News Treehugger Voices Transformer Furniture for the 1%: Amazing Cantilevered Bed Drops Down From Ceiling By Lloyd Alter Lloyd Alter Facebook Twitter Design Editor University of Toronto Lloyd Alter is Design Editor for Treehugger and teaches Sustainable Design at Ryerson University in Toronto. Learn about our editorial process Updated October 11, 2018 Voga Liftbed Promo image Share Twitter Pinterest Email News Environment Business & Policy Science Animals Home & Design Current Events Treehugger Voices News Archive We have shown a lot of transformer beds on TreeHugger, including others that rise into the ceiling. The idea is so sensible; a bed takes up a lot of space, why not have it go away when you don't need it? Murphy beds that fold up are problematic; you have to make the bed and often strap the mattress. You have to lift it up. That's work; if you want a bed to hideaway for your pied-a-terre in the Marais or Hyde Park, you have people to lift. The Liftbed solves the problem; you don't have to make the bed, or tell your new darling to hide in the closet, you just press a button and the whole thing rises up into the ceiling. The bed cantilevers off two columns at the head of the bed; the mechanism is hidden inside. There must be a lot of steel in there; the bed is rated for a metric tonne of load (2200 pounds). On a cantilever that long, that is a lot of moment; imagine what it would take to lift with thirteen people sitting on it. Voga Liftbed Promo image I really think that this design is very clever, the way the bed is built around a sofa that then acts as a headboard for the bed. Voga Liftbed Promo image In Europe people generally live in smaller homes than in North America, and they are a lot more expensive. People are willing to pay for transformer beds because they get more use out of the square feet they have, and there is a market for a bed that probably costs more than an extra room in America. There are no online references to the cost of this bed, but I have requested information and will update post when it is received. But it will be very expensive, judging by the engineering and what they say on the British brochure: Custom built by a 3D robotic engineering company that also produces Porsche and Audi vehicle parts, this 21st century piece of technology can help turn any room in the house into a further bedroom at just the flick of a switch.... With city centre home floor space costing between £500 and £1500 per square foot upgrading from a one or two bedroom apartment can cost as much as £70,000 in London and other major prime city centre locations and with stamp duty and moving costs potentially adding a further £12,000 to the cost, it's no wonder that this product is finding a good market for what it offers to the homeowner. Definitely a hideaway bed for the 1%.