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Junk-market door as a desk/table/streetdoor

Cory Doctorow at 2:12 pm Mon, Jan 30, 2012

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This table, from Italy's Manoteca, is made from a junk-market door and a lot of style:

Made from a door found at a outdoor market in Modena, the table is outfitted with a custom steel frame and new hinges that enable the shutters to open and close at will. When flat, the table can accommodate up to 8 diners, while lifting the back panel open reveals an instant-work desk, complete with rawhide pockets to hold your empty leather-bound sketchbooks and drawers to keep that super 8 camera you’re planning to restore (never going to happen). In the words of the makers, “it’s a table, it’s a desk, it’s a streetdoor.” When it’s time for dinner just lower the top half and lock up.

A Table That’s Full of Surprises (via Crib Candy)

I write books. My latest is a YA science fiction novel called Homeland (it's the sequel to Little Brother). More books: Rapture of the Nerds (a novel, with Charlie Stross); With a Little Help (short stories); and The Great Big Beautiful Tomorrow (novella and nonfic). I speak all over the place and I tweet and tumble, too.

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  • bcsizemo

    Where does the lamp go?

  • peterkvt80

    That isn’t a Super-8 cine camera lurking there. It is a twin lens reflex camera for stills photography. I’m old enough to remember seeing people use these.

    • whowantstoast

      I still use one today.

      • http://twitter.com/magicmadzik Madzia

        Me too. Yashicamat. Love it to bits, even though I keep forgetting to mark whether it’s full or empty.

    • Anselm

      Ah, thanks, now I see it! Wasn’t finding the Super 8 :)

  • toyg

    Very nice concept…  with a bit of refinement, I’d buy it. 
    For one, I’d really want it to have actual storage space underneath — I can see stuff flying out of those pockets every time you close it.

    • http://www.facebook.com/mstoltzy Matthew Stoltz

      Message me on facebook if you would like to have a custom design built to your needs and aesthetic taste. 

  • Matthew Simmons

    Hey sillypants thats not a super-8 camera thats a twin lens reflex medium format camera. Probably a rolleiflex or some similar brand. Unlike super 8 film cameras, many people still use the old twin lens reflex for its high image quality (120mm film size) and the lack of an intrusively loud mirror slap you get from an SLR. 

  • awjt

    Neat, but I’d constantly hwang my elbows on the hinges sticking out on my side of the desk.

  • cbt22

    My husband made something similar, but his is made from a solid door without the shutters/hinges. He also took a second door and sawed it in half to make the legs, which I think is nicer than the steel frame here.

  • penguinchris

    I saw this a couple weeks ago, I think, and like many things you come across on Tumblr it looks fantastic (great aesthetic sensibility) but doesn’t hold up to scrutiny.

    As a multifunctional item it’s massively impractical. The camera would get crushed and the lamp destroyed and your stuff would fall out of the pockets if you decided to flip it down to have dinner and were a bit absent-minded, and if you just leave it in desk mode all the time then you’ve got a big gaping hole where more desk would be greatly desired.

    But – it’s still cool and if nothing else it does inspire one to make tables out of doors. Although I suspect the junk-market door supply outside of Italy is not quite so charming.

  • SamSam

    That wood is gorgeous, which is what makes this so nice.

  • Culturedropout

    It’s all good fun until somebody gets their lamp slammed in the door.  (And yeah – just looking at those hinges makes my elbows hurt.)  But it’s really pretty…

  • Anselm

    I’ve often used a door laid across two file cabinets as a desk. Done cheaply, it’s ugly but modular furniture, which is great for college dorms. Done well (custom-sized shelves or deep cabinets in matching wood, etc) it can be an attractive way to upcycle desks. And before desks came standard with cable holes in them, the hole where the doorknob was could be put to great use by computer or lamp cables.

  • http://www.facebook.com/mstoltzy Matthew Stoltz

    I’m a custom builder / designer and I came across this a few weeks ago. 
    I am building a couple different prototypes of a similar design for different customers who fell in love with this desk. I will be using only salvaged and FSC-certified woods (extremely difficult finding vintage doors of the right size). If anybody is interested, message me on facebook: Matthew Stoltz, Stanford c/o 2008