Tag Archives: Multifunctional furniture

Swiveling wooden stool is compact, multi-functional, and mildly uncomfortable

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While all furniture needs to be stable, chairs and other seating furniture need to meet two requirements. They have to be stable enough to hold the weight of the person sitting on them, but they also have to be comfortable to encourage or even tempt those people to use them. Then again, there are some seats that seem to actually discourage lounging around, adopting a design that’s purely utilitarian and sufficient for a brief rest of a few minutes. However, there are chairs that were designed with comfort in mind but fall slightly short of that goal. This stool, for example, is undoubtedly quite useful, space-efficient, and probably even sustainable, but it might have slightly missed the mark in one of its core use cases.

Designer: Jeongchun Lee

The stool looks simple enough at first glance, with a tall box for a base and two plain boards forming the actual seat as well as a backrest. The latter element puts this design somewhere in between a typical stool and a chair, though the narrow area and absence of arms put it more in the category of a stool. Either way, it’s clearly designed for sitting, but it also does more than that.

The base of the stool has a rack for holding reading materials, either magazines or a few books. This small detail makes the design better suited for places where such an activity is conducive, such as a library, a lobby, or a common area in offices or schools. Of course, you can also place it around your home and it won’t even take up too much space because of its tall and narrow structure.

The Chair 025 design concept, however, has one trick up its sleeve. The seat can rotate 360 degrees, allowing you to actually face any direction you prefer without having to move the chair itself. That said, you might not be able to swing around so easily because your legs will hit the corners of the “stall” or base. Instead, you will just be swiveling back and forth, which could be the goal to induce a little blood circulation even while you’re sitting, although that still runs the risk of injuring your legs if you’re not careful.

The design’s low backrest can also be a point of contention, given it doesn’t exactly provide enough support and could even lead to injury or accidents if you forget that it doesn’t completely go all the way up. For a stool that seems to encourage sitting for long periods of time to read, the potential discomfort is a little counterintuitive. The economy of design and potential for using sustainable materials, however, do make the Chair 025 concept a candidate for cramped spaces and budget-constrained owners.

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Standing table for collaboration unfolds into a picnic table for fun

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Different tables have different uses depending on their design. A dining table needs to be low enough to accommodate comfortable seating, while a standing table encourages more dynamic conversations with the lack of chairs. In most cases, you have to choose the right type of table for the right purpose, but there might be instances where you wish a single one could fulfill multiple functions instead. There might be a constraint on spaces, or you might prefer a more agile and adaptable environment. Whatever the reason might be, this ingenious transforming table offers those two functions in one, providing a high table for standing meetings and a picnic table for four for more informal gatherings.

Designer: Bert Masselus

Designing a foldable table with built-in seats isn’t exactly a walk in the park. Compared to a regular table with separate chairs, such a piece of furniture would need to tackle different areas of concern all at once. Not only does it need to actually fold and unfold properly, it also needs to be stable and comfortable. There’s also the matter of visual appeal, which is even harder to pull off when considering a table that changes forms depending on the situation.

That’s the kind of feat that the JoinTable accomplishes with aplomb. Sporting an industrial aesthetic with its powder-coated stainless steel and aluminum construction, the transforming table offers an environment that can quickly adapt to the owners’ needs. On the one hand, it functions as a standing table that creates an atmosphere conducive to quick discussions and meetings. On the other hand, it can also be a place for more relaxed conversations, with friends or families lounging over meals. You could, of course, also have only one side of the table opened with the two seats, leaving the other side free for wood, work, or other things.

JoinTable is deceptively simple, belying its nontrivial mechanism and difficult manufacturing. The top of the standing table opens up in the middle and folds backward to reveal benches that can seat two people on each side. Even in this opened form, the table retains a stable center of gravity. The folding mechanism is also rigid enough to hold the seats in place and keep them from completely folding backward after a certain point.

This transforming table design is meant to be used both indoors and outdoors, creating areas for collaboration and enjoyment without taking up too much space. There is, however, also a design that is practically limited for indoor use, or at least in places with plenty of walls. This “two-seater” configuration consists of only half the JoinTable attached to a wall, offering a temporary space for working or enjoying a sip of coffee or both, whether by your lonesome self or with a partner.

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Multifunctional furniture collection offers simple ways to support your hybrid work life

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Many of us have probably become acutely aware of how little space we actually have inside our homes, at least not enough to accommodate other activities that go beyond sleeping, eating, and relaxing. Recent shifts in work arrangements have created the need for hybrid spaces, or areas that can function as a workplace as well as a living space. Aside from making room for specialized furniture, homeowners have found themselves trying to either utilize existing furniture for other functions, like a dining table that becomes your office desk outside of meal times or replace those with multifunctional designs. Multifunctional, however, doesn’t have to mean complicated, as demonstrated by this collection of simple furnishings that ingeniously hide their extra features in plain sight.

Designer: Alessandro Stabile

One of the most important requirements when working from home is having a separate desk just for work or school. As many found out in the past two or so years, that’s a luxury for those living in small homes with a limited number of rooms. Sure, you can use almost any table as a work desk, but that also muddles the separation of your work from other parts of your life. Wally solves this by disguising the desk as a wall shelf that folds to reveal a horizontal surface to work on. It does function as a shelf with a hidden space when the table is folded up, while the top shelf can be home to decorations or more visible objects like clocks and storage bins.

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This theme of easy-to-access hidden functionality is pervasive across the collection. “Mr. Hyde,” for example, looks like an ultra-minimalist wall-mounted wooden desk, at least until you pull that wooden enclosure to reveal hidden storage inside. Its complement, the In&Out shelf, has the same trick, except it uses a more conventional sliding tray to access the compartments.

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What makes this particular collection extra special is that they’re designed for simplicity and ease of integration with the rest of your living space. Their minimalist and modular designs allow the owner to decide where and how to use them. Sure, there are parts of the collection that do need to be securely mounted to walls, but some, like the modular Dese bookcase, offer a bit more flexibility.

There are even some that are so simple that you might wonder why there aren’t more of these designs around. Double, for example, is a side table that can either stand low on both legs horizontally or stand tall on one side, offering you a place to put your things on, regardless of your available floor space. Sometimes, the best solutions are the simplest ones, and this elegant minimalist collection proves how “simple” doesn’t need to be boring, either.

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This industrial-style chair has a surprise for nighttime book lovers

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Some experts and industry players expressed concern about the decline in paper media like books and magazines. The abundance of digital content and the devices that can access them seems to threaten the existence of these physical objects, though these aren’t going anywhere anytime soon. There are plenty of physical and psychological benefits to reading physical books, not to mention the social aspects of the experience, especially when parents and their kids are involved. Unlike with ebooks, however, reading paper books has to be done under specific conditions, particularly with the proper lighting to comfortably read the material. Reading in front of a desk might not feel comfortable, while reading in bed might not be that ergonomic, especially with just a bedside lamp. That is where this ultra-simplistic chair comes in, providing a comfy place to read a book, especially in the dark.

Designer: UGLY.DUCKLING

A chair, lounge, or couch might be the most comfortable place to read a book for pleasure. You’re less likely to fall asleep compared to when you’re lying in bed (though that’s definitely still possible), and it’s also more relaxing than sitting in front of a desk, especially if the furniture is often associated with work. The problem, however, is that proper lighting for reading can be a bit tricky with the way most seats are positioned in a room. The best lighting position would be over your head and maybe a little to your left, which is something that’s not easily achieved in a room where lighting from the ceiling or walls is fixed.

The Hidden Light chair takes care of that problem in the simplest way by integrating its own reading light. This way, wherever you place the chair, the light will always be there as well. But rather than having the built-in lamp always there even when you don’t need it yet, the chair wisely hides the feature and gets it out of the way when all you want to do is sit back and relax and maybe watch a bit of Netflix instead.

The top “bar” of the chair’s backrest can detach from the rest of the frame on one end and then swing around through a pivot on the other. This allows the lamp hidden on the detachable end to be positioned at any angle, depending on what is most comfortable for the reader. And if there’s enough light anyway, the lamp can be hidden and won’t stick out unnecessarily.

 

The design of the Hidden Light chair itself is on the bare and almost brutalist side. It’s basically just a frame made of bent metal pipes with some stretchable material connecting the two sides to form the actual seat. This makes maintenance and transport extremely easy, though it’s questionable whether it’s actually comfortable to sit on, let alone be stable and safe. Regardless, it’s a neat and simple idea of how to get a proper reading light whenever you sit down on your favorite chair to spend hours on that latest novel printed nicely on paper.

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This bench and coffee table is an interesting place for transient people and things

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Not all seats are meant to encourage people to lounge for hours, and not all tables are designed to be permanent homes for stationery or decorations. There is furniture that is meant to be a brief oasis of rest for a person on the move or a temporary holding ground for stuff in transit. Benches, stools, side tables, and even coffee tables are examples of such furniture with impermanent functions, providing a comfortable pit stop that doesn’t require a longer commitment of time and effort. Just because people and things often pass them by doesn’t mean they don’t need to be attractive and interesting, and this combination of a bench and a coffee table is one such curious twist that seems to contradict its very name.

Designer: Ricardo Sá

Compared to other pieces of furniture, seats and tables often convey a sense of rest and stillness. After all, you have to stop to sit down, and an object placed on top of a table stays still unless you move it. Compared to a lounge or a sofa, however, a bench also implies a sense of motion after a temporary pause, where someone sits for a while and then resumes their activity. Similarly, a coffee table is often a place for cups and books waiting for a brief period before being picked up again to be used.

Wait, then, is the perfect name for a multi-functional piece of furniture that embraces these passages of time. But while the word itself carries the meaning of stopping briefly, the design of the bench almost contradicts this identity. A horizontal slab of wood intersects a wave-like form that gives it a character of dynamism and an illusion of movement. It’s like it’s lying in wait, ready to jump into action at any given moment.

That dynamism is also present in how the furniture can be used. It takes very little to change the function of the piece; simply removing one or both cushions frees the surface to be used as table tops. You don’t even have to stick to one or the other mode since leaving one cushion creates a half-and-half that serves both purposes.

There are more permanent structures to hold objects, though they’re not exactly designed to keep them there forever. The bottom spaces can hold books, magazines, or even the unused cushions, while the middle cavern can be a spot to hide phones and remote controls. The hump in the middle could be a place for a cup, though its somewhat curved shape doesn’t exactly inspire confidence. Whichever way you combine the functions or whether your place it off to the side or in the middle of a room, Wait will be ready to give you and your stuff a place to catch your breath before heading off to your next adventure.

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This reversible table concept is a coffee table and side table in one

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If you’ve ever found yourself needing a coffee table or a side table from time to time but only have room for one, this concept might be your thing. At least, if you’re willing to put in some work.

Space isn’t always easy to come by these days, even less so space-saving furniture. Many people try to buy modular furniture they can take apart or combine as needed, while others try their hand at multi-functional products that combine two or more features into a single physical space. And then there are those that can change their form as the need requires, performing a different function depending on its configuration or arrangement. That is what this “reversible” design concept tries to achieve, switching between being a coffee table or a side table, depending on your need or mood. It does take a bit of assembly, but that, too, serves its own purpose.

Designer: Chenkai Zhang

Some tables are made to serve any purpose, but there are those that are clearly meant to be one and not the other. Coffee tables have surfaces that are often placed closer to the floor as a home for books, magazines, and coffee or teacups. In contrast, side tables are more on the level of a sitting person but can even sometimes be for standing use. The two are almost like polar opposites as far as height goes, so it might not be easy to imagine how a single table can be both.

“REVERSE” is an attempt to do just that by reusing the same base and same table surface, whether in the form of a coffee table or a side table. The only thing that changes is the middle support structure that determines how high the table can be. Simply reverse its orientation and you can either raise or lower the table, switching between its two functions. The one caveat is that the table’s height seems to be fixed in both situations, with no room for slightly raising or lowering the tabletop.

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All the parts of the REVERSE table are removable, held together by screws designed like faucet handles. Not only does this make it easier to turn the screws, but it also gives the table a unique visual flair. Where other tables would try hard to hide those screws, the reverse is true for REVERSE, flaunting the gold-plated parts that contrast with the deep black of the tubular legs. The wooden top also creates this contrast with its light maple color, which is a close match to those screws.

This does mean that switching between the two modes of the table takes a bit of work, unscrewing and rearranging the parts, which could take more than just a few minutes. Owners are unlikely to switch between a coffee table and a side table that often anyway, but at least the option is available to them when they need it. At the same time, this reduces the packaging space it requires since you can take the table apart before transporting it.

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Conceptualized for designers, this multifunctional desk adapts to meet your work tasks

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The Raak Mai desk is a multifunctional, versatile desk conceptualized for designers.

Finding the right desk to meet our working and creative needs is essential to stay productive. When it comes to our work, our desks must rise to the occasion, sometimes literally. Standing desks tend to help our posture when working from our computers all day.

Angled desks find the ideal tilt for sketching and drawing up plans. Then, different desks carry unique storage options, keeping all of our tools within arm’s reach at all times. The Raak Mai desk from industrial designer Laura Rodríguez combines all of the above to provide a multifunctional, versatile desk for all working needs.

Designer: Laura Rodríguez

Preliminary inspired by the needs of designers, Rodríguez hoped to incorporate analog mechanisms that work to take care of digital tasks. While many of the elements of the Raak Mai desk can be adjusted manually, the overall structure of the desk was fitted to ensure the digital needs of modern technology could be met.

The Raak Mai desk hosts an array of different modes, allowing users to adjust the desk’s height, tilt, and storage capabilities according to their working needs. When designing or sketching, users can angle the desk to their desired tilt for accurate drawing sessions. An integrated winch allows users to manually adjust the desk to a standing height.

Several USB ports let users charge their electrical appliances throughout the workday. Storage drawers can be found throughout the desk’s build, allowing users to organize their stationery as needed. Then, a footrest provides space for users to prop their feet while working.

Propped up on two steel legs, the desk’s table is defined by its wooden build. Relying on modern construction methods like 3D printing and laser cutting, Rodríguez employed precision-based technologies to ensure seamless joinery and connections.

The drawers, chest, and main tabletop would be built using laser cutting technology into individual modules that would connect to the rest of the Raak Mai desk. Then, 3D printing would be used for constructing the desk’s overall frame. Finally, Rodríguez envisions the Raak Mai desk finished with a glossy layer of primer.

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This minimalist furniture set can keep your stuff germ-free and charge your phones, too

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Minimalist-looking furniture doesn’t always mean they serve a single purpose only, especially if they can hide their other functions in plain sight.

There are quite a few trends in the past few years that have sent ripples through different industries, changing the ways things are traditionally made or how things usually function. For example, there has been an increase in devices that claim to sanitize your belongings at home with UVC light. The ubiquity of smartphones inside the house has also pushed even the likes of IKEA to adopt new features to accommodate these electronic devices. Another example is this furniture set that, at first glance, is both minimalist and minimal, but actually hide their smart features in an ingenious way.

Designers: Martin Poon and One Object Design Studio

We have gotten used to seeing a lot of minimalist products, especially as furniture or even appliances for the home. There is an undeniable appeal in the cleanliness and purity of these objects, and their simple or singular use also almost has this liberating feeling that frees the mind from having to think twice about what something does. That said, there’s always the possibility of incorporating more features in what looks like a simple design, like what this WITS collection on home furniture demonstrates.

ROLL, for example, looks like a simple fabric-covered stool, though the seam at the top clearly indicates that it can be opened. Rather than being a hidden container, however, it can accommodate a detachable UV light module that can clean larger objects like toys, books, or even bags. It’s something handy to have around the house, especially during these days when people tend to worry alot about indoor sanitation.

FLOAT definitely has a simple cabinet feel to it, one that’s designed to stand by your bed for easy access to your things. However, a portion of its top surface actually acts as a wireless charging area for your phone so you won’t have to worry about forgetting to plug your phone in every night. Pull the top drawer, however, and you’ll be greeted by a soft LED light that could save you a lot of pain at night.

BOX is like a smaller version of ROLL, though clearly not to be sat on. Its body is wrapped in the same soft fabric as the stool, conveying feelings of comfort and warmth for the home. The wooden cover, however, comes off to reveal plenty of room inside for keys, wallets, and even your phone. It is also compatible with the same UV light module to disinfect your things while they lie in wait for their next use.

Last but not least is the LAYER sofa table, admittedly the most complex among these minimalist pieces of furniture. Its wooden top can swivel to any position to maximize or minimize the area the side table occupies, while its foot can stand inside a basket that serves as additional storage. And like its wooden sibling, the FLOAT, the LAYER also has a wireless charging area for your phone while you take your dinner and binge on your favorite show.

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This cat couch features a folding mechanism that’s designed to keep living spaces fur free

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Cat Couch is a foldable couch designed to be human-centered and feline-friendly for cohabitation living spaces.

Even when we buy furniture for our cats, there’s no stopping them from using the couch. Despite how much cats might prefer our living room sofas to their small bolster beds, our couches weren’t made for cats. Layers of shed fur and scratch marks have a way of making our couches feel like huge cat beds.

Designer: Tomoya Ono

Noticing the gap between cat-specific furniture and furniture designed for humans, Tomoya Ono conceptualized Cat Couch, a cat-friendly foldable couch designed for cohabitation.

Before conceptualizing Cat Couch, Ono took note that, “Many of the couches’ designs put priority on humans, while most of the cat sofas’ designs only focus on cats. There is a gap between the human lifestyle and the lifestyle of cats.”

With the aim of designing a couch that is equally designed for humans as for cats, Ono found versatility through a foldable structure. Before designing Cat Couch, Ono figured removable cushion fabric and a modular design would provide the conditions needed for easy cleaning when necessary.

Refining the design, Ono integrated wood into the build of the sofa which offered some structural rigidity that gave way to the Cat Couch’s folding mechanism. Wrapped in canvas, the final form of Cat Couch incorporates wooden lids that open and close like toilet seats.

These wooden lids help keep the cushions free from shedding fur and provide backrests for humans when positioned upright. In addition to the multifunctional wooden elements, Ono also designed Cat Couch with built-in scratch pads that provide a designated space for when the feline urge to scratch arises.

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This modular furniture building system takes an artistic approach to construct functional and playful pieces

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Deku is a modular furniture building system composed of wooden planks that fasten together at the planks’ 45-degree, pyramid-shaped edges.

While modular furniture is functional by design, it also evokes the designer’s most creative tendencies. In time with our world’s rapid WFH movement and mobile lifestyles, the emergence of modular furniture has redefined what our living spaces could look and feel like.

Designer: Takuto Ohta

Combining their artistic skills with the practical edge of an industrial designer, Takuto Ohta designed Deku, a modular furniture system comprised of wooden planks that can be stacked and configured together to form numerous different furniture pieces, from tabletops to benches.

Named after the Japanese word for wooden puppet or doll, Deku is inspired by the stone piles that wash ashore on riverbanks. In creating Deku, Ohta sharpened the ends of each wooden plank to form 45-degree angles, allowing each wooden plank to slink into one another with ease.

This triangular building system is essentially what allows for so many different configurations to be made from Deku. Using colorful masking tape to fasten each module together, Ohta was able to add some playfulness to the project’s overall display and assembly process.

Using human instinct as their natural guide for building each piece of furniture, Ohta notes, “I don’t think about what I’m making, I feel the laws of physics in the freedom and inconvenience of combination, and I see the forest with the smell and texture of trees. When I moved my hand, the furniture was made naturally.” In the development of Deku, Ohta seems to find the human’s most primal desire: to play and fill the gaps.

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