Variable piece of furniture.

The invention relates to a piece of furniture comprising releasably arranged parts suitable for assembling other pieces of furniture.

Such a piece of furniture is known in various designs. In a known design a case to be placed on the ground is used, the two side boards of which bear on the floor by their lower edges. These side boards are releasable and may serve as boards bounding the ends of a bedstead after they have been turned through 90° so that the edges placed on the rear side for the case are directed towards the floor. Obviously one of the standing edges of the side boards of the bed has served as a carrying edge for the case so that after a long time of use said edge may be damaged, which becomes visible in building up a bed. This is aesthetically little attractive.

Moreover with such a structure the height of the side boards of the case has to correspond to the width of the bed to be formed.

It is furthermore noted that when the side boards of the case are used as boards for a bed they have to be disassembled so that the various parts thereof are nog longer serviceable.

The invention has for its object to construct a piece of furniture in a manner such that it does not exhibit said limitations and disadvantages of the known technique. For this purpose the invention provides a piece of furniture of the kind set forth in the preamble which is provided with a chest-like lower case of a given depth and an upper case of smaller depth disposed on the former, the rear walls of said cases mainly extending in the same vertical plane, whilst the front and rear walls of said upper case are releasably mounted and are suitable for use as boundaries of the ends of a-bedstead.

In order to permit of using the piece of furniture described above as a secretary or a chest of drawers it is possible to use a variant in which the front wall of the upper case is pivotable about its lower edge to the front and arranged on the upper face of the lower case. A so- called building-on system may be conceived here, in which the piece of furniture is initially used as a chest of drawers or as a store for baby articles and, for example, after a couple of years is changed into a child's bedstead or a bedstead also suitable for adults, whilst all component parts are reusable, be it in a slightly differing assembly.

In the latter case an embodiment is conceivable in which the lower case is provided with a loosely arranged inner case with doors, which are at the same time the doors of the lower case.

The lower case may furthermore be provided with standing sidewalls, which are interconnected at or near the upper edges by a top board, as the case may be, with drawers suspended thereto and by at least one beam at or near their lower edges.

In a further embodiment the piece of furniture in accordance with the invention is characterized by means on the sidewalls for fastening the top board with the drawers at a distance below the top edges of the sidewalls to create a play nook for kids. A further embodiment of the piece of furniture in accordance with the invention is characterized by means provided on the side walls for fixing the top board with-.the drawers at a distance below the top edges of the sidewalls to form a writing desk.

In this way the piece of furniture can be adapted to the optimum working height to wit about 90 cms for a chest of drawers, of about 55 cms for the play nook for kids or of about 75 cms for a writing desk.

In a further embodiment the piece of furniture has a particular feature in that at least one of the beams interconnecting the sidewalls can be fastened to the side-walls as a ledger adjacent the rear face of the underside. In a preferred embodiment the piece of furniture has the particular feature that the parts left after removal of the front wall and the rear wall from the upper case form a part suitable for use as a rack. Such a rack may be suitable for deposition on the ground or for suspension to a wall.

The invention will now be described with reference to the drawing of an arbitrary embodiment. The drawing shows in <ul id="ul0001" list-style="none"><li>Fig. 1 a perspective view of a piece of furniture,</li><li>Fig. 2 a piece of furniture as shown in Fig. 1, the parts being shown at a slight distance from one another for the sake of clarity,</li><li>Figs. 3a, 3b and 3c pieces of furniture built up by using component parts of the piece of furniture of Fig. 1,</li><li>Figs. 4a, 4b, 4c and 4d a combination,</li><li>Figs. 5a, 5b, 5c and 5d a further combination,</li><li>Fig. 6 the mode of fastening a drawer to the top board,</li><li>Fig. 7 the mode of fastening a spacer beam to a sidewall and</li><li>Fig. 8 the mode of fastening the top board to a sidewall.</li><li>Fig. 1 shows a piece of furniture 1 comprising a chest-like lower case 2 and an upper case 3 disposed on the former. The rear walls of the cases 2 and 3 are located substantially in the same vertical plane.</li></ul>

The rear wall 4 is releasably arranged on a rack 6 and the front wall 5 is constructed in the form of a flap which is pivotable between the position indicated by solid lines and the position indicated by broken lines designated by 5'. The arrow 7 indicates the direction of tilting down the flap 5 to form a working table and to open or render accessible the interior of the rack 6 and hence of the upper case 3.

The lower case 2 comprises a loosely arranged inner case 8 with doors 9, 10, which are at the same time the doors of the lower case 2. The lower case 2 furthermore comprises standing sidewalls 11, 12, which are interconnected near their upper edges by a top board 13 with two drawers 14, 15 suspended thereto and near their lower edges by two beams 16 and 17. The beams 16 and 17 carry, moreover, the loose inner case 8. Near the top edges spacer beams 18, 19 are fastened to the sidewalls 11, 12.

In particular from Fig. 2 the overall structure of the piece of furniture 1 and the connection between the various parts will be apparent.

Fig. 3 shows a potential combination of the parts of the piece of furniture 1. The lower case 2 is not changed; the upper case 3 is disassembled; the rack 6 is disposed loosely, the rear wall 4 serves as a boundary for the head end of a bed and the flap 5 serves as a boundary for the foot end of a bed. The rear wall 4 and the flap 5 are connected in the manner shown in Fig. 3c by two carrying beams 20, 21, which serve at the same time for supporting the bottom for a mattrass.

Fig. 4 shows a different combination, Fig. 4c is identical to Fig. 3b and Fig. 4d is identical to Fig. 3c.

It appears therefrom that the lower case 2 maintained in the combination of Fig. 3 is modified in the combination of Fig. 4. Attention is drawn to the reconstruction of the case 2 of Fig. 3a into a play nook for kids 22 as shown in Fig. 4a and the loose case 8 of Fig. 4b also shown separately in Fig. 2.

The play nook 22 for kids shown in Fig. 4a comprises the sidewalls 11 and 12 interconnected by the beam 17, which is removed from the lower edges of the standing sidewalls 11, 12 and fastened between the upper edges thereof, that is to say, on the rear side and by the beam 16, which is removed on the rear side from the lower edges of the standing side- walls 11, 12 and arranged between the sidewalls about 15 cms below the beam 17. The beams 16 and 17 may then serve as ledgers.

Between the sidewalls 11 and 12 is furthermore fastened the top board 13 comprising the drawers 14 and 15 hanging thereon.

Fig. 5 shows a further combination; Fig. 5c is identical to Fig. 3b; Fig. 5d is identical to Fig. 3c. It will be apparent therefrom that the lower case 2 remaining intact in the combination of Fig. 3 is modified in the combination of Fig. 5. Attention is drawn to the reconstruction of the case 2 of Fig. 3a into a writing desk 23 of Fig. 5a and the loose case 8 of Fig. 5b, which is also shown separately in Fig. 2.

The writing desk 23 of Fig. 5a comprises the side- walls 11 and 12 interconnected by the beam 16 having remained in place with respect to the construction of Figs. 1, 2 and 3 and by the beam 17, which is removed from the lower edges of the standing sidewalls 11, 12 and which is arranged between the upper edges thereof, that is to say, on the rear side as is shown in Fig. 5a. Here the beam 17 serves, for example, as a ledger. Furthermore between the sidewalls 11 and 12 is fastened the top board 13 including the drawers 14, 15 hanging thereon.

Fig. 6 shows the mode of fastening the drawer 15 to the top board 13. The drawer 15 has a longitudinal slot 23 co-operating with a Z-shaped guide rail 24 fastened to the lower face of the top board 13.

Fig. 7 shows how the spacer beam 19 is fastened to the sidewall 12. A countersunk nut 25 guarded against rotation by the four bentover corners is used in the spacer beam 19 for co-operation with a. bolt 26.

Fig. 8 finally shows the mode of fastening the top board 13 to the sidewall 11. A bolt 27 co-operates with a screwthreaded nut part arranged in a matching recess 29 on the lower face of the top board 13.

It will be obvious that the invention is not limited to the embodiments shown.