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“What do you want your room to do for you?”
It’s an unusual question – but the first one that Sue Frendin will ask you when you get in touch with Fold Out Furniture. Fold Out Furniture sells furniture with a difference – one piece serves two purposes, multiplying the functionality of any home.
You might think Fold Out Furniture is a very young company, born from the need to utilize space more efficiently with lock downs and working from home meaning more bodies at home more often, but they has been around for 7 years. Founded by Sue in Tasmania following her own investigation into fold away beds for her visiting children, Fold Out Furniture has a range of transformable furniture to help home owners and businesses utilize the rooms in their properties as efficiently as possible.
Fold Out Furniture has convertible beds, tables, bookcases and desks to suit every home and every budget. From DIY flat packs to stunningly designed Italian furniture, finishes include melamine, glass, ceramic, porcelain and wood veneers. What is common to all Fold Out Furniture pieces is world class engineered mechanisms.
Fold Out Furniture is now also a distributor of the mechanisms in Australia, for those who want to incorporate them into a bespoke piece created by their own joiner.
One of the perks of the job for Sue is regular trips to Italy, which is where the products are sourced. Flexible living spaces have long been a thing in Europe, with apartment style living necessitating functional, fold away beds and tables. Visitors coming from overseas to stay? No problem – that lounge suite by day converts to a bed by night. And the table that your family of four usually sits snugly around can accommodate two more families with the extension pulled out.
Or perhaps, like one of Sue’s clients, you just love to dance and you want to make a table to disappear from the centre of your loungeroom so that you can salsa the night away!
But fold away furniture is not just for small families, those downsizing and tiny home owners. Sue has customers who want to be able to transform their four or five bedroom home on a regular basis. Bedrooms by night become an office or sitting room by day – and there is nothing makeshift about them!
With her background in occupational therapy, Sue also uses her expertise to furnish disability care homes, as well as supplying hotels and Air BnBs. With easy to use spring systems and a weight ratio up to 450kg Fold Out Furniture beds are idea for these scenarios.
Developers are also catching onto the trend, realizing that they can add value to their offer by installing beds that convert to another piece. Convertible furniture adds to resale value. Developers see it as an alternative to adding on rooms. Fold Out Furniture established an office in Melbourne five years ago and they supply nationally. DIY options can be shipped anywhere in Australia, and Fold Out Furniture has installers or companies in most states that can install pieces that need putting together professionally.
Fold Out Furniture products are suitable for new builds and refurbishments. They carry stock of some products (particularly DIY items) but the Italian pieces take around two to four months to arrive from overseas. Appointments in the showroom or a virtual consultation can be arranged via the link on foldoutfurniture.com.au or by calling the number on the website. All you need to get started is your floor plan!
Get in touch with Sue at Fold Out Furniture
All photos are courtesy of Fold Out Furniture