Designing and building functional furniture is challenging enough. When the designer goes the extra mile and renders the piece able to transform, so that it can increase its utility or save space, our hats are off to them. Here are the ten coolest pieces of transforming furniture we saw this year.

Jessica Banks' RockPaperRobot created this brilliant Ollie fold-flat chair:

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Sander Lorier has been advancing an earlier design, and this year unveiled this improved version of an office chair that turns into a lounge chair:

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For portable seating, the incredible Sitpack Zen weighs less than a pound but will hold 300 pounds:

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We couldn't puzzle out who actually designed it, but this Bonbon Flip sofa transforms into bunk beds, in what appears to be an update on an earlier Clei design:

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An architect wanted a custom table that could transform from dining size to blueprint-displaying size. Daniel Chaffin Furniture Makers obliged him with this unusual design:

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How important is presentation? There are three fantastic designs for transforming tables presented with horrible videos:

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Fancy a table that folds into a bookcase? Izzy Swan showed us how to make one:

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In his Tools & Craft section, Joel Moskowitz showed us a great resource for learning to build your own transforming "campaign furniture:"

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Going old-school, we stumbled across the design of these killer Wooton Rotary Desks:

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And while this is technically P.O.P. or retail design, we also loved this old-school design for a rotating hardware organizer.

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More of the best of 2017:

2017 Best of Furniture Design

Our Favorite Transportation Stories from 2017