The present invention relates generally to convertible furniture. In a particularly preferred form, the present invention is embodied in a convertible furniture system having frames which may be manipulated and/or reoriented so as to assume various furniture configurations, for example, chair, love seat, sofa and bed, as well as desks and tables of various sizes and configurations.
Furniture which may be converted between various configurations is highly desirable since one piece of furniture may serve several functions. Such “convertible furniture” is, in and of itself, notoriously well known as evidenced from the following list of patent publications: U.S. Pat. No. 3,008,782 to Osborne; U.S. Pat. No. 3,233,942 to Creutz; U.S. Pat. No. 3,672,719 to Haukedahl; U.S. Pat. No. 3,744,845 to Sooker; U.S. Pat. No. 4,277,856 to Danin; U.S. Pat. No. 4,506,927 to Lombardo; U.S. Pat. No. 6,135,545 to Liao; DE 3242148A1 to Gerhard; and WO 9104694A1 to Hollingsworth. Such convertible furniture is highly desirable since it is capable of accommodating the needs and/or desires of the user.
Recently, in U.S. Pat. No. 5,722,716 to Thomas (the entire content of which is expressly incorporated hereinto by reference), there has been disclosed a novel furniture frame having components which may be manipulated and/or reoriented so that it assumes various furniture configurations. Specifically, the furniture frame according to the '716 patent includes a number of vertical and horizontal tubular sections which are joined to one another so as to form side frames which are separated latitudinally by at least one horizontally disposed cross-support member. A number (e.g., four) detachable L-shaped leg members may be inserted telescopically into the vertical or horizontal tubular components of the side frames and fixed in position, if desired, with the use of conventional pegs, screws, bolts, pins or like fixing elements.
While such prior convertible furniture proposals serve their intended function of providing a single piece of furniture having multiple purposes, some improvement is still needed. For example, it would be highly desirable if a furniture frame could be provided so that any form of furniture may be constructed in dependence upon the user's desires simply by manipulating and/or reoriented one or more components of the frame without necessarily employing securing elements and which can be constructed of wood. It is towards fulfilling such a need that the present invention is directed.
Broadly, the present invention is embodied in modular convertible furniture systems which include a pair of similar open-ended box frame assemblies which are nestable one within the other. A pair of slotted support rails are attached pivotally at respective opposing corners of one of the box frame assemblies so as to be movable between raised and lowered positions. When in a raised position, the rails provide a support for a solid board plank thereby becoming a seat back (e.g., for a chair, love seat, or sofa-type arrangement). When the rails are in a lowered position substantially parallel to the ground, the two box frame assemblies may be oriented back-to-back so as to provide a support for a mattress thereby converting the structure into a bed arrangement, for example. The box frame assemblies can be positioned on different sides and ends thereby allowing formation of tables and/or shelving as may be desired.
These and other aspects and advantages will become more apparent after careful consideration is given to the following detailed description of the preferred exemplary embodiments thereof.
Reference will hereinafter be made to the accompanying drawings, wherein like reference numerals throughout the various FIGURES denote like structural elements, and wherein;
Accompanying
Planking boards 12-5, 14-5 span each of the opposed lateral support frames 12, 14, respectively, and are connected to a respective one of the cross-support boards 12-4 and 14-4. In such a manner, each of the box frame assemblies BF1 and BF2 is in the form of a generally U-shape structure having an open end opposite to the planking boards 12-5, 14-5, respectively. The dimension between the opposed lateral frames 12 is however slightly less than the dimension between the opposed lateral frames 14 so as to allow the former to be nested within the latter. Preferably the difference in the dimensions between the opposed lateral frames 12 and 14 is about the width of one board, the purpose for which will be explained in greater detail below.
As is perhaps best seen in
The inner surface of the support rails 16 is provided with a recessed channel 16-3 which is configured to receive an L-shaped attachment bracket 18-1 associated with spanning planks 18 (see
Upon removal of the bolt and nut arrangement from the bolted attachment point 16-2, the support rails 16 may be pivoted about the attachment point 16-1 so as to assume their lowered positions as depicted in
Those in the art will appreciate that the box frame assemblies BF1 and BF2 may be reconfigured to form a desk, shelving unit, table and the like as may be desired. For example, as shown in the accompanying drawing FIGURES, the lateral box frames 12 and 14 may be provided with opposed notches (a representative few of which are noted by reference numerals 12-8 and 14-8, respectively) so as to removeably receive a respective shelving plank 24 therein (see
Also, by way of example as shown in
As can now be appreciated, the frames of the present invention provide a user with a number of furniture configuration options which are believed to not be possible with prior art convertible furniture frames. While only a representative number of possible furniture configurations has been shown in the accompanying drawing FIGURES and described above, those in this art may recognize that the component structures of the frames could be reoriented and/or reconfigured to achieve a number of other furniture configurations.
While the invention has been described in connection with what is presently considered to be the most practical and preferred embodiment, it is to be understood that the invention is not to be limited to the disclosed embodiment, but on the contrary, is intended to cover various modifications and equivalent arrangements included within the spirit and scope of the appended claims.