Lloyd Alter / CC BY 2.0

TreeHugger loves transformer furniture, that folds up in small spaces or serves multiple functions. But there is really nothing new about it; I have shown British campaign furniture and noted that in the middle ages, all of the furniture was portable and multifunction. I spent the last two days working on an interesting desk in a house in Niagara on the Lake, Ontario, that completely disappears into a dresser.

Lloyd Alter / CC BY 2.0

It has two moving components: a sliding drawer and a drop-down face, supported by the brass arc.

Lloyd Alter / CC BY 2.0

You fold up the face...

Lloyd Alter / CC BY 2.0

and when you push in the drawer, it looks like a perfectly respectable dresser with working drawers. So, you not only get a working desk, but you get reasonable storage underneath.

Lloyd Alter / CC BY 2.0

When I pulled the desk drawer out again I could not drop the face, and panicked a bit, had I broken it? Fortunately, when I put some light on I noticed two buttons on the interior that released latches that held the face in place.

Lloyd Alter / CC BY 2.0

It was a very comfortable desk to work at, with about 15 inches of knee space. The traditional felt was a great mousepad. It really made perfect sense.

No doubt IKEA makes something like this, and there are quite a few drop-down desks on the market. But they certainly nailed it a hundred years ago or whenever this one was designed.