Murphy bed plan

Q: I would like to put a Murphy bed in my room so I have been looking at Murphy bed hardware kits and from what I can tell looking around the net this one seems to be the best....
A: Several years ago I built a Murphy bed using the wallbed kit. The kit has two pistons and two sets of sturdy metal plates with the hinge and piston mounts on them.
Rather than build the murphy bed as per normal plans since the room had an alcove in which the bed would just fit and could be covered, I simply made the bed. For the base, I used the metal rails from the hollywood frame I was replacing and screwed the support that normally goes under the mattress to it. Only a small amount of wood was used -- 12 in by 12 in plates to connect the metal plates in the kit to the metal rails and a headboard (normal height) with 12 inch sides coming forward to support the other metal plate and the mount for the air piston.
Althought the plans seem to give some distances for the distance from the hinge to the piston mount, it may take a bit of playing with as it obviously depends on the weight of the mattress and support. I fine tuned it with a couple of two pound weights at the end of the murphy bed.
My murphy bed is used only on an intermitant basis. I am most happy with it.