Jannat Ferdous moved from New York City to Buffalo about three years ago. She landed in a studio apartment with an Ori Cloud Bed, an automated bed system that rises up to the ceiling when not in use—revealing a couch underneath. Here she describes what it's like living with robotic furniture.

I was introduced to Ori when my boyfriend and I toured an apartment that’s now our home. When we chose this studio rental, we were also choosing the Ori system. It’s integrated in about 80 percent of the apartments in the building, which are all furnished. 

Our apartment features the Ori Cloud Bed, sofa edition, a unit which includes a bed, sofa, side tables, storage, and adjustable lights. It’s really all in one, which is great for saving space in a small apartment like ours. It also saves us from spending money on furniture. And I really like that it gives our apartment a modern aesthetic. It’s a nice backdrop when I record TikTok videos.

The system was installed before we moved in and there’s no extra charge for it. 

Ori is a Brooklyn-based company that's in 57 buildings across 36 cities, including three in NYC. You can buy an Ori system for your own apartment but it's not cheap. A Queen Cloud Bed, Sofa Edition, is over $18,000 with installation.

So how does it work? It’s nothing like a Murphy bed. Instead, it lowers from the ceiling when you need to sleep, and when it’s down, it fits over the couch. The bed comes with a mattress, which is very comfortable. My boyfriend is 6 feet, 1 inch and we both sleep fine in it together. The couch is also nice but I wish it was bigger. It can fit two, maybe three people. 

It doesn’t require much work to put up or down—it’s literally just the push of a button. The only caveat is that you have to make sure all of the bedding and pillows are properly adjusted so it goes up properly. You also can’t have any tall glasses on the side tables or the bed won’t go down all the way. 

There haven’t been many issues with it functioning. Once there was a power outage and the bed got stuck midway. We were able to pull it down manually. The building’s maintenance team is also trained to troubleshoot Ori furniture and they reset it and got it working again.

Having this system is great but I do wish it was a different color. I wanted to buy red satin sheets in the past but they wouldn’t look good with the beige color. If it were black or another neutral color, I’d have more options with different bedding and accent furniture. 

Another perk: It’s a wow factor when my friends visit. None of them have ever seen anything like it before. Some also ask if it will fall on top of them, but it has a weighted system that prevents it from falling.

I would recommend apartments with the Ori furniture system for younger people or college students who can’t afford large spaces and don’t want to spend money on furniture. I can’t see it working out for families because there’s no safety lock on the button and I would be nervous kids would make it go up and down. 

Looking into the future, I would be open to having another apartment with Ori systems because I really like it. But if it were a bigger space, I would prefer it in a different color so I could decorate how I want.