FIELD
The present disclosure relates to shoe cabinets and more particularly to a cabinet structure configured to store shoes while making efficient use of the space inside the structure.
BACKGROUND
With the rise of living standards, it has been very common for one to have many pairs of shoes. On average, therefore, a typical family may have dozens of pairs of shoes, which are usually stored in shoe cabinets located at the front door, or in the entry way, of the family's dwelling.
Generally, a shoe cabinet includes a number of shelves placed in the interior space of the cabinet to divide the space into a plurality of storage areas where a user of the cabinet may put his or her shoes when the shoes are not in use. Such a shoe cabinet not only allows shoes to be neatly arranged on the shelves as opposed to being scattered around or piled up in a disorderly manner, but also protects the shoe surface from contamination by dust, rainwater or other contaminants. Hence, shoe cabinets have become an indispensable household item. However, the internal shelves of a commercially available shoe cabinet are in most cases fixed to the cabinet body in a horizontal manner and are therefore perpendicular to the front side and backside of the cabinet body. Given that a typical shoe includes a relatively thin and flat toe box and a relatively high heel counter, the spacing between each two adjacent shelves of a conventional shoe cabinet must be determined by the heel counter heights of the shoes to be stored in the cabinet, in order for the cabinet to accommodate the shoes properly. This shelf arrangement, however, fails to make efficient use of those empty spaces in the cabinet that are adjacent to the toe boxes of the shoes. The very arrangement also limits the number of shoes that can be placed in the cabinet, so a user having more shoes than can be stored in one shoe cabinet cannot but use more shoe cabinets, which nevertheless causes trouble to families whose living space is at a premium e.g., those living in apartments).
Moreover, people tend to put shoehorns, shoe polish, air fresheners and so on in a shoe cabinet for ease of use, but these additional items are bound to reduce the available storage space in the shoe cabinet. As a solution, it is common practice to provide a shoe cabinet with an additional shelf or an auxiliary hanging member such as a storage tray, a net frame, a hook or even a dedicated supporting structure (for indoor slippers or books/newspapers for example). The conventional auxiliary hanging members, however, have the following drawbacks:
(1) Generally, a conventional auxiliary hanging member is fixed to a panel of a shoe cabinet by screws, nails, adhesive or the like. While the aforesaid fixing methods are effective in fixing auxiliary hanging members in position, they do not allow a fixed auxiliary hanging member to be relocated with ease, thus limiting the use of the auxiliary hanging member.
(2) Once a conventional auxiliary hanging member is removed from a shoe cabinet, it is very likely that the surface of the cabinet is damaged (e.g., left with holes or residual adhesive) where the auxiliary hanging member was fixed; that is to say, the surface integrity and appearance of the shoe cabinet may have been impaired.
(3) When the objects stored via an auxiliary hanging member are to be changed in terms of type or size, the auxiliary hanging member would generally also be replaced by a new one that matches the objects to be stored, but the conventional fixing methods (e.g., screws, nails and adhesive) tend to hinder such replacement.
The issue to be addressed by the present disclosure is to overcome the foregoing inadequacies of the conventional shoe cabinets and provide a product that can bring about better user experience and hence be favored by its users.
BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE DISCLOSURE
One objective of the present disclosure is to provide a cabinet structure for storing at least one shoe. The cabinet structure includes a body and a sliding frame set. The body includes a cabinet body and at least one door leaf. The cabinet body is provided therein with an accommodating space. The door leaf is movably assembled to a front side of the cabinet body so as to expose the accommodating space when opened and shield the accommodating space when closed. The sliding frame set includes two fixing members, two sliding members and a frame. The fixing members are fixed on an inner top surface and an inner bottom surface of the cabinet body respectively. The sliding members are assembled to, and can be slid on, the fixing members respectively. The frame is provided with a plurality of placement plates on which shoes can be placed. The frame is pivotally connected, and hence rotatable, between the sliding members. A user, therefore, can place shoes on both sides of the frame and can access the shoes on either side of the frame by easily rotating the frame.
Another objective of the present disclosure is to provide a cabinet structure as described above that is further equipped with at least one auxiliary hanging member where objects can be placed or hung. More specifically, the body of the cabinet structure is provided with at least one magnetic object and thus forms at least one magnetic attraction region, and the auxiliary hanging member is provided with at least one attracted region attractable to the magnetic attraction region and can therefore be positioned on the body (e.g., the cabinet body or the door leaf) of the cabinet structure to provide the cabinet structure with more storage space. Not only can the position where the auxiliary hanging member is fixed be easily and rapidly adjusted, but also the auxiliary hanging member can be replaced by a differently sized counterpart.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE SEVERAL VIEWS OF THE DRAWINGS
The objectives, technical features and effects of the present disclosure can be better understood by referring to the following detailed description of some illustrative embodiments in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, in which:
FIG. 1 is a perspective view of the cabinet structure for storing at least one shoe according to an embodiment of the present disclosure;
FIG. 2 is a front view of the cabinet structure in FIG. 1;
FIG. 3 is a perspective view of the sliding frame set of the cabinet structure in FIG. 1;
FIG. 4 is a front view showing how shoes are placed in the cabinet structure in FIG. 1;
FIG. 5 is a perspective view showing how the sliding frame set of the cabinet structure in FIG. 1 is partially pulled out of the cabinet structure;
FIG. 6 is a top view showing how the sliding frame set of the cabinet structure in FIG. 1 is partially pulled out of the cabinet structure;
FIG. 7 is similar to FIG. 5 except that the sliding frame set has been rotated by 90 degrees;
FIG. 8 shows a state of use of the cabinet structure in FIG. 1 and of some auxiliary hanging members;
FIG. 9 shows how a magnetic object is coupled to a door leaf of the cabinet structure in FIG. 1;
FIG. 10 shows another way to couple a magnetic object to a door leaf of the cabinet structure in FIG. 1; and
FIG. 11 shows yet another way to couple a magnetic object to a door leaf of the cabinet structure in FIG. 1.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE DISCLOSURE
The present disclosure provides a cabinet structure for storing at least one shoe. In certain embodiments, as shown in FIG. 1, the cabinet structure 1 for storing at least one shoe includes a body 11 and a sliding frame set 13. To facilitate description, the top side of each component described herein is defined as the side facing the top edge of FIG. 1, the bottom side of each component is defined as the side facing the bottom edge of FIG. 1, the front side of each component is defined as the side facing the lower left corner of FIG. 1, and the rear side of each component is defined as the side facing the upper right corner of FIG. 1. The configuration of the cabinet structure 1 is by no means limited to that shown in FIG. 1, and all the components of the cabinet structure 1 may be adjusted in configuration according to product requirements, provided that the cabinet structure 1 has the essential structures and effects disclosed below.
As shown in FIG. 1, the body 11 includes a cabinet body 111 and two door leaves 113 by way of example. In other embodiments, there may be only one door leaf 113 instead. The cabinet body 111 is provided therein with an accommodating space 110. The two door leaves 113 are movably assembled to the front side of the cabinet body 111 and can be operated by a user so that the accommodating space 110 is exposed when the door leaves 113 are in an opened state and is shielded by the door leaves 113 when the door leaves 113 are in a closed state. While the door leaves 113 in this embodiment are shown in FIG. 1 as rotatable to the left and to the right, it is also feasible for the door leaves 113 to be rotatable in the vertical direction instead, or be manufactured as sliding doors or screens, provided that the door leaves 113 can be opened to expose the accommodating space 110 and closed to shield the accommodating space 110.
Referring to FIG. 1 and FIG. 2 (which leaves out the door leaves 113 for the sake of simplicity), the sliding frame set 13 includes two fixing members 131, two sliding members 133 and a frame 135. The fixing members 131 are fixed on an inner top surface and an inner bottom surface of the cabinet body 111 respectively. In certain embodiments, the cabinet body 111 is assembled from and includes a top plate 111A, a bottom plate 111B and a plurality of lateral plates 111C (e.g., a left plate, a right plate and a rear plate), with the accommodating space 110 formed between the plates. One of the fixing members 131 is located at a central position of the inner surface of the top plate 111A while the other fixing member 131 is located at a central position of the inner surface of the bottom plate 111B.
Referring to FIG. 1 to FIG. 3 (with the door leaves 113 left out in FIG. 3 too), the sliding members 133 are assembled to, and are configured to be slid on, the fixing members 131 respectively. In certain embodiments, the fixing members 131 are configured as slide rails, and the sliding members 133 are configured as sliding blocks. In other embodiments, the fixing members 131 may be configured as sliding blocks instead, with the sliding members 133 configured as slide rails; or both the fixing members 131 and the sliding members 133 may be configured as slide rails. The present disclosure has no limitation on the configurations of the fixing members 131 and the sliding members 133, provided that the fixing members 131 and the sliding members 133 can work in conjunction with each other to enable smooth linear movement of the sliding members 133 along the fixing members 131. In certain embodiments, the frame 135 can be in the shape of a hollow rectangle and is clamped between the sliding members 133. The frame 135 can be clamped by the two sliding members 133 at a central position of the top surface of the frame 135 and a central position of the bottom surface of the frame 135 (see FIG. 2). A shaft 134 is provided at each of the two positions where the frame 135 is clamped by the two sliding members 133, and the frame 135 is pivotally connected between the sliding members 133 via the shafts 134 in order to be rotatable between the sliding members 133 about an axis defined by the shafts 134.
Referring to FIG. 3 and FIG. 4, the frame 135 is provided with a plurality of placement plates 137. Each two adjacent placement plates 137 are spaced apart from each other and thereby form a storage area 138 therebetween. A shoe S can be put into any of the storage areas 138 and placed on the corresponding lower placement plate 137 (see FIG. 4). In certain embodiments, the placement plates 137 are alternately arranged in a zigzag manner such that each two adjacent placement plates 137 are inclined in different directions toward two opposite inner sides of the cabinet body 111 respectively. For example, one of each two adjacent placement plates 137 is inclined toward the right plate of the cabinet body 111 while the other placement plate 137 is inclined toward the left plate of the cabinet body 111 to make efficient use of the otherwise empty spaces corresponding to the toe boxes of the shoes S stored in the cabinet structure 1. The inclination angles as well as the spacing of the placement plates 137 can be adjusted according to practical needs and need not be uniform so as to enable flexible use of the cabinet structure 1.
Referring to FIG. 1 to FIG. 7 (in which FIG. 5 to FIG. 7 also omit the door leaves 113 for the sake of simplicity), the cabinet structure 1 is so designed that when the sliding frame set 13 is in a storage state, the two sliding members 133, the frame 135 and the placement plates 137 are completely stored in the accommodating space 110 of the cabinet body 111. When a user takes out a pair of shoes S that are stored near the rear side of the cabinet body 111, the two sliding members 133 can be moved outward (or forward of the cabinet body 111, as indicated by the central dashed-line arrow in FIG. 6) along with the frame 135 and the placement plates 137 until certain portions of the placement plates 137 jut out of the accommodating space 110 (see FIG. 5). Then, the frame 135 can be rotated either to the left or to the right (as indicated by the two outer dashed-line arrows in FIG. 6), For example, the frame 135 and the placement plates 137 in FIG. 7 have been rotated by 90 degrees such that shoes S facing the rear side of the cabinet body 111 in the first place are no longer at their original positions. Once the frame 135 and the placement plates 137 are rotated by 180 degrees, the user can easily access any shoes S that were previously adjacent to the rear side of the cabinet body 111.
After taking out the intended pair of shoes S, referring again to FIG. 1 to FIG. 7, the user may directly move the sliding members 133, the frame 135 and the placement plates 137 inward (or toward the rear side of the cabinet body 111, as indicated by the central dashed-line arrow in FIG. 6) until the sliding frame set 13 is in the storage state again. Alternatively, the user may rotate the frame 135 and the placement plates 137 through 180 degrees and then bring the sliding frame set 13 back to the storage state. The user, therefore, may place those frequently used shoes S in the storage areas 138 on one side of the frame 135 and those less frequently used shoes S in the storage areas 138 on the opposite side of the frame 135. Compared with the conventional shoe cabinets, the cabinet structure 1 can store more shoes S and is more user-friendly because shoes S on different sides of the frame 135 can be accessed simply by rotating the frame 135.
To utilize the storage space of the cabinet structure 1 even more efficiently, referring to FIG. 8 (in which the sliding frame set 13 is omitted for the sake of simplicity), one of the cabinet body 111 and the door leaves 113 is provided with at least one magnetic object 115 and thus forms at least one magnetic attraction region. In certain embodiments, a plurality of magnetic strips are provided at the inner surfaces of the door leaves 113 as the magnetic objects 115. In other embodiments, the locations and configuration of the magnetic objects 115 may be adjusted according to product requirements (e.g., at least one of the lateral plates 111C is provided with at least one magnetic sheet, magnetic block or other magnet element). In certain embodiments, each magnetic object 115 may be directly attached to the surface of the corresponding door leaf 113 (or of the cabinet body 111), as shown in FIG. 9; or be embedded in the corresponding door leaf 113 (or the cabinet body 111), with the exposed surface of the magnetic object 115 flush with the surface of the corresponding door leaf 113 (or of the cabinet body 111), as shown in FIG. 10; or be embedded in the corresponding door leaf 113 (or the cabinet body 111) and then covered (and thus hidden behind) a decorative sheet 116 of the corresponding door leaf 113 (or of the cabinet body 111), as shown in FIG. 11, lest the magnetic objects 115 be exposed to view and compromise the look of the cabinet structure 1.
In addition, with continued reference to FIG. 8, the cabinet structure 1 includes at least one auxiliary hanging member 117. Each auxiliary hanging member 117 is provided with at least one attracted region 1171 to be attracted to any one of the magnetic attraction regions so as to secure the auxiliary hanging member 117 to one of the door leaves 113 (or to the cabinet body 111). Each attracted region 1171 can be formed as follows:
(1) An attracted region 1171 may be formed h an element with magnetic permeability (e.g., a metal plate or magnet) that is added to the corresponding auxiliary hanging member 117; or
(2) An auxiliary hanging member 117 may be made, either entirely or partially, of an element with magnetic permeability such that the element with magnetic permeability forms an attracted region 1171.
With continued reference to FIG. 8, the auxiliary hanging members 117 may be configured as plate bodies, net frames or hooks where objects (e.g., indoor slippers, shoehorns and shoe polish) can be placed or where hanging objects (e.g., hanging air fresheners) can be hung. The positions of the auxiliary hanging members 117 can be freely adjusted as needed within areas where the magnetic objects 115 (i.e., the magnetic attraction regions) can provide magnetic attraction. In addition, each auxiliary hanging member 117 can be easily detached from the corresponding magnetic object(s) 115 (i.e., the corresponding magnetic attraction region(s)) as well as replaced by an auxiliary hanging member 117 of a different size or configuration to make more room for storage, not to mention that more auxiliary hanging members 117 can be easily attached to the magnetic objects 115 (i.e., the magnetic attraction regions) if necessary.
While the invention herein disclosed has been described by means of specific embodiments, numerous modifications and variations could be made thereto by those skilled in the art without departing from the scope of the disclosure set forth in the claims.
Patent Application
20200154884
