A triangular cupboard vertically containing a ready-for-use bed is subject of the present invention.

It is known that, in the furnishing sector, multifunctional furniture items are increasingly required, which may be used for several purposes, occupying the least possible space, for the purpose of allowing maximum use of the reduced walking areas, for example of apartments of the one-room type, hotel rooms and/or college rooms and the like.

In particular, a need is felt for obtaining space by removing the bulk caused by the fixed presence of the bed, this space being used solely during the hours of sleep and representing, during the remaining hours, an unnecessary and not very attractive encumbrance. It is, furthermore, desirable to be able to use for this purpose those areas, usually dead, located at the corners of the rooms which do not normally allow rational utilization of* the area itself, on account of the presence of the corner.

For this purpose, many solutions have been developed, which provide for the bed to disappear into a cupboard by rotation about hinges disposed along the long side of the bed, which rotates parallel to the furniture item, arranging itself in a vertical position, but in the sense of the width of the furni¬ ture item, or disposed along the head end of the bed, which then rotates perpendicularly to the furniture item, being housed inside same in a verti¬ cal position, but in the sense of the height of the furniture item.

All these solutions, with the housing of the bed vertical and with the sur¬ face of the bed itself disposed frontally with respect to the cupboard, do

not, however, allow the cupboard itself to be available in correspondence with the corners of the walls, thereby requiring a wall area of considerable size to be occupied or, if this is not available, not allowing the furniture item to be used.

The technical problem therefore arises of creating a multifunctional cupboard, adapted for containing a ready-for-use bed and for being disposed in corres¬ pondence with the corners and similar formations of the walls of a room, in such a way as to allow either a portion of the total volume of the cupboard to be recovered for other purposes, such as the accommodating of cabinets, chests of drawers and the like, or the use of areas normally wasted because they are not sufficiently large to be used for other purposes.

Said results are achieved by the present invention, which provides a cupboard, adapted for containing, inside itself, a ready-for-use bed or a similar element of furniture and that possesses a fixed base of triangular shape in plan and a vertical lateral space parallel to one side of the base triangle, in which there is installed the ready-for-use bed or similar element of furniture, a plate being associated with said bed or the like by hinged connecting means disposed at the corner of one long side of said plate and adapted for allow¬ ing the plate to be rotated, in succession, about two mutually perpendicular horizontal axes, one rotation enabling the plate to be inserted into the space in a vertical position in the sense of its thickness and parallel to one side of the base triangle and the bed to be extracted from said containing space, th second rotation enabling the bed to be brought into its flat position on end supports.

More particularly said fixed base has the plan shape of a right-angled triangle or an isosceles right-angled triangle.

According to the present invention it is provided that in the cupboard adapted for containing, inside itself, a ready-for-use bed or similar,said coupling

means are preferably composed of a double hinge, firmly attached to the base, having two horizontal axes of rotation perpendicular to each other, of which the first is disposed parallel to the front face of the cupboard and is constitued of a bar element outside the base, which supports the bed when the latter is extracted from the cupboard and is placed flat ready for use. Furthermore said bed is composed of a mettress connected to said plate by means of straps or the like and in that the floor support for the plate is assured by a frame forming the support legs firmly connected to same. ^'

The cupboard according to the invention may, in alternative, contain a table or similar element of furniture and may furthermore be coupled to another cupboard along one of the respective catheteuses or along one of the re¬ spective hypotenuses.

Further details will be understood from the following description, prepared with reference to the attached drawings, in which there are shown: in Figure 1 a front view of the cupboard according to this invention; in Figure 2 a plan view of the cupboard of Figure 1 ; in Figure 3 a side view of the cupboard of Figure 1; in Figure 4 the cupboard of Figure 3 with the bed partly pulled out; in Figure 5 the cupboard of Figure 3 with the bed fully pulled out and ready for use; in Figure 6: a cupboard according to Figure 1 containing, as a variant, a table and a bed; in Figure 7: the cupboard of Figure 6 with the table partly pulled out; in Figure 8: a front view of an example of use of the cupboard according to this invention; in Figure 9: the cupboard of Figure 8 seen in plan with a drawer pulled out; in Figure 10: a front view of a different example of use, and in Figures 11 and 12: two further examples of use, seen in plan.

As Figure 1 shows, the cupboard according to this invention is composed basi¬ cally of a fixed base 1 , having the shape of an isosceles right-angled tri¬ angle, to which is firmly fixed a bar element 2, extending throughout the whole length of one of the two cathetuses of the base 1, and comprising a flat part 2a for anchoring to the base 1 by means of screws or the like, not illustrated in the Figure.

At a suitable distance from one of the two ends, the bar 2 is interrupted with the insertion of a hinge having a horizontal axis 3, firmly attached to a second hinge 4, itself also having its axis horizontal but perpendicular to the axis of the first, and in turn being fixed to the plate 5 which, by virtue of the double hinge formed in this manner, is able to rotate either about a horizontal axis parallel to the front surface of the cupboard, or about a horizontal axis perpendicular to that.

To the plate 5 there are also firmly connected a frame 5a, rotatable about hinges 5b and constituting the floor support legs for the plate 5, and a mattress 5c connected to the plate 5 by straps 5d or the like, the whole forming a bed 50.

The cupboard according to the present invention is, furthermore, completed by an upper body 6, itself also of triangular shape corresponding to the base 1, this body being secured to the base 1 by known means, not illustrated, external walls 7a and internal walls 7b being also provided, which define the various spaces of the cupboard.

The fixed base 1 , which is internally hollow, may in turn be completed by a triangular drawer 8, mounted on wheels 8a.

As can be seen from Figures 4 and 5, once the cupboard has been placed in position, it is possible to rotate the bed 50 about the hinge 2, pulling it on edge out of the cupboard itself, as far as the horizontal position (indicated in Figure 5 by broken lines), and then, when the plate 5 has been entirely pulled out, the frame 5a is rotated outwards (arrow A) into its blocked position beyond the vertical and then, finally, the plate 5 is rotated about the hinge 4 until the legs reach the floor.

As shown in Figure 5, the bed is ready to be used and then to be replaced by carrying out the succession of movements described above in the reverse order.

In a variant, as shown in Figures 6 and 7, the cupboard may also contain, alone or associated with the bed, a table 9 equipped with a leg 9a, the table being firmly connected to a base 1 ' disposed above the base 1 , by means of a hinge 3' attached to a bar 2'; as shown in Figure 7, the table may be pulled out and replaced by using the same procedure as that described for the bed.

It will be evident from the foregoing description that many examples of coupling are possible with the cupboard according to this invention, for the purpose of occupying entirely and in the manner most suitable to the particular requirements, one corner of a room, in particular (Figures 8 and 9): by coupling together two cupboards along one of the two cathetuses and arranging the respective hypotenuses 12, 12' along the walls 13, 13', a corner furniture item is obtained, from which two beds can be extracted, disposed parallel to each other and to the line bisecting the angle formed by the two walls; in Figure 9 there are also shown a drawer 8 pulled out from the furniture and a bar 14 for hanging clothes.

In Figures 11 and 12 there are shown two further variants of coupling together, in which two cupboards are placed face to face along the hypotenuse 12, 12' instead of along one of the two cathetuses: in Figure 11, the arrangement of the hinges enables the beds to be pulled out and positioned parallel to the walls, but perpendicularly to each other, whereas in Figure 12 the two beds are arranged parallel to the walls and are aligned with each other.

Numerous variants can be introduced, without thereby departing from the scope of the present invention, in its general characteristics.