First its a seat, then its a bed

In this latest window seat commission, 5 of the 7 pieces that make up the project are pretty much what they appear to be, but two of them have a secret. Two of the three long seats actually fold out to become beds. They're made with the same basic structure as the other seat units, and look like all the others.

But, their face frames open out on telescoping arms made with two sets of drawer slides.

Then the double-thickness seat platform opens ....

.... to create a nearly full size (48") bed platform.

The cushions of the other, non-opening seats are sized to cover the extra width to form a complete mattress system.

The construction technique that makes these pieces possible is torsion box construction of the bed platform panels. Each panel consists of half inch thick plywood skins with a coated cardboard honeycomb core.

Each bed unit will also incorporate closed storage in one half of the under-structure. Stay tuned for more pictures as the project nears completion.