Cheap Space-Saving Furniture | 8 Items You Can Afford

Space-saving furniture is great, and there are so many cool pieces of furniture out there. But it’s not easy to find anything affordable.

We have done a LOT of research into this, and these are the cheaper space-saving items we have come across.

Let’s dive in and start with some of our favorites: Folding tables!

Before we dive into the list lets look at what we mean by cheap.

We believe that around 1,000 bucks are a VERY good deal for a console table you can pull out to seat 14 people.

Or a Murphy bed for the same price is definitely also priced in the lower end.

This might seem like a lot of money to most people if you are not used to searching for space-saving solutions.

But as soon as you start looking into this market you’ll find that it’s really a good price.

The thing is that you need to think about how much space a piece of furniture like this will save you. When you can retract a 14-people dinner table to the point where you can store as a console table you have practically saved around 40- 50 sq.ft. and that’s really worth a lot in the city.

5 Affordable Dining Tables

Folding tables are really cool, and most of the inspiring models you can find online are often not for sale, DIY projects or the price is not for ordinary people.

But there are good gems here and there, and it’ certainly possible to find a good bargain. Let’s start with the dining tables.

Extreme pull-out dining table

This is a really cool pull-out table:

We found the best price over at Amazon

Normally these kinds of tables go for 3-5X that price!

A while ago we actually built a table ourselves which was very much inspired by this design.

We found that the telescoping parts (aluminum) alone cost us around $600, so we ended up spending more than $1,000 on the project even though it was a total DIY project.

Here’s a photo of our table without the leaves:

We had to bolt each set together as you can see, so we learned that this is not your average $500 dining table. So $698 is a TOTAL BARGAIN for a table like this!

Fold-down dining table for 2 persons

Another table we really like is this little fold-down table you can mount on your wall anywhere. It just fits anywhere, and you can even mount a picture or a mirror on the back, so you won’t notice it there until you pull it down:
We found this one at Amazon.

You can get it here at Amazon.

We love these great ideas that seem so simple. It seems weird that you don’t find this table in every small apartment. We have found lots of this kind of tables in old European campers, but they are just recently started to show up at Amazon. Just awesome :)

Fold-down work desk

The last table we will look at in this post is also a pull-down table.

It’s a bit smaller and could be your working desk in a small space. If you live in a studio apartment and need to make every sq.ft. count this could easily be your working desk in the living room. Or maybe it could serve as an extra workstation in the bedroom or kitchen:

It can fit anywhere. You can have it in 16 different sizes (!) and it starts at only $125.

You can find it here (link to Amazon).

It’s made from solid wood so it’s very durable and can hold a lot of weight. Great as a study desk, coffee table, or a workplace for everywhere that little extra workspace is required.

Let’s move on and see the best deals we found for space-saving beds.

3 Cheap Space-Saving Beds

There are a ton of great designs, but again, too often the price is not right. But we have managed to find a few beds that are very affordable and that will look great in any modern home.

Let’s start with this beauty. A classic Murphy bed with lots of styles and a great dark wood finish (it also comes in white by the way!):

The classic Murphy bed

This bed we found over at Wayfair at $1,100 including shipping.

Like the table at the top of the post, we also built our own Murphy bed. It was a pretty crazy project that we spent a lot of time on. You can see the result here (it’s me behind the camera).

We love Murphy beds and we have been using ours for the last 6-7 years now. We lift it up most mornings, but sometimes we also leave it down. Typically on weekends. But the fact that we can lift it up and get it out of the way is just great.

We always do that when we have guests over or when we need a little extra floor space. And believe me, $1,100 is a very good price for all this hardware – You’ll never regret getting a wall bed if you live in a small space or studio!

Sideways mounted Murphy bed

The next bed is also a Murphy bed, but it’s mounted sideways and it’s a bit smaller:

It’s a little pricier but still a good price. We found it here for $1,399 (last product in 2nd row).

This is probably the most classic space-saving piece of furniture you can buy. The idea behind the Murphy bed was invented and sold as long ago as 1890s by the cool dude William L. Murphy who patented the first version in early 1900.

Since then it has been refined over and over again. Today’s beds like the two models above are made with a piston system that will help you lift the bed. So everything is perfectly balanced. When you start lifting the bed the pistons will assist you so you won’t have to lift more than a few pounds.

It feels like it moves up by itself. Much like when you open the trunk in a new car.

DIY Murphy bed ($299 for hardware)

You can also make your own Murphy bed. We did. We went all-in and build a complex one with added storage behind the bed. But if you just want to build a simple Murphy bed it’s not that big of a project.

It can look something like this:

You can find the Murphy bed kit here at Amazon.

I believe you can do this project over the weekend, and then you will need to have someone help you install it.

You cannot install it alone because the bed needs to be held down while you bolt it into the wall. It’s a two-man job.

We are so happy with our bed and we could not stay in this apartment with our 2-year-old if we didn’t build this bed. But we built it several years before Max was born, and we have been so happy with it! You can see our bed here (on Youtube).

We have made a very in-depth list of the best space-saving beds here. It’s definitely worth a read if you need more space in your sleeping area!

More space-saving furniture

The closet is an important space to optimize. If you don’t optimize your clothes you will probably end up having a huge wardrobe (or two!) when you could really do with one.

A little organizing goes a long way in the clothes department!

These hangers are great for getting the most out of your closet. You can hang much more items in the same space when you layer the items like this:

By hanging your pants, scarfs, pieces of denim etc. in multiple layers you can save a lot of space in that closet. And you can easily take out the whole set of clothes when you need to choose the right pair.

We found it at Amazon here, and judging from the reviews people love it!!! (4,5/5 stars!)

The hangers are padded with a non-slip material so the items won’t slide off. This is a genius little touch that is very handy and important for everyday use.

The next item is a drying rack. It will fold up on the wall and literally take up no space at all when you are not using it. And as soon as you need to dry some clothes you just pull it down:

We found this design here at Amazon.

It can fit anywhere and you can place it in the bathroom, the kitchen, or even on the balcony if you have an outdoor space you can use.

Just remember you should not dry clothes indoor except for rooms that are designed as wet rooms. Because the moisture will often stay in the room and create a bad indoor climate.