Patent Application
20050099101
Not applicable.
Not applicable.
The present invention relates to vanity cabinets, e.g., wooden cabinets fitted with lavatories or basins and associated plumbing. More specifically, the present invention relates to vanity cabinets that are constructed using modern manufacturing techniques and materials.
Vanities originally arose from a need to have a modest sink in the vicinity of a dressing room in hotels or in upscale residences. It may well be that the first vanities were nothing more than a cabinet structure with a recessed bowl or basin where the user could stand or sit and access the basin as needed. This progressed with the development of indoor plumbing to the point that the vanity was supplied with running water and a drain system.
Some vanities were merely countertops with a skirted front area, where space underneath was accessible for the storage of a stool or other equipment or supplies of the user. This style would not enclose the undersides of the lavatory, including the hot and cold water supplies and the drain plumbing. Since plumbing was, at times, an inexact art and since enclosures in earlier years were comprised of wood components that were ill suited to withstand moisture and humidity, it was beneficial to have a design that was open and airy. In addition, it was beneficial to have a design that would allow quick observation of any ongoing leakage.
In contrast to the open vanities, there was still the desire to have a completed furniture appearance. This persisted even with the deficits of having hot and cold water supplies and drain plumbing enclosed within fine cabinetry. In further contrast, and perhaps because of the difficulties of the arrangement, the applications that saw the utilization of the fully enclosed cabinetry were many times the most decorative and finely worked pieces of craftsmanship. Thus, many times, products of this type were found in the most exclusive hotels or in the premier residences.
In recent years there has been a trend towards reviving older furniture designs and motifs. This has evolved to the point where many fine custom cabinetmakers are now producing furniture quality cabinets for home applications that are reminiscent of the vanities and other similar pieces that were in use tens and even a hundred or more years ago. This has prompted the resurgence of the use of vanity cabinets, especially those that evoke the appearance of the highly skilled craftsmanship in design and finish Manufacturers of such high quality vanities include Baker Furniture of Grand Rapids, Mich., and Classic Vanities of Cincinnati, Ohio. These modern versions of the vanity are elegant interpretations of the classic form and can stand alone as items of furniture.
This trend has been assisted tremendously by advancements in manufacturing techniques and in the types of materials and components that are now available to the cabinetmaker. Components and plumbing for the lavatories are much more dependable and do not pose the same risk for leakage as had once been the case. The designs of basins and the products used for installing them in place have reduced problems associated with fitting them into a vanity cabinet. Lastly, the wood components of the cabinet itself have improved where finishes are resistant to water and humidity, and in some cases the “wood” itself is actually made up from specialized laminates or compositions that possess far superior performance than the materials that were available to the cabinetmakers of years past.
Manufacturing techniques have also evolved and have resulted in a couple of standardize cabinet designs. Most cabinets manufactured in North America follow the frame type method that typically includes a face frame that is mounted to a box-like structure from which the doors are hung. The face frame includes horizontal rails and vertical stiles and the panels making up the carcass are joined and glued, sometimes being corner blocked The other major style is termed “frameless” or “Euro” and originates from a European approach that relies on panels that are joined together to form the carcass of the cabinet, and the doors are hung directly from the panel ends. Both techniques have resulted in cabinets that preserve more utilizable space for storage and which are compatible with the application of decorative fronts and the like which cosmetically dress the final product with treatments that range from contemporary to reproduction in style.
One of the attributes of the present vanity cabinet designs is the availability of storage space within the carcass enclosure. This space has been not been utilized as completely as other space as has been in applications in the kitchen, bath and bedroom. For instance, usage of lazy susan mechanisms has increased the utility of corner cabinets; the usage of rollout racks and trays has made the storage of products more user-friendly. Even though the focus has been on appearance, the impetus for finding more storage space is a by-product of the cost of housing generally. The ability to expand the usage of a given amount of space is now a major consideration in the decisions of the homebuyer.
The typical configuration for a modem vanity cabinet is for a pair of doors to be located directly underneath the lavatory area. These open up and reveal the open space and may be augmented at times with a fixed shelf. The front of the cabinet may have some decorative molding and false fronts to give the appearance of a drawer above the doors, but this is strictly a cosmetic attribute and no drawer is provided. In some cases, kitchen cabinets do sport a foldout tray that can be used for the storage of small items, usually utensils of various types. While this type of device may be suitable for use in a vanity cabinet, it has not come to the attention of the applicant that any have done so thus far.
Thus one of the longstanding problems with vanity cabinets was, and has remained, the lack of any method for substantially leveraging the space that has become increasingly available for use. This is not surprising since the area underneath the lavatory still requires clearance for the water supplies and the drain plumbing, but the opportunity exists now for the installation of components that will be able to do good service in what was previously a fairly hostile environment for cabinet components. It was this opportunity that precipitated the present invention.
The present invention comprises a vanity cabinet with a series of drawers installed below the lavatory area. The drawers are constructed to provide a “U” shaped zone for clearance around the components of the lavatory that are located inside the cabinet.
In one embodiment of the present invention, a specially constructed drawer comprises two side portions that reside on either side of the lavatory components, and which has sufficient clearance to allow for unrestricted operation between a closed position and an open position. The drawer is laterally buttressed by means of a support rib that extends between each drawer portion and which resists torsional forces and imparts rigidity to the whole drawer unit.
In another embodiment of the present invention the drawer is comprised of two side portions and one middle portion, all of which are sized and oriented to ensure sufficient clearance for unrestricted operation of the drawer with respect to the components of the lavatory.
Other variations on the concept include the deployment of more than one modified drawer, where circumstances warrant, to accommodate plumbing runs and other hardware that may prevent the usage of a normal, full depth and full width drawer. Thus a combination of drawers employing spatial modifications and some which may not, can be used to effectuate the objectives of the present invention.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a vanity cabinet with increased storage capabilities.
It is another object of the present invention to provide drawers that have clearance for accommodating the components of a lavatory while said drawers remain stable and have the ability to meet performance expectations.
These and other objects of the present invention will be disclosed in more detail below.
A vanity cabinet 10 in accordance with the present invention is shown in
As shown in
Other components of the cabinet body 40 are the cabinet feet 54, the toe rail 56, the side rails 58, the face frame 60, the molding 62 and the front fascia 64.
Turning now to
In this embodiment, the preferred drawer configuration is for two portions only. As may be seen in
In addition to the foregoing, the vanity shown in
It can be appreciated with reference to the foregoing that the present invention utilizes a drawer construction that accommodates an obstruction, such as the underside of a lavatory basin, within a vanity cabinet. In the preferred embodiment, the drawer 20 comprises two drawer portions, a left 70 and a right 72, which can traverse from a closed position to an open position without interfering or contacting the lavatory basin or any plumbing that may be situated within the vanity cabinet. The drawer portions, being affixed to the drawer front 78, are maintained in their configuration and are also made accessible when the user opens the drawer front. As further support for the drawer portions, they are also fastened to one of the telescoping members of each of the drawer slides 74 which not only serves to strengthen the drawer configuration, but the drawer slides also bear the vertical loading of the drawer portions, transmitting this loading to the cabinet by means, for instance, of the drawer stringers just as they would with a normal drawer application. In some applications it is known that the method of construction of the carcass may differ and the drawer slides may be mounted directly to a sidewall. The effect is still the same nonetheless, since the load on the drawer slide is transmitted to the carcass; in this case more directly than would be the case if it were mounted onto the stringer.
In the preferred embodiment, the usage of a three-membered telescoping drawer slide is used. Sometimes known as a precision drawer slide, the members are interconnected by means of ball bearings that provide the sliding movement between the drawer and the cabinet. In contrast, prior art cabinets used drawer slides that typically used rollers for movement. As a consequence of design, roller slides have more clearance between components allowing the assembly to flex to a much greater degree than the precision type slides. When installed on a drawer box, the roller slide contributed very little to the overall integrity of the drawer orientation, which was far more dependent in these cases on the strength and robustness of the drawer box itself. Thus a drawer construction that spanned the full width was virtually a requirement so as to avoid sagging or flexing of the drawer under loads.
The use of a precision drawer slide in the present invention provides some integrity to the supporting of the drawer box and reduces the amount of flex that could result under load. Some deflection of this nature still occurs, but the degree to which it happens is far less than would be the case for a roller slide installation The means that the modification of the drawer box in the way contemplated by the present invention is made more feasible even though the history of drawer box installations, going back to time of the prior art installations, would not necessarily suggest such a result. It is possible to construct a drawer of the present invention with roller slides, but it is not the preferred method for doing so.
In use, the modified drawer serves to increase the amount of useable storage available to the user of the vanity cabinet. As one might expect, the need for cosmetic items and other accessories is far greater with respect to a vanity cabinet and in many cases this need required the use of adjacent cabinets, or the use of clumsy bulk storage in the vanity cabinet to satisfy the user. This inefficiency exists in any situation where the user confronts a lavatory or some other obstruction in an area where the need is concurrent for use of cosmetics, or health and other beauty aids. The present invention deals with this inefficiency by providing a customized storage solution that for the first time places the items of use close to the user and increases the volume of storage in the same area significantly.
The drawer construction itself varies from the traditional in the sense that a left drawer portion and a right drawer portion are provided. In the preferred embodiment, these portions are affixed to the drawer front which helps to hold them in the proper configuration. No cross bracing can be used since this would interfere with the travel of the drawer when the bracing would contact the underside of a lavatory basin, for instance. Thus the integrity of the drawer with respect to its load carrying capacity and maintenance of its orientation is dependent on the drawer front and the drawer slides.
The modifications that may be made to the drawer can vary. The width of the left and right drawer portions may be adjusted to fit the particular installation. For example, the amount of area obstructed by the underside of a lavatory basin decreases further down in the cabinet. Thus the left and right drawer portions may be increased to take advantage of this fact. Similarly, there may exist other obstruction variables such as plumbing or heating runs that need to be accommodated by adjustments as well, both increasing and decreasing the sizes of the drawer portions.
Referring to
Similarly,
Other variations on the present invention include the feasibility of blending the modified drawers in with conventional drawer types. This is consistent with the objective of providing enhanced storage space within the cabinet. The circumstances in which this option occurs may vary, but one typical situation again revolves around the lavatory basin and associated plumbing. The underside of the lavatory basin only projects downwardly into the interior of the cabinet for a short ways. Many times this is in the range of 4-10 inches depending on the style and brand of lavatory. Below this, the only obstructions that usually arise are the plumbing runs which may enter the back wall of the cabinet, or the partition wall supporting a backless cabinet, at points well above the floor of the vanity cabinet, thus allowing for the installation of a full sized conventional drawer box. Blending the two types of drawers leads to increased versatility and enhanced storage capacity.
Turning now to
Reference to FIGS. 9(A)-(C) reveals a conventional drawer as used in the embodiment shown in
Reference to FIGS. 10(A)-(C) reveals a modified drawer 140 of the present invention In particular, the modified drawer 140 is of the type that has three portions although the discussion herein applies substantially to the type that would comprise two portions. The modified drawer is comprised of the left portion 142, the middle portion 144, the right portion 146 and the common sidewall(s) 148 and the common front 150. A drawer constructed in this manner achieves some economy as opposed to fabricating three separate drawer portions, each with their own discrete walls and fronts. Economy is realized by the conservation of the materials used and the amount of labor needed. This distinction is important in view of the fact that the modified drawer nonetheless still has to retain enough strength and rigidity to function in the present invention. The inclusion of the middle portion, with its rear-most wall, provides bracing that allows the design to work as required When viewed as in
The vanity cabinet of the present invention provides extraordinary and unexpected utility. Modifications to conventional drawer construction and the usage of components that assist in the stabilization and support of the functional attributes were prerequisites to achieving a successful design. While it is assumed that the materials of construction are premised on wood products for the drawers and cabinet carcass, the teachings of the present invention apply equally to any other types of cabinet and drawer construction(s) where the cabinet interior is obstructed in some way.
Changes to the components and arrangements taught herein may be made without departing from the spirit of the invention. For instance, cabinets comprised of drawers that all have exposed fronts are contemplated, as would be the converse, cabinets where the drawers are all enclosed in the cabinet interior. Additionally, drawer slides of various types may be substituted although it is a prerequisite that such drawer slides are competent to suspend the drawer adequately and that lend sufficient support to the drawer sidewalls to prevent undue deflection across the span of the drawer.
Lastly, it is understood that other variations and modifications to the teachings herein may be made without departing from the scope of the invention.
