace duct. The ceiling at that wall can be 84 inches or less. A vertical queen at 87 to 90 inches is out. A horizontal queen at 67 inches is in, with 17 inches to spare. The [basement and ADU](/basement-adu/) page has the rest of that story. **Under a window.** Egress windows in basements sit low, and a lot of main-floor bedrooms have a window on the only free wall. A horizontal twin or full sits under the sill and the window still opens. **Under a soffit or a sloped ceiling.** Bonus rooms over garages in Lehi and Draper, and attic rooms in older Salt Lake houses, have a knee wall and a slope. A horizontal bed goes against the knee wall where a vertical bed could never stand up. **The narrow room.** A room 9 feet deep gives a vertical queen about 20 inches of walking space when open. A horizontal queen reaches 65 inches and leaves over 3 feet. The bed is the same size; it just points the other way. **The office credenza.** Closed, a horizontal full at 62 inches tall looks like a long credenza. With a bookshelf at one end, it is office storage by day. The [home office](/home-office/) page shows this layout. ## Horizontal murphy bed with desk A horizontal murphy bed with desk puts a fold-down or pull-out desk on the face of the cabinet, usually at the right end so the desk clears when the bed swings. Because the cabinet is already 81 to 87 inches wide, the desk can be a full 5 feet and the rest of the face holds a shallow shelf. The closed depth grows by roughly 20 to 24 inches like any desk bed. Where a vertical desk bed makes a tall tower, a horizontal desk bed makes a long counter, which suits a basement office under a low ceiling. See [murphy bed with desk](/murphy-bed-with-desk/) for the desk mechanism. ## Stacked horizontal twins Two horizontal twin murphy beds mounted one above the other on the same wall give you bunk beds that vanish. Each cabinet is 46 inches tall, so the pair is about 92 inches and wants a 9 foot ceiling. The [twin murphy bed](/twin-murphy-bed/) page covers the layout. ## What a horizontal bed costs The same as a vertical of the same size on the 2026 ladder: custom, built and installed locally, $4,400 to $6,500, and $6,500 to $10,000 with a desk or side cabinets. Shipped real-wood horizontals run $3,700 to $5,100 plus install. The flat-pack sellers carry fewer horizontals than verticals, and the ones they do are mostly twins. See the [cost](/cost/) page for what moves the number. ## Measure these two things Wall width at the baseboard, and the height from the floor to the lowest thing above the wall, soffit or duct or beam included. If the width is 81 inches or more and the height is 70 or more, a horizontal fits in every size. The [fit tool](/fit/) will tell you which. Send the room to the [estimate form](/estimate/) with those two numbers and a photo of the wall, and we reply the same business day with the size and orientation that fits. ## Questions people ask **How tall is a horizontal murphy bed?** About 46 inches for a twin, 62 for a full and 67 for a queen, closed. That is the whole reason to buy one. A vertical queen is 87 to 90 inches tall and a horizontal queen fits under a ceiling 20 inches lower. **How far does a horizontal murphy bed stick out when open?** The width of the mattress plus the platform: about 45 inches for a twin, 61 for a full and 65 for a queen. A vertical bed of the same size reaches 81 to 87 inches, so horizontal is also the pick for shallow rooms. **Can you put a horizontal murphy bed under a window?** Yes, if the window sill is above the cabinet top. A twin at 46 inches clears almost any basement window. A queen at 67 inches needs a sill at about 68 inches or higher. We check this on the visit. **Is a horizontal murphy bed harder to open?** No. The mechanism is side-mounted and the bed pivots on its long edge, so you lift a lighter load through a shorter arc. Most people find it easier than a vertical. --- Beehive Wall Beds: Custom murphy beds, designed in your home, along the Wasatch Front. Design and sales company; beds built by Utah craftsmen and installed by partner crews. Free in-home design visits. hello@beehivewallbeds.com