Watch an Entryway Bar Transform Into a Table for Two

Most architects become famous by designing humongous museums or concert halls. But New York architect Michael Chen is highly sought after for small-scale projects that he calls architectural appliances — compact, unfolding, transforming units that maximize space in cramped apartments.

“They’re larger than furniture but not quite a complete work of architecture,” Chen says. “And they tend to have a certain magic-box quality.” One of his latest designs is an entryway bar in a bachelor’s apartment in Manhattan’s Chelsea neighborhood; the home is less than 1,000 square feet.

The homeowner, who discovered Chen by seeing his unfolding apartment, wanted a bar in his niche entryway where he could display his scotch and boutique bourbon collection, as well as a small dining zone. Chen delivered with a space-age-meets-1970s wood-paneled design that flips and expands to create a multiuse bar area and an intimate dining table for two.

“We didn’t want it to feel like you were eating on the end of a diving board projecting off the end of the piece,” Chen says. “We wanted it to feel solid, like a table you could lean against with your full body weight.”

Two stools made out of solid walnut nest together and hide in the bottom cabinet.




When pushed back in, the dining table disappears and hugs the inner cabinet. “That’s the magic part,” Chen says. “It’s unclear how it all works. It involved some trickiness in engineering and hardware to come up with that sliding mechanism.”

He milled and modified an industrial sliding track to allow the large unit to slide out and lock in place sturdily.



One side has storage shelves for wineglasses, with a keg tap and a refrigerator beneath. The other displays the homeowner’s liquor collection on a separate cabinet piece hung directly into the wall and backlit with LEDs to create a floating appearance.


Most of the horizontal surfaces are Corian. The rest is white lacquered MDF. The dark wood is highly figured walnut burl, chosen as a “wink wink” to a wood-paneled 1970s bachelor pad, Chen says.

The right cabinet was designed as a two-faced piece with a door that has a display window. The homeowner can flip the door to display bottles or an art object.


“It’s a nod to architect Gio Ponti,” Chen says, referring to the cutaway windows and double-faced lacquer and wood veneer. “What’s amazing about it is, when the door is set in such a way that it’s all wood, it has a completely different feel than if you flipped it to show the white lacquer.”


The humidor was a late addition. The homeowner mentioned that he had a fun collection of cigars, so Chen had a special slide-out drawer milled out of solid cedar with a glass top and a humidification element in back.

More: Watch an Innovative Bookcase Convert Before Your Eyes

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