The biggest concern for contemporary urban dwellers is the efficient and optimum utilization of space. With apartment space getting more and more expensive each passing day, homemakers and designers are looking at ways to make furnishing solutions more compact. Some of the ways they are using to address this include multifunctional furniture, fold outs and retractables.
Tables, especially dining tables are one such area of focus. It is not every day that a small family has a large number of people to seat at meal times. Yet, when guests do arrive, there is need for higher seating capacity. Here are 10 fold out tables that save on space yet are there for you when you need a larger table area.
1. Retractable Tables from Ochre
Ochre has designed these elegant retractable tables that utilize any L-shaped part of your home to save space when not in use. With stylish lines and smooth wood finish, these sliding table tops and seating can be fully put away into the recessed area built into your walls.
2. Folding Mirror Table from Porada
This a brilliant idea from the Italian house of Porada. It is a full fledged table with a mirror on its undersurface. When not required, it folds up like a picture frame and can be hung up on the wall, to become a wall mirror.
3. SM101 Fold Out Multipurpose Table from Skovby
This clever little idea comes with two fold out table tops on a cube design that comes with storage space built into it, and castors for easy portability from one room to the other.
4. Mealbox from Igland Design
This is a 6-seater dining table that actually folds into a box that you can take with you anywhere you want. Made of 14 pieces of birch plywood resembling a jigsaw puzzle, this folds out into a table and six stools.
5. Transformable Couch Tables from Ozzio
This is a range of coffee tables designs that transforms into dining tables with the help of sleek and efficient add-ons such as hydraulic lifts to adjust the height, dual folding table tops, sliding table expanders, and retractable surfaces.
6. Expandable Coffee Tables from Sculpture Jeux
This range of expandable coffee tables use multiple aesthetically designed sliding tops to allow you to expand it into a dining table when you need it. Thanks perhaps to a typographical error somewhere in the deep recesses of the blogosphere, this French design house is more often referred to by blogs and websites as Sculpture Jeux! Now you know what to search for.
7. The Expandable Round Dining Table from Skovby
Another brilliant space saving innovation from the Danish design house, this time circular, the expandable round dining table which is available in a range of different wood finishes, makes use of its patented extension system to go from a small round table to a full fledged six seater.
8. Hanging Table from Endrit Hajno
This design is similar to the Hanging Mirror Table from Porada, but simpler and more minimalistic, with a lot of thought having been given to make it multifunctional and utilitarian. With a self locking set of legs that snap into place when opened out fully, this table comes with a cork top that lets you use the table as a bulletin board when not in use. The sturdy wall mount – with six rounded and smooth hooks – that comes with it are stylish by themselves and can be used to hang things when the table is being used.
9. The TableBed from Inova
This patented design from Inova is a standalone cabinet with a pull down dining table that can be folded up to pull down a double bed. Built on the premise that a family is unlikely to use the bed and the dining table at the same time, this is multifunctionality at its best.
10. Accordion Cook Table from Olga Kalugina
This kitchen work area solution by this brilliant Russian industrial designer brings the functionality of the modular kitchen to a small expandable work table using a variety of technological innovations, such as sliding surfaces, triangular drawers, concealed disposal areas, drawer covers that double up as chopping boards, and see through box covers. For homemakers who wish they had the luxury of a large modular kitchen, the Accordion is a perfect solution.
