Next, attach the stretcher to the large side panels. Place the stretcher between the panels and align the top of the stretcher rails with the top of the side panels. Make sure the hardware you installed earlier is facing inward. Once aligned, screw from the outside of the side panels into the top stretcher board. Be sure to drill into the stretcher board itself, not just the rails. Lift the entire unit up to the wall. To give your Murphy bed a built-in look and make the boards flush against the wall, remove the baseboard where the bed will go with an oscillating trim saw. Lay the finished struts on the ground, stretching between the frame sides. Space the struts evenly apart, with the first and last struts aligned with the edges of the frame sides. The flat edge of the struts should be facing down. Secure the struts to the frame sides by screwing in from the outside of the frame. Be sure to place screws through both boards that make up the struts. Add the fold-out legs to the outside bed frame using provided kit materials and following manufacturer’s instructions. Once the paint was dry, we installed two sturdy handles to the front-facing panel of the bed frame. Our handles were placed about one-third of the way down from the top and equal distance from the center to make it easy to open and close the Murphy bed.
