![]() The company recently added two smaller, less expensive contemporary or transitional-style consoles with "hip" black or merlot finishes, grooved glass doors and interior lighting for display items and television accessories.ĭesigners are also looking for multifunctional furnishings in kitchens, guest rooms and home offices. "I like to say it makes a James Bond-type entrance into the room," said Kim Shaver, marketing director for Hooker Furniture Co., which began offering the consoles two years ago. So now, in addition to the traditional-looking armoires that enclose all the latest home theater and computer gear, comes the hidden plasma television console.Īt a touch of a remote control, a plasma or LCD television up to 50 inches wide slides up into view. The furniture industry is responding to the high-tech needs of consumers who may not love high-tech furniture or decor. Find spots near you, create a dining wishlist, and more. Lane also makes coffee tables with tops on spring-loaded hinges that can be lifted and moved closer to the sofa as a dining or work surface.Īt least some of the impetus for the trend is increased use of information and entertainment technology in the home. Last fall, the Lane Home Furnishings introduced the Commodore, a sectional sofa with little tables that flip down from the backrest, a dataport for electronic hookups and storage compartments. Those are amazing to this day, but they're a lousy bed."īut furniture company executives say they are looking for ways to add function to new products. I think the most successful magical thing ever is a sofa bed. Multipurpose objects are often "sort of good at one thing and sort of good at another thing, but not really good at either," he said, "like a Swiss Army knife, which is good if you don't have anything else. In the footprint of a twin bed, Stanley Furniture Co.'s college loft bed contains a bed and two trundle beds, desk space for two, drawers and storage.īruce Hannah, a furniture designer and a professor at Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, said multifunction intrigues designers, but that he's not so sure it's a good idea. Slide the footboard of the French Heritage's Office-in-a-bed forward and it's a desk.Īnd kids' loft beds that don't transform offer lots of function in a small space. Fold up the upholstered foam mattress called the Bingo Pouf, sold by Design Within Reach, and it's a stool or a side table topped with a tray. Turn the late Danish designer Verner Panton's plastic Phantom chair on its side and it becomes a table or a bench. Not all furniture tricks have to be complicated, or as mechanically clever as Inova's. in a way gratifying to the audience and in a space-saving way," said Sherman, who invented the bed-table for his own Manhattan apartment. "In set design, you're constantly thinking of things that turn into something else. Their inventor is company president Loren Sherman, a former theatrical set designer experienced in creating magical effects in small settings. And they can be combined with tables, sofas and side cabinets. Its wall beds - with 8 1/2-inch-thick mattresses on curved European slats that act as box springs - require only a simple touch and pull to open and close. The bed-table unit that solved her problem is produced by Inova, an innovative 4-year-old company based in Manhattan. ![]() "This space had no room for both a bed and a table that sits six." But she wondered how in the world a table would fit in the room when the bed was down. Originally, the designer, who lives in a duplex apartment in a Manhattan townhouse, planned to get an old-fashioned Murphy bed - one that folds up into a wall closet. ![]() "The table is the largest flat surface in my entire apartment, " she said. Certainly that is what Terri Hamilton thinks of her queen-size bed that swings up into a wall cabinet while a table big enough to seat six unfolds from underneath. ![]()
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