(Check out our complete collection of 90 Creative Urban Furniture Designs.)
At first glance, the Trey Chair seems to be an ordinary office chair. But when you look closer, you notice that it’s two distinct pieces that can come apart and be used separately. The seat becomes a low rocker, perfect for playing video games or doing homework, while the wheeled base becomes a tiny table or comfy ottoman. This has to be one of the best multi-functional chairs we’ve seen. You can go from working at a desk to working low to the ground with a laptop table in no time flat.
How many times have you needed to read up on a subject for work or school, but just couldn’t find a quiet place to do it? The Bookinist, from German designer Nils Holger Moormann, solves that problem in a very neat way. The Bookinist is basically a portable chair that just happens to have a ton of book storage space built in. It can hold about 80 paperback books, plus it has a hidden compartment for storing reading essentials – which, according to the picture, apparently include a magnifying glass and some paint stirring sticks. The attached reading lamp makes it easy to goof off and read comics study even in low light. This awesomely unique chair would be at home in nearly any room.
Although the Flagship Vision One chair could conceivably be used for work, it is obviously meant to be the greatest gaming chair ever. Made with a genuine Porsche seat and featuring ample surfaces for all of your gear, the V1 is the ultimate in working/gaming comfort. And if your job just happens to be playing video games, even better.
Dr. James Levine of the Mayo Clinic has done extensive research on the effects of low-speed walking while working. In his estimation, workers can lose 57 pounds in a year if they do nothing else but walk at 1-2 miles per hour while working on their computer. While it would obviously take a little time to get used to walking and typing, this seems like a sensible and simple way to keep in shape. The treadmill workstation from Steelcase comes in a stationary design or an adjustable one that lets you go from walking to sitting with just a few adjustments. Or, if you’re adventurous and handy with a saw, try making your own.
If you’ve ever worked in an office, you know how it can grind down your soul. The constant noise, the lack of personal space, and the frequent interruptions found in most offices are enough to make some of us hide in a bathroom stall just to get a little time away. If you can convince your boss to let you get this excellent piece of furniture, your privacy (and perhaps your dignity) will be restored. The House on the Table, from design studio Design Mong, is quite literally a house on a table. It’s like a cave that fits on top of your desk and gives you your own little fort inside your office. Imagine how fun it would be to hold a meeting in this tiny playhouse office.
If you happen to have large piles of cash just waiting to be spent, the DC6 Cowling Desk from MotoArt would be an outstanding addition to your office. In its former life it housed an aircraft engine. Now it can look fashionable and shiny, holding your computer as you toil away all day.
It looks sort of like a weird steampunk dentist chair, but the Nethrone is in fact an adjustable work station that allows users to adjust the tilt of the chair and monitor. The end result is sort of like a customizable cradle that provides a relaxing work environment…if you can keep yourself from falling asleep in it, that is.
While it most likely won’t fit into your office, the Conference Bike is a fun way to take the office outside. Pile your Party-Planning Committee members on and take a ride around the park while the debate over the color of the napkins rages on. The Conference Bike is a trike on which seven people sit and pedal while one steers. We can imagine that in some offices, choosing one person to steer would require a whole new committee.
Finally, another impressive offering from the mind of Nils Holger Moormann: the Lese + Lebe (or Read + Live). There are almost too many cool things about this piece of furniture to list them all. The back is a bookcase, while the front features a couch, fold-down tables, pull-out footrests, storage drawers, and even some cute lamps. The tables look to be just about the right size for perching your laptop on. The whole thing is on wheels, making it a breeze to move from one room to another when your family or coworkers in one room get to be a bit too much.