Dual-purpose furniture has been made for centuries. By the 1700s, there were chairs with large round backs that flipped down....

Dual-purpose furniture has been made for centuries. By the 1700s, there were chairs with large round backs that flipped down on the top of the arms to make a table. There were also chairs that could be flipped over to be used as library steps. In the 1800s, new types of springs and hinges made it possible to manufacture a flip-down bed that could be stored in a closet or card tables with hidden pull-out leaves that transformed it into a dining table. A famous French architect and designer, Armand-Albert Rateau, designed a clever dual-purpose chair in about 1925. The chair had an oak frame with ebony veneer. The back of the chair was upholstered with silk and straw. The seat back was hinged so it folded down on the rest of the frame to form a low table. The Art Deco chair design was unique and could be useful today in a small apartment.

Unfortunately, the removable cushion and frame that formed the seat of this chair are missing. The dual-purpose chair by a famous designer was appraised at $15,000-$20,000 at a Los Angeles Modern Auction in December 2011.