The invention relates to a box-shaped piece of furniture which has a front, a back and two side walls and is closed upwardly by a horizontal plate.

Such a piece of furniture may e.g. be a conventional chest with drawers and/or doors.

The horizontal plate is normally used as storage location for utility articles as well as ornamental articles, but otherwise has no real practical function, e.g. as a working table or the like.

The reason is that the tabletop is flush with the front of the piece of furni¬ ture, which means that it may be difficult to obtain an expedient working position, since a user's leg or legs will easily touch the front of the piece of furniture by accident, which may be an additional nuisance.

Especially if it is desired to use the horizontal plate as a baby changing table which, in the nature of the case, is used several times round the clock, it may be rather strenuous to have to work repeatedly in an inexpedient working position.

Accordingly, an object of the invention is to improve the possibilities of us¬ ing the horizontal plate of a box-shaped piece of furniture, especially where the horizontal plate is used several times round the clock.

The object of the invention is achieved by a box-shaped piece of furniture of the type defined in the introductory portion of claim 1 , which is character¬ ized in that an extension plate is arranged below the horizontal plate, said extension plate being provided with fixing means such that the extension plate may be fixed in two positions, one position being that the extension plate is concealed below the horizontal plate, the other position being that the extension plate protrudes relative to the front of the box-shaped piece of furniture and in extension of the horizontal plate of said piece of furniture.

Hereby, the horizontal plate with the extension plate is converted into an expedient working table on whose surface e.g. nursing equipment for ba¬ bies may be placed.

A further benefit is that a user can completely avoid having to acquire a specific baby changing table, which may be of great importance if the space where the baby is nursed, is limited.

An expedient way of constructing the box-shaped piece of furniture is, as stated in claim 2, that the fixing means are formed by at least one leg which is secured to the lower side of the extension plate so that one end of the leg is flush with the front edge of the extension plate, and that the leg rests in a recess in the front, and that the leg has a maximum length which corre¬ sponds to the width of the side walls.

This ensures stable fixing of the extension plate since, in the position of use, it is locked in the recess by the action of pressure from the horizontal plate.

To ensure that the extension plate is flush with the horizontal plate when the extension plate is in an extended position, it is an advantage if, as stated in claim 3, the part of the leg disposed below the extension plate is thinner than the rest of the leg, and, as stated in claim 4, that the difference in thickness between the thinner part and the thicker part of the leg corre¬ sponds to the thickness of the horizontal plate, as the extension plate will then be lifted when the thick part of the leg enters into the recess. To ensure stable fixing of the extension plate, it is advantageous if, as stated in claim 5, the extension plate has two legs which rest in their re¬ spective recesses in the front.

An expedient way of configuring the recesses is, as stated in claim 6, that the front is terminated upwardly by three beams which rest on a strip pro¬ vided on the upper side longitudinally thereof, and that the distance be¬ tween adjacent legs corresponds to the width of the recesses, and, as stated in claim 7, that the beams have a width larger than the thickness of the front, which additionally stabilizes the fixing of the extension plate.

When the extension plate is concealed below the horizontal plate, it is an advantage if, as stated in claim 8, the other end of the leg or legs rests on a board which is positioned horizontally against the back and against the rear part of the two side walls, as the fixing is hereby ensured without any risk that the legs of the extension plate are bent downwards in the box-shaped piece of furniture.

A particularly user-friendly piece of furniture is characterized according to claim 9 that the fixing means are formed by at least one hinge which is se¬ cured to a frame, and that the frame is provided with two legs, each of which has a recess having dimensions which correspond to the width and the thickness of the extension plate.

As a result, a piece of furniture is provided where the extension plate is easy to change between the positions in which the extension plate is con¬ cealed or extended.

Expediently, as stated in claim 10, the box-shaped piece of furniture is a chest. As mentioned, the invention also relates to use. This use is defined in claim 11.

The invention will now be explained more fully with reference to the draw- ing, in which

fig. 1 shows a box-shaped piece of furniture according to the inven¬ tion with a retracted extension plate,

fig. 2 shows the box-shaped piece of furniture of fig. 1 with ex¬ tended extension plate,

fig. 3 shows how the extension plate is constructed for arrangement on the box-shaped piece of furniture,

fig. 4 shows the extension plate placed on the box-shaped piece of furniture in a retracted position,

fig. 5 shows the extension plate in section, seen from the right side in fig. 3,

fig. 6 shows a box-shaped piece of furniture according to the inven¬ tion in a second embodiment,

fig. 7 shows the box-shaped piece of furniture of fig. 6, where the frame carrying the extension plate is extended,

fig. 8 shows the box-shaped piece of furniture of fig. 6 and fig. 7 with the extension plate rotated 180° relative to the frame, while fig. 9 shows the box-shaped piece of furniture with the extension plate in a position of use.

In fig. 1 , the numeral 1 generally designates a box-shaped piece of furni- ture, shown here as a chest having four legs 3, a front in the form of doors 4, drawers 6 and a cut-out 5 in the drawers. This cut-out 5 may generally be configured with a decoration window in the same manner as is described in the Danish Utility Model Application No. DK BA 2004 00190. Upwardly, the box-shaped piece of furniture is closed by a horizontal plate 2.

As will be seen in fig. 2, an extension plate 7, concealed below the hori¬ zontal plate 2 in fig. 1 , is shown here in an extended position.

Fig. 3 shows the extension plate 7 separated from the rest of the box- shaped piece of furniture.

Two legs 9 are arranged below the extension plate, which are flush with the front edge 8 of the extension plate at one end and have a length which, as will appear from fig. 4, corresponds to the width of the horizontal plate 7.

These legs 9 are adapted to be mounted in recesses 13, 14 which are formed by three smaller beams 10, 11 , 12, as adjacent beams between them have a distance which corresponds to the width of the legs 9. As will ■ moreover be seen, a longitudinal strip 17 arranged transversely to the legs 9 is provided below the three beams 10, 11 , 12,

A board 15 intended to support the legs 9 is secured near the back 16 of the box-shaped piece of furniture.

As will be seen in fig. 5, the legs are configured such that the part of the leg disposed below the extension plate 7 has a thickness which is smaller, cf. 9A1 than the rest of the leg, cf. 9B.

It will now be explained how the extension plate 7 is handled in use:

When the extension plate 7 is in the retracted position shown in fig. 1 , the thin part 9A of its leg 9 rests in the recesses 13, 14 so that the horizontal plate may maintain its horizontal position. The free ends of the legs rest against the board 16.

When the extension plate 7 is extended, the thicker part 9B of the legs 9 will rest in the recesses, which means that the surface of the extension plate 7 will be raised, so that it will be flush with the surface of the horizontal plate.

Figures 6 - 9 also show the extension plate 7, which, as will be seen in figs. 7 and 8, is secured to a slidable frame, which is formed by two legs 21 pro¬ vided with a recess 22 which is defined by two members 23, 26. As will be seen, the recess has dimensions which correspond to the width and the thickness of the extension plate.

The extension plate is secured to the members 26 by means of at least one hinge 20, said members being connected with each other by means of a transverse strip 25.

When the extension plate 7 is to be used in the position shown in fig. 6, the frame is pulled out, as shown by the arrow 18. Hereby, the extension plate is pivoted as shown by the arrow 19 to the position shown in fig. 7, which corresponds to a pivoting movement of 180°, following which the frame is pushed back, as shown in fig. 8, in the direction of the arrow 24, whereby the extension plate reaches the position shown in fig. 9.