8 - The Prince George Citizen, REAL ESTATE SHOWCASE - Saturday, April 18.1998
Furniture designer Joann Robertson with a fold-out dining room table.
Designer
creates
small
space
furniture
                                                     by SUSAN BALCOM Southam Newspapers
  VANCOUVER - Anyone who’s lived in a boat or camper knows how cosy and efficient a small home can be. The key is to use every possible nook and corner for storage and build in multipurpose furniture.
  But while the marine and recreational vehicle industries have turned small furniture design into an art form, the same cannot be said of manufacturers who are producing furniture for today’s smaller condominium apartments.
  In one upscale highrise now under construction in Vancouver, a studio apartment with an alcove for a home office measures just 450 square feet. That’s room enough for one person. But don’t try putting a couple, with all the usual furniture and baggage, into a suite that has only one closet, a tiny galley kitchen and no space at all for a dining table.
  It was when Joann Robertson found herself in a situation like this that she designed her first piece of multi-purpose furniture, a compact china cabinet called the DiningUnit (measuring 48 inches long, 42 inches high and 18 inches deep) that includes a flip-up table and storage for three or four folding chairs.
  The former social services worker and past president of the B.C. Inventors’ Society originally made the DiningUnit
 for herself. Then friends who saw it asked her to make one for them. Soon Suite Solutions Designs was formed, and Robertson created two more pieces.
   Her ingenious MultiUnit cabinet (also 48 by 42 by 18 inches) has a pull-out work surface suitable for hobbies, sewing or to store a computer. The BookCase WallBed (20 inches deep) looks like a bookcase but opens to reveal a single bed and a bedside table. Next on the drawing board is a fold-away home office.
   Suite Solutions’ furniture is made from a mix of solid and veneer maple, with a natural finish. It can also be ordered in pine.
   Prices start at $1,150 for a MultiUnit, $1,225 for a DiningUnit and $1,700 for a twin-size BookCase WallBed.
   Robertson, who lives in a studio
apartment in Vancouver’s popular False Creek, says many people are discovering that to live in the city they must compromise on floor space. “But that needn’t mean you have to compromise on the quality, or feel crowded by, your furniture,” she says.
   Given that she has no design or carpentry background, it’s amazing that Robertson has not only come up with the ideas she has but that she has managed to bring them to reality.
   Part of the process involved making balsa-wood models for each piece of furniture. Then, a prototype was constructed and any necessary changes in design were made.
   So far, the furniture is being produced one piece at a time at a small manufacturer in Port Coquitlam, Papa’s Fine Furniture & Accessories.