# IKEA does not sell a murphy bed. Here is what people find instead. IKEA does not sell a murphy bed. What the search turns up instead, why the Pax wardrobe hack exists, and the honest alternatives at every price in Utah. Source: https://beehive-wallbeds.pages.dev/ikea-murphy-bed-alternatives/ "Murphy bed IKEA," "queen murphy bed IKEA" and "wall bed IKEA" are searched in Utah every month, and the honest answer is short: IKEA does not sell one. Here is what you actually find when you look, why the hack projects exist, and what a real wall bed costs at each step up from there. ## The short answer IKEA does not make or sell a murphy bed. If you search for one you will land on three things: IKEA sofa beds and daybeds, blog posts and videos about turning an IKEA wardrobe into a wall bed, and third-party retailers hoping the word IKEA brings you to a flat-pack bed of their own. None of those is a murphy bed from IKEA. Knowing that saves an afternoon. ## What you actually find at IKEA **Sofa beds.** A couch that unfolds into a bed. Cheap, easy to carry home, and the mattress is a thin pad on a metal frame. Fine for a few nights a year. **Daybeds.** A twin frame that doubles as seating and often pulls out to a wider bed. The frame takes the floor permanently, so the room never gets its space back. **Wardrobes.** This is where the hack comes from. A tall wardrobe frame is the right size and shape to look like a murphy bed cabinet, and it is far cheaper than one. ## Why the hack trend exists The gap between a few hundred dollar wardrobe and a four thousand dollar wall bed is wide enough that people try to bridge it themselves. The usual project is a Pax wardrobe frame, a murphy bed mechanism kit bought elsewhere, a plywood platform for the mattress, and a weekend. Some of those projects turn out well. The people who do them well tend to add a plywood back and reinforced sides, anchor into studs with lag bolts, and spec a mechanism for the real weight of the mattress. The ones that go badly skip one of those steps. The issue is not the brand. It is that a wardrobe is engineered to hold clothes on a floor, and a murphy bed cabinet is engineered to carry a mattress and a spring or piston mechanism while bolted to a wall and opened a few hundred times a year. Those are different jobs. A wardrobe box can be made to do the second one, but by the time it is reinforced and fitted with a decent mechanism, the money and the weekend start to look like a flat-pack bed that was built for the job. ## The honest alternatives, at each price The [2026 Utah price ladder](/cost/) runs like this, installed: - **A sofa bed or daybed, a few hundred dollars.** The right answer if guests come once or twice a year and the room has no other job. - **A flat-pack murphy bed, $400 to $1,500 plus install.** Costco, Wayfair, Home Depot, Walmart and Amazon all list them. Particleboard or MDF cabinet, lighter mechanism, standard sizes. The [Costco](/costco-murphy-bed-vs-custom/) and [Wayfair](/wayfair-murphy-bed-vs-custom/) pages go into what you get. This is what the Pax hack is trying to be. - **A real wood cabinet chest bed, $1,400 to $2,800.** A low chest that pulls out into a bed. No wall anchoring, thinner mattress, real wood. - **A shipped real wood murphy bed, $3,700 to $5,100 plus install.** Solid wood cabinet, piston mechanism, standard widths, you or an installer assemble it. - **A custom cabinet bed built and installed locally, $4,400 to $6,500.** Built to your wall, matched to your house, installed by a crew, with a free design visit first. Side cabinets, a desk or a sofa take it to $6,500 to $10,000. ## Which one for your room The question is how many nights a year the bed is used and whether the room has a second job. Once a year with no other use, buy the sofa bed. A dozen nights a year in a room that is otherwise an [office](/home-office/) or a [basement](/basement-adu/) living space, a flat-pack bed is workable and we will [install it](/installation/). Weekly use, a mattress people actually sleep well on, or a bed that has to look like it belongs with the house, and you are in the real wood or custom rows. If you already started a wardrobe project and want a second opinion on the anchoring or the mechanism, send photos. Otherwise send the room, we reply the same business day with a range and a visit time. [Send it here](/estimate/). ## Questions people ask **Does IKEA sell murphy beds?** No. IKEA sells sofa beds, daybeds and wardrobes, and the "IKEA murphy bed" results online are mostly do-it-yourself projects that combine an IKEA wardrobe with a mechanism kit from someone else. **What is the IKEA Pax murphy bed hack?** A project where a Pax wardrobe frame is used as the cabinet and a separately bought murphy bed mechanism is bolted inside it. The frame was designed to hold clothes, so the project depends on reinforcing it and anchoring it properly. **What is the cheapest real murphy bed in Utah?** A flat-pack cabinet bed from Costco, Wayfair, Home Depot, Walmart or Amazon, $400 to $1,500, plus a few hundred dollars for installation if you do not do it yourself. **Is an IKEA sofa bed a good alternative?** For a room that hosts guests a few nights a year, a sofa bed is the cheapest workable answer. The mattress is thin and the seating is compromised, which is why people who host more often end up looking at a wall bed. --- 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