This post may contain affiliate links to Amazon, Walmart, and other retailers. If you click through and make a purchase, we may earn a commission at no additional cost to you.
Table of Contents
A Murphy bed kit promises the same thing whether it costs 90 dollars or 400: fold the bed away and get the room back. What the listing rarely spells out is how much of that promise depends on your actual wall. Some kits use gas pistons that hold the bed at any angle with almost no effort. Others use adjustable springs that need to be tuned to your mattress weight and re-tuned if you swap mattresses later. We compared five Murphy bed kits across both mechanisms to see which one actually holds up once you have lived with it for a few months.
This is the sixth guide in our small-space storage series, after our comparisons of portable washers, portable air conditioners, shoe storage, wall shelves, and folding dining tables.
The 5 Kits Compared
| Model | Mechanism | Size | Price | Reviews |
| Create-A-Bed Queen Vertical | Gas piston | Queen | $299.00 | 2,141 |
| Easy DIY Queen Vertical | Gas piston | Queen | $207.00 | 1,615 |
| Create-A-Bed Twin Horizontal | Gas piston, adjustable | Twin | $359.00 | 113 |
| Happybuy Spring Mechanism | Spring, adjustable | Queen/King | $92.90 | 381 |
| TOPOWN Full Vertical | Gas piston | Full | $129.00 | 28 |
How the Mechanisms Actually Differ
Gas piston kits use sealed cylinders that resist compression, so the bed rises and lowers at a controlled speed no matter how much it weighs, and stays exactly where you leave it mid-motion. You set it once and never touch it again, even if you change mattresses later. The tradeoff is that a failed piston has to be replaced as a unit, and higher-weight mattresses may need stronger (more expensive) pistons than the kit ships with by default.
Spring mechanisms use torsion springs tensioned to counterbalance the mattress weight. They are usually cheaper and simpler to manufacture, which is part of why spring kits tend to undercut gas-piston kits on price. The real cost shows up after installation: springs need to be tuned to your specific mattress weight during setup, and if you swap to a heavier or lighter mattress later, they often need to be re-tuned or the bed will not stay balanced.
Every kit in this comparison, regardless of mechanism, requires mounting directly into wall studs, not just drywall anchors. The hardware carries the full weight of the bed frame and mattress, so a stud-mounted installation is not optional the way it might be for a lighter wall shelf. If your studs do not line up with the kit’s mounting pattern, you will need blocking (horizontal wood bracing added inside the wall) before installation, which most listings do not mention until you read the actual instructions.
How to Choose the Right Kit for You
Check your studs before you buy anything. Find your wall studs and measure the spacing before you pick a kit, not after. If your studs do not match the kit’s mounting width, you are looking at extra lumber and a harder install, regardless of which mechanism you choose.
Match the mechanism to how often your mattress will change. If you expect to keep the same mattress for years, a spring kit’s lower price is a fair tradeoff. If you might swap mattresses, upgrade later, or share the bed with guests using different bedding, the set-and-forget nature of a gas piston is worth the extra cost.
Read reviews for the specific size you are buying, not just the overall product rating. Many listings bundle multiple sizes under one review count, and a queen kit’s real-world weight handling does not tell you how the twin or full version of the same kit performs.
The Full Reviews
Create-A-Bed Queen Size Deluxe Murphy Bed Kit, Vertical
Best for: people who want the most field-tested option and are not looking to save money on the mechanism.
This is the highest-volume kit in this lineup by a wide margin, with over 2,100 ratings and a 4.6-star average, and it is the manufacturer’s own “Overall Pick” for the queen vertical configuration. The gas-piston lift means a single person can raise or lower the bed with one hand, and the mechanism holds at any angle without a locking step. Create-A-Bed has made this kit since 1985, which shows up in the review pattern: complaints are mostly about the DIY assembly time, not the hardware failing. At $299, it costs more than the cheaper picks here, but the review volume gives you the clearest picture of long-term reliability of anything in this comparison.
Easy DIY Murphy Bed Queen Vertical Hardware Kit
Best for: people who want gas-piston reliability without paying for the market leader’s brand recognition.
This kit uses the same gas-piston mechanism as the Create-A-Bed pick at about 70 percent of the price, and it has earned Amazon’s Choice with a matching 4.6-star average across over 1,600 ratings. It ships with three separate step-by-step guides (cut list, construction, and assembly) rather than one combined manual, which reviewers consistently mention as making the build easier to follow in stages. The kit is made in North America, and the hardware itself is functionally similar to pricier competitors; what you are mainly paying less for is the decades of brand history, not the build quality.
Create-A-Bed Adjustable Twin Size Deluxe Murphy Bed Kit, Horizontal
Best for: rooms wider than they are tall, or anyone who wants the lifting effort to self-adjust as the mattress weight changes.
This is the only horizontal-orientation kit in the lineup, meaning the bed folds sideways along a wide wall rather than up a tall one, which suits rooms with low ceilings or a wide, short wall. It carries a 4.3-star average across 113 ratings, lower volume than the vertical Create-A-Bed kit simply because horizontal orientation is a smaller niche. The standout feature is the adjustable gas-piston balance, advertised as eliminating the lifting struggle that comes with a fixed-tension mechanism. At $359, it is the most expensive kit here, and that premium buys you a configuration most competitors do not offer at all, not just a stronger version of the same thing.
Happybuy Murphy Mounting Wall Springs Mechanism
Best for: budget builds where you are confident about your mattress weight and do not plan to change it.
This is the only spring-based mechanism in the comparison, and it is priced accordingly: at $92.90 it is the second-cheapest kit here despite supporting king and queen sizes. Amazon’s Choice with a 4.1-star average across 381 ratings. The adjustable spring tension is the whole story with this kit, in both directions. It lets one person fold the bed up or down without gas pistons, which keeps the price down, but that same tension has to be matched to your mattress weight during setup, and reviewers who skipped that step report a bed that does not stay balanced. If you buy this kit, budget the extra time to tune it properly before you trust it with a mattress on top.
TOPOWN Full Size Deluxe Murphy Bed Kit
Best for: the lowest entry price for a gas-piston mechanism, if you are comfortable with a newer, less-reviewed brand.
At $129, this is the cheapest gas-piston kit in the comparison by a wide margin, undercutting the next-cheapest piston kit by nearly $80. It carries Amazon’s Choice and a 4.1-star average, but with only 28 ratings, that is a much thinner track record than the Create-A-Bed or Easy DIY kits, both of which have well over a thousand. The listing specifies pistons rated for 60,000 plus open-close cycles, which is a reasonable spec on paper, but with this few reviews you are trusting a newer brand’s numbers more than a proven history. If the price gap matters more to you than the review depth, this is the pick; if you want the mechanism de-risked by thousands of other buyers first, it is not.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can I mount a Murphy bed kit without hitting wall studs?
Not safely. Every kit in this comparison is built to carry the full weight of the frame, mattress, and anyone sitting on the folded-down bed, which is far more than drywall anchors are rated for. If your studs do not line up with the kit’s mounting pattern, the fix is adding blocking (horizontal wood bracing inside the wall) before installation, not switching to a lighter-duty anchor.
Can I switch mattresses after installing a spring-mechanism kit?
You can, but the spring tension was set for your original mattress weight, so switching to a meaningfully heavier or lighter mattress usually means re-tuning the springs to keep the bed balanced. Gas-piston kits do not have this issue since the pistons handle a range of weights without adjustment, which is worth factoring in if you expect to replace your mattress in the next few years.
Do Murphy bed kits work in rented apartments?
It depends on your lease more than the kit itself. Because installation requires mounting into wall studs (not just drywall), it leaves visible holes and hardware marks that a typical damage deposit will not cover as normal wear. Check your lease for any restriction on wall-mounted furniture before you buy, and ask your landlord in writing if it is not addressed either way.