Skip to main content

The Transformer Table

Image
By
Our new table transforms itself, and our view of furniture

Here is our new table

It has 3 modes. Friends mode: Seating up to 6 for dinner or board games.


Couple mode: Great for the two of us. Or for doing some writing while looking out at the view.


99% mode: Most of the time we don't need a table, so it folds away. Storage in the side drawers.


Best of all it allows the space to be multipurpose. Ordinarily a traffic area (between the kitchen, other rooms and the balcony) it can also be a spacious area for the two of us, a table for 6, or an expanded lounge area if we push the lounge furniture back.

How it transforms homes

Traditionally each room has one purpose. TV room for TV; bedroom for bed; study for studying; the dining room for the dining table.

When furniture is cleverly designed, spaces can be multifunctional and we don't need so many rooms.

It's one of the key concepts behind tiny homes. One of the architects from The Tiny House Company showed me this heat map - indicating how long people spend in the various parts of our house.


With so much space rarely or never used it makes sense to have a smaller home with places that can have dual functions.

The dining room is a classic example. It's used for maybe half an hour a day, if at all. Yet it still takes up so much space.

How it transforms lives

We work long hours for money and our biggest expense is the place we live - whether it's renting or paying off a home loan.

Homes are expensive often because they are huge. Australia's average home size of 230 m2 is the largest in the world. It's 88 m2 per person (compared to 27 m2 in 1950).

That space costs money and that money costs us so many hours of our life. Previously, I calculated even just our bookcase takes up $1,600 worth of space. Imagine how much a whole room costs. Even a room that just holds junk.

Less pressure, more happiness

With smaller more functional homes, cost needn't be such a burden. The mortgage (or rent) wouldn't force us to work a job we loathe or work much longer hours than we'd like. We could have more freedom in our choice of work and our style of life.

PS. I say "new table" but of course we bought it from someone in our suburb who no longer needed it, for about a third of the price of a new one. Win-win.
Read more about:

Comments

  1. Aussie James20 February 2019 at 21:07

    HI. I"d love a more detailed look at this table, plans even ?. I"ve just ordered my trailer for my DIY Tiny House here on the Sunshine Coast, QLD, Aussie. loving the journey, loving the community...james

    ReplyDelete
  2. Aussie James20 February 2019 at 21:18

    thanks, I found the table at Ikea

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. david23 February 2019 at 09:03

      Hi James. Thanks for visiting. Yes the table is originally from IKEA. We purchased it second-hand as we like supporting other people who are downsizing - and we also get good bargains :) . Glad you found the table at IKEA where you can have a good look at it. The only thing is that it isn't very light. That's OK for us in our apartment (apart from moving it up the stairs ;) but it may be an issue in a tiny house on wheels. If you're looking at making something similar you may want to choose a lighter material.
      PS. Do you have a blog for your tiny house? I wouldn't mind seeing it as it comes together.

      Delete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Ethical Investing for Australians

By
I write about investing, because it's a key part of life. Spending less and investing means an automatic income. An automatic income means we can work less (if we choose) and definitely stress less. But where to invest? What to invest in? Many people expect their money to be invested responsibly and ethically - rather than making money through things like cigarettes, weapons, casinos, adult entertainment, environmental destruction, and pollution from fossil fuels. Those are all things we could probably do with less of. So how do we invest to get good returns - and to have a positive effect on the world? Here are some sources I've seen: Ethical Investing in Australia At Frugality and Freedom , Michelle has done a fair bit of research into Ethical Investing in Australia . For herself, she's chosen Bank Australia for banking, Australian Ethical for superannuation, and two exchange-traded funds ( FAIR and ETHI ) for her share investing outside of super. She also gives detail...
1 comment
Read more

How to waste a year's wages

By
A friend recently asked me why it is that so many people (on good incomes) are struggling to save. Often the big three money areas are housing, transport and food. In one sense these are necessary items. But what we spend on them is often way more than necessary. I crunched some numbers on how much extra my wife and I could spend on these things - if for some reason we wanted to burn our money. 1. Housing Our apartment is fairly nice, but also cost-effective. I've mentioned how choosing it saves us $1,800 per year , compared to a similar one we saw. The high end of 2-bedroom apartments in our suburb is $305 per week more than our apartment. Not $305 per week. $305 per week more than ours is. I cannot get over that. Sure it's new and modern-looking, but that's a lot of money. It's an extra $15,860 per year above what we pay. 2. Transport The Australian Automobile Association lists the costs of owning and running a car. It includes many often-overlooked c...
4 comments
Read more

Don't dump on charities

By
Netflix causes mass dumping. Here's an alternative. January is usually a big month for physical donations to charity. In 2019 it's been over-the-top (literally) as charity donation bins have been overflowing with items. The Netflix series "Tidying Up" by famous declutterer Marie Kondo (see her book ) has inspired many to declutter their homes. But in the process they've cluttered the streets. What's so bad about donating? When the bins overflow the extra items are thrown away. Having been in the weather, the rain and on the ground, they are classified as contaminated and cannot be sold. To make it worse, much of what fills the bins is not good enough to sell, and is also dumped. Bad donations hurt charities 13 million dollars. That's how much it costs charities to deal with all the junk we dump on them - 60,000 tonnes a year. Lifeline says half its stores have stopped accepting donations. We might think we're helping, but that's a lot ...
4 comments
Read more