Robert Bright's custom mechanisms and cabinets allow personalization of the wall bed. By Dennis Oda, Star-Bulletin

Think of the Three Stooges and their mishaps in getting folded up into the closet along with their beds (or ironing boards). Such is the comedic nature of wall beds at a time when beds are supposed to be sexy, dramatic, romantic.

To even know of wall beds, popular in the 1920s and 1930s, dates a person, and the surest way to insult an - ahem - mature individual, is to accuse them of having grown up with a Murphy bed. The bed was manufactured by the Murphy Bed Co., which opened in San Francisco in 1908, and moved to New York in 1926. Ask anyone about a Murphy bed and almost every remark will be qualified with an emphatic, "of course, this was before my time."

But it's about time to trash this antiquated image.

"It's really silly isn't it?" said interior designer Jean Wall, proprietor of Inner Spaces, about the wall beds' scarcity in Hawaii. "It's a way overlooked item."

In 25 years of business, Wall said she's had only a few inquiries about wall beds, even though the beds represent a sound solution for space problems, particularly in condos and studios.

Wall beds "create two spaces out of one," said Audrey Tanaka of Interior Specialists. "If a room is usually used as a den, if guests come, they can always pull the bed down."

Contemporary wall beds are stowed in cabinetry that doesn't look much different than an armoire or a home entertainment center that can hide a television, stereo system, and the sort of odds and ends that might otherwise give a home a cluttered look.

"I think it's not used more often simply because it's not convenient," Wall said. "Maybe people are lazy and don't want to pull it down, or they may have hang-ups about Murphy beds. You're not just buying a bed, but a piece of furniture. It's a bigger hulk to deal with."

A wall bed is also costlier than a typical stand-up model. The cost of a twin-bed frame, box spring and mattress is about $220. A standard twin wall bed with a cabinet of oak or laminate will cost about $1,500.

Furniture stores have difficulty carrying wall beds because of the custom nature of the pieces and staffing required for installation. "It's not a mass-produced item," said Lito Pinieda, store manager for Homeworld Honolulu. "If it was mass-produced, it would have to fit all homes, and all homes are not the same."

The economy hasn't helped to give the wall bed a higher profile. Robert Bright, president of Wall Beds & Cabinets Manufacturing, Inc., builds wall-bed mechanisms and cabinets, but says that in his six years of business locally, he's seen eight wall-bed companies come and go. He's seen contractor showrooms close, and with them, any extra opportunity to show his wares. He currently shows his wall beds in a tiny showroom and workshop in Kakaako.

For individualists, wall beds offer every opportunity for personalization. "We give people what they want. There are so many different ways of doing wall beds and everyone wants something just a little different," Bright says. The beds range in size from twin to queen. Accompanying cabinetry can be made of anything from teak to koa to mirrors.

Most of his clientele come from referrals or people who have moved here from the mainland. "Illinois and California are places that know what a Murphy bed is," Bright said. "People arrive here and they find they can't afford a big place so they buy a studio and find it's much cheaper to put in a wall bed than to put in a second bedroom."

Bright engineered his own bed-frame mechanism that allows a child to pull down the bed easily and safely. What's more, for anyone worried about being trapped in a cabinet by a bed, that's simply sitcom fodder. Bright said, "A little bit of weight will cause it to stay down."

For something that seemed so passe, it's just a matter of time, Bright says, before the beds catch on again.

"It's so smart," he said. "It's way ahead of it's time. In another hundred years I don't think you'll see a bed. It'll be the thing to have every bed put away."