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Sixay Furniture's Beautiful, Dense Multi-Drawer Storage Units

Sure, there's a bit of a usability issue

By Rain Noe - May 25, 2021

in Furniture Design

European company Sixay Furniture manufactures this beautiful SIXtematic series of drawer chests, which feature tons of flat, A4-sized drawers.

While the Kommode line above features straight legs, the SIXtematic2 line gets a little more playful with the base and tweaks the frame as well. "We have optically slimmed down the frame with uniform, narrow wood thicknesses all around. We think that the frame-free leg construction is also good and enhances this effect. The cheekily exhibited feet signal departure and movement."

The Lowboard variants ditch the legs altogether and go wall-mounted.

Hanging one of these looks like a real bear, but the company writes that it's made easier using their "three dimensional adjustable steel fittings:"

Here's a demonstration of how those fittings work, if you're curious…and want to hear European club music.

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I realize that these drawer units might be terrible from a usability perspective; even with the differently-colored fronts, I have no faith I'd remember what was in each drawer. I'd want to slap labels on each, which would probably ruin the aesthetic. What would your design solution be?

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Ross Oliver

4 years ago

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For marking drawer contents, a U shaped metal piece sized to fit over the top edge of the drawer, having a laser cut pictograph of the drawer contents. The metal could be in a variety of colors and finishes to complement the woods. Personally, I think designers' consistent choice to ignore the functional use of their products is a design failure.

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Nathan D.

4 years ago

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People who keep specimen drawers in their house tend to either have no actual use for them whatsoever or are going to show up on the news one day.

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Dee An

4 years ago

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It depends if the contents of the drawers have an inherent order of their own - shirts of different collar sizes and arm lengths - or if they will be used for miscellaneous items. Ordered items are, well, ordered, but miscellaneous items can hook into our memory more easily.
The speed at which the owner wishes to access an item is also a variable - a collector of watches or prints may not be in a hurry, a user of tools might be.
Whichever way, I would actually *test* the severity of the problem before devising any 'solution'.

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