Design Secret Weapon: 7 Ways to Use Architectural Flat Files at Home

If you’ve ever worked in an architecture firm, you’ll never forget the weirdly satisfying sound that architectural flat files make when they’re opened and closed. Unfortunately for luddites like myself, these beautiful dinosaurs are going the way of the card catalog, as hand drafting becomes increasingly obsolete and storing sets of drawings flat in a drawer is abandoned in favor of rolling them up and leaning them in awkward piles at your desk. But that’s good news for everyone else, because it means that lots of vintage flat files have found their way onto the secondhand market, and you can repurpose them (and add a little bit of architectural charm) in your own home.

Above: An architectural flat file makes a lovely coffee table in this living room from Gin Designs Group.

Another flat file coffee table, this one conveniently outfitted with wheels, from Annie Annie Vintage.

A vintage flat file is the perfect complement to the other vintage furnishings at the Adored Vintage showroom in Los Angeles.

From Marie Claire Maison, a particularly innovative use of a flat file—as a kitchen island.

This clever DIY storage daybed, from Fugitive Glue via Public Displays of Affection, incorporates an architectural flat file.

Flat files grace a dining room from My Scandinavian Home.

In the bedroom of Nick’s Los Angeles home, a flat file doubles as nightstand and art display.

A flat file bed? Believe it. Greg and Grey created one for their Los Angeles loft.