Leather-bound book transforms into multipurpose furniture

Bookniture is a book that unfolds into a flexible item of furniture.

Foldaway furniture is nothing new — lots of households have folding chairs and camping stools tucked away in corners around the house, ready to be dusted off for extra visitors or a summer picnic. Now offering an even more compact and better looking proposition, there’s Bookniture — a book that unfolds into a flexible item of furniture.

In its book form, with its leather binding and classic design, Bookniture resembles an extra large Moleskine diary that can be easily carried or stored away on a bookshelf. However, it can also open out like a concertina to reveal a honeycomb paper structure which, when expanded, can withstand more than 100 times its own weight. Users simply open the book and cover with a simple felt top, before using as a seat, table, stool or anything else they desire.

Bookniture comes in field brown or leather black and the felt tops come in a range of eight colors — all of which are laser engraved. The product is crowdfunding now on Kickstarter and has already surpassed its USD 50,000 target six times over with almost a month to go. Is this a product that could be used en masse in multi-purpose spaces?