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Furniture Design

Yea or Nay? The WorkBox, a Hideaway Workstation and Storage Unit

By Rain Noe - September 27, 2016

For those who do desktop crafts, the WorkBox is a made-in-the-U.S.A storage unit and workstation that folds in on itself and hides everything away when not in use. Take a look:

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The design of the storage units is undeniably intelligent. But after watching the video, I teetered back and forth on the UX. On the one hand, it's fantastic to have that much storage and organization with such a small footprint, and it's great that you can hide everything away when you're not engaged in the work.

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On the other hand, look at the size of the unit when closed: At three feet wide by three feet deep, it's essentially a refrigerator. I can't think of many pieces of furniture that intrude three feet into a room. And since it requires three feet of space to either side of it in order to fully unfurl, would it not make more sense to simply have a dedicated nine-foot-wide unit with less depth?

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I suppose the key benefit is one of flexibility. The fact that it's on wheels can sort of justify the size in that it can be wheeled, say, into a corner. (Though with something this massive, I'm not sure how often I'd be tempted to move it.) And as demonstrated in the video, in a tight space the doors could simply be opened 90 degrees rather than 180, trading some convenience for real estate.

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Since I do not do the type of desktop work the WorkBox is designed for, perhaps I'm not the best judge of how effective a solution it is. For those of you that do engage in such work, how do you find the design?

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Rain Noe

Rain Noe is a writer and industrial designer based in New York City.

2 Comments

Robyn Fraser

2 years ago

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The amount of storage is great, but the worktop is much too small. My actually sewing/knitting/crocheting/crafting table is a double length Ikea desk, so about 6 feet long and 3 feet wide. And I use every inch of it when I'm working.

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Christian van der Linden

2 years ago

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It needs a power strip. You already have to plug it in for the LED lamps to work. Why force users to route their cables through a tiny hole in the back?

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