Each time dictates its own styles, including in furniture design. However, in addition to beauty, many interior items should also have additional functionality: have drawers, drawers and shelves. And in some cases - hiding places, small safes disguised as ordinary bedside tables, chests of drawers or other pieces of furniture, as well as built into bookcases and wardrobes.

Secretary with curved legs, decorated with carvings

Their presence always had a meaning: here it was possible to hide something that was not necessary for others to see. And, starting from the 18th century, in any rich house one could find a secretary, or in the Russian version, a desk where the owner kept especially valuable documents: bills, money, jewelry.

Inside the extant antique furniture very often various hiding places and secret boxes are discovered

Furniture with secrets - table and cabinet with additional drawers

In past centuries, in the homes of wealthy people, a desk or cabinet with secret drawers, which were used to store especially important documents, money, and jewelry, which made it possible to protect them from thieves. Later in France, a special table-cabinet was invented, called the secretaire, because in it it was really possible to store various secret documents and small valuables.

The drawers were often equipped with secret locks and secret locking mechanisms

The popularity of secretaries and other furniture “delicacies” equipped with various secret spaces was not accidental. Their design has its advantages that ordinary tables and cabinets do not have, and features that are unique only to such products.

They are no less relevant today: valuable papers, expensive jewelry, important correspondence and documentation are stored in stylized safes and hiding places. Among the obvious advantages of such furniture are:

• storage of valuables without access to them by strangers;
• their arrangement in different furniture elements;
• the possibility of making secret storage facilities with your own hands.

Among the factors characteristic of furniture with a secret, the design features of such products are highlighted, making it possible to prepare places for storing a specific type of valuables. As a rule, if hiding places are specially equipped, they are equipped with secret locks, and today with an electronic security system.

Today the furniture market offers products not only for personal use, but also for enterprises and organizations. In addition, it can be made to order according to individual drawings.

To open this table you need to place a special magnet in right place, no more knobs and levers

Hiding places in ordinary furniture

Hiding places are often installed under furniture - in the empty space between the legs

Antique furniture is a storehouse of secrets and mysteries. Old cabinetmakers transformed elements furniture design into real works of art. Today's craftsmen make modern furniture in the old style, helping to create special interior and supplement it with hidden elements.

Hiding places in antique furniture

Purchasing special tables, cabinets and bedside tables with hiding places is quite expensive. But that doesn't mean it's especially important documents and the jewelry will remain on the shelf in the closet.

Option for a hiding place in the house on a bookshelf

Ready-made furniture with hidden niches

Wall mirrors and paintings special design can also be an excellent hiding place

Available today various types ordinary furniture equipped with secret spaces. Secret places can be located in any part of it, and the owners themselves can equip them with their own hands, or by ordering their production to craftsmen, secret places can be located:

A secret drawer or safe disguised as an outlet

Do-it-yourself or custom-made caches

Custom-made desk stash

There is not always a need to buy expensive exclusive furniture equipped with secret places. Can be used budget option by ordering the necessary element of furniture interior to specialists according to your own drawings. Is it possible home handyman try to create and arrange it with your own hands.

These can be equipped secret places under or inside countertops, in the doors of cabinets and bedside tables, as well as shelves and drawers on which locks can be installed.

Interesting equipped in the depths of the drawers desk small niches"turnkey" with a secret.

An interesting option for hiding in a chest of drawers

Hollow furniture legs and uprights

A simple hiding place in furniture - in the hollow legs of a chair

A hiding place arranged in these pieces of furniture is considered a classic. Making it is quite simple: you need to drill a hole of the selected size inside the furniture element. It is assumed that only one person will know about such a “secret” - the one who made it.

It is clear that the place for storing valuables equipped here does not imply their large number, which you need to remember to disguise in a convenient way.

Advice. You need to make holes very carefully and not overdo it with their diameter, so as not to weaken the structure and lead to its breakage.

Stash inside the chair seat

Hides in boxes

The double bottom drawer is a true classic that still works today

Traditionally, hiding places are located in drawers of a desk or chest of drawers, where a “second bottom” can be made. For its equipment, take the same material from which the furniture itself is made, of the same size, secure it:

• Velcro;
• magnetic strips in a plastic frame;
• other convenient ways.

Small hiding place idea - a box within a box

You can put flat objects there:

• documents;
• cash;
• photos;
• securities.

Hidden “treasures” must also be secured on the “second day”.

Drawers with secrets for regular cabinets

Hides in closets

Secret drawers, securely hidden in the most ordinary-looking bookshelves

Cabinets provide a wide field of activity for equipping secret places from thieves. Their large internal and external space allows you to hide a large number of items of various configurations.

Hiding places built into a regular closet

Cache location	What can you hide?	How to secure
Under the bottom of the cabinet, in the far corner	Jewelry, small valuable items	·Fold into a box of suitable size and place on the floor; ·pack in a bag and attach with Velcro to the bottom of the cabinet
Behind the back wall	Documents, securities. Jewelry, art paintings	Secure in bags and attach with tape or glue
For inner surface mirrors	Only flat objects	Use tape
At the bottom of the cabinet - the formation of a second bottom	Any objects corresponding to the height of the second bottom	Fold into a niche, cover with the second bottom
In the far corner inside the closet, disguised as a shoe box	Items that fit the box	Place a box with a lid that can be locked in a shoe box secured with self-tapping screws to the floor of the closet, put a pair of shoes on top that no one uses, cover with a shoe box lid

Pull-out panel in the closet, hidden from prying eyes

Attention! Before hiding a thing, you need to decide who may know about the existence of the cache and have access to it, so that if it is discovered by household members, you will not end up in a stupid position.

Video: how to make - The simplest cache

In the century high technology people quickly forgot that just two decades ago letters were written by hand and sent by mail. Today, progress has gone so far that there is no longer a need for paper correspondence, but still, in offices and bedrooms, many people need functional and beautiful furniture for working, for example, on a laptop.

This article was written to remind you of such pieces of furniture as a bureau and a secretary, as well as to tell you about the origins of their occurrence and the features that distinguish one item from another.

The design of the bureau was created at the turn of the 17th and 17th centuries, in France, and was nothing more than a large casket on tall legs with a hinged inclined lid above the tabletop, which was complemented by compartments or drawers for writing instruments. Such an item was often installed in bedrooms and served as a desk and jewelry box. The bureau took up little space and was comfortable to sit at; these qualities prompted furniture makers to develop the very idea of ​​this item; as a result, a certain cabinetmaker J. Aubin, a courtier of Louis XV, modified the design of the table and decorated it with a cylindrical lifting lid, for which it received the name “ Bureau of the King”, and today it is a symbol of its era, one of the main attributes of an interior in a classical style.

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A secretary, a tall one, is considered a related item for a bureau. bookshelf, staffed pull-out shelf or a folding board for writing. Even at the very beginning of its existence, the secretary was an element of the furnishings of purely luxurious, aristocratic interiors

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Secretary in a modern interior

These days, interior design is no longer bound by any technological framework, fashion trends or other restrictions. Everyone is free to dispose of their personal living space at their own discretion and according to personal preferences. For some, the layout is important, taking into account the location of all technical innovations, while others need the spirit of tradition, a unique atmosphere and aesthetics in each item.

Such an object can be furniture with history, some kind of cult object that will transform the decor of a bedroom, living room or office. The secretary today is once again becoming a popular piece of furniture, because it is not only very effective, but can serve as a chest of drawers, a desk and a bookcase at the same time, which is especially important in the space of a small room.

First of all, a secretary cabinet will be appropriate in a classic elegant interior with the same high-quality furniture, expensive fabrics and natural materials.

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It is also good to use this item in the neoclassical interior of the living room, bedroom french style(furniture made of light wood or painted), Art Deco office.

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Note that the choice of room for the location of the secretary in the house is not important; it can be installed in the dining room, hallway and even children's room in order to conveniently store all the essentials in one place.

Types and features of office designs

As was said, the bureau is an extraordinary object, very characteristic and catchy. It is simply impossible not to notice it in the setting, thanks to its unusual appearance, which, by the way, can vary somewhat and contain features of other pieces of furniture familiar to us.

Desk bureau

It can be presented in the form of a familiar, but compact table, with a convenient design of compartments for accessories, built on the surface of the table top, which, in turn, can be retractable or folding.

A more modern minimalist model looks like a regular desk, but with a hidden drawer system and a lifting top.

The bureau table is undoubtedly an excellent purchase for modern practical interiors, and is especially useful in small children's rooms, cozy bedrooms or built-in home offices.

Classic bureau

A traditional bureau will also not take up extra space, but will look much more distinctive than a table.

This item should be equipped with a hinged lid, inclined or cylindrical, hiding two or three tiers of mini-compartments for office supplies and personal belongings.

Models of traditional bureaus today are made from practical, quality material MDF, and the straight lines of the silhouette allow you to use similar furniture in modern styles: contemporary, boho and even loft.

The bureau, made according to the classical model, is always made of solid wood, with curly legs, decorative fittings, often with artistic painting or carvings on the facade. Such a thing should be used when decorating interiors in vintage, retro, classic, and also boho styles, if the owner of the house likes such an item.

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Chest of drawers

The combination of the design of several objects in one testifies to the endless desire of human thought for functionality and comfort in everything. The hybrid was no exception furniture industry— a chest of drawers where you can store personal belongings and, if necessary, use the folding tabletop for work.

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The design of a bureau-chest of drawers can be completely varied, from classic to ultra-modern, which allows you to use the item in any interior style, in any area of ​​the room convenient for you.

However, the most unusual models bureau-chests (varnished figured, or in the constructivist style with clear forms) will organically fit into equally bright interior styles: pop art, boho classic, empire and art deco.

Bureau-console

Most amazing option a bureau, in our opinion, combined with a console. It can be used even where the area is very modest: in a bright, but narrow corridor; small bedroom, kitchen-living room, compact hallway.

The design of the console office is light and compact, often having only two support legs and fastenings to the wall. A narrow, long tabletop is sometimes complemented by a pull-out shelf and lined rows of compartments for accessories.

Vintage, shabby chic, classic style - this is the environment in which such an item looks appropriate for a setting with a touch of time.

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Transformable furniture has become popular in lately due to insufficient space in small apartments for useful things.

But such pieces of furniture were invented quite a long time ago. This applies to this interesting subject interior as a secretary. Despite the fact that previously living space was measured not by individual rooms, but by floors, houses and entire palaces, this multifunctional cabinet gained its popularity even then. Later, this furniture began to be replaced with heavy walls and began to be taken to dachas or simply got rid of it. Now secretaries are again at the peak of popularity, however, the variety of models allows them to be successfully fitted into almost any room. We will tell you below why it has gained such popularity and how to use a modern secretary in the interior.

Secrets of the secretary

It is believed that the first secretary was created in 1730, but the prototype of this piece of furniture appeared in the 12th-13th centuries. Then it was exclusively ladies' furniture, where romantic young ladies wrote messages to their lovers, and women close to power decided the destinies of individuals and entire states. Later, men also appreciated the charm of such an unusual cabinet-table, and it was used by the highest strata of society, right up to kings and emperors. The furniture of some of them still amazes the imagination, delighting the eyes of connoisseurs in historical museums and galleries. Also, secretaries were often used by doctors, since in its numerous compartments it is convenient to store papers, medicines, and various medical devices.

It is worth noting that the secretary has always been a combination of a cabinet, a desk and a safe, and it has remained the same to this day, only appearance Thanks to the efforts of furniture designers and manufacturers, it can now be completely different. Sometimes a written secretary is compared to a bureau. However, there is one main difference between them: a secretary is a type of cabinet, i.e. storage places, and a bureau is a type of table, i.e. workplace. Thus, the main function of these multifunctional items the interior is different.

Interior use

Designers have always understood the beauty of such interior items, although they could not always use them. And if a modern secretary occupies a separate place in the interior and is an independent piece of furniture, then quite recently, in Soviet times, it was often built into furniture walls or sets. Thus, a separate section or module was allocated bookshelves, several drawers and the same folding tabletop, which make up the secretary. We can say that this was a version of the built-in secretary.

Advantage modern models is that they can either be part of a furniture group belonging to the same collection or skillfully matched to each other in color and style, or differ from all other pieces of furniture, being the main object or accent in the space.

The options for today's secretaries can be completely different: massive and miniature, stationary and mobile, ordinary rectangular and corner. Appearance - shape, fittings, color and other characteristics - can please people with completely different tastes.

It could be a classic desk secretary made of solid wood, an elegant console cabinet for the hallway, a multifunctional secretary for the bedroom that looks more like a chest of drawers, a modern computer desk-secretary, etc. There are specialized or, better to say, “professional” secretaries, for example, accounting, filing or library models.

The variety of models allows you to imagine a modern secretary in the interior of any room. In the office, this is an indispensable desk secretary, combining a durable tabletop with convenient storage for papers and small items. In the living room this is a storage area with the possibility of turning it into work area. In the nursery it's convenient place for creativity, where all things are in order, but at the same time always at hand. Also, in all these rooms you can install a computer desk-secretary if there is no separate place for it.

Many remote workers will like this, because such interior items are designed not only for laptops, but also for desktop computers. In any case, if necessary, for example, when receiving guests, you can workplace hide by lifting the table top or closing the door if the secretary is a table in a closet.

You can use a modern secretary in the bedroom interior either to create a work area that can be easily hidden during relaxation by raising or sliding the tabletop, or to store bedding, women's magazines and other little things, as well as writing plans for the next day or keeping a diary every night.

The kitchen can also include a transformable cabinet such as a secretary, but still few people organize a work area here in order to work with papers or at the computer. For the kitchen, it is better to choose desks or buffets similar to secretaries with retractable or folding tabletops.

A small writing secretary on high legs can be placed in the hallway or hall so that it is convenient to put the press on it, sign bills or leave some small things (keys, change for travel, a shoehorn) so that they do not get lost.

Models for different design styles

Antique secretaries look great in classic styles interior, especially retro style, and a modern secretary - in the interior of a minimalist design, high-tech style or others modern directions. An antique writing secretary is usually massive, “pot-bellied” and solid: made of solid expensive wood and decorated with carvings. Such aristocratic furniture dark colors suitable for Baroque, Rococo, Art Nouveau and other styles classic interiors. Use of antiques or artificial aging new furniture is also quite typical for these interior styles.

Refined furniture options with elegant shapes and original fittings are suitable for the Art Deco style. Usually secretaries for them are more like narrow ones console tables with small drawers on top. Such tables are usually made in black and white, which is one of the characteristic features of Art Deco.

A modern computer desk-secretary is presented either in a light, airy model, or combines a spacious bookcase with a retractable or opening tabletop.

Such secretaries with a minimum of finishing and simple fittings are suitable for minimalism, hi-tech, pop art styles, however, the materials and colors for each option should be different. Thus, the high-tech style is characterized by translucent matte facades, gray, laconic form, chrome parts and technological options for transforming the table. Pop art “loves” the combination bright colors, slightly naive details, pictures or photographs on the facades. Basically, for some modern styles In the interior, you can decorate your computer desk-secretary yourself, using an inexpensive purchased model as a basis.

For ethnic styles You can choose your own shapes. So, French, English or scandinavian interior easy to create using furniture from certain manufacturers. Country style provides slightly naive desk cabinets with natural or artificial abrasions on the body. Small secretaries of laconic forms made of wood and rough finishing are suitable for eco-style.

Proper use of the secretary's features, rational storage of books, papers, writing instruments and other things necessary for work, as well as the interesting appearance of this piece of furniture will certainly be appreciated by any home owner. By the way, the secrets of some ancient secretaries have not yet been solved, maybe your furniture will become interesting to your descendants later?