The mobile coffee bar –turning the daily brew into furniture
Apr 2024Why the mobile solution was developed
How everything for the perfect coffee can be stored in a mobile station
Where the mobile design can be used
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With the mobile coffee station, the coffee comes to you. Whether for the home or the office, our colleagues at the Blum subsidiary in Mexico developed this special piece of furniture featuring a whole variety of extraordinary ideas, which are just as diverse as the coffee culture itself.
Mexican coffee culture
In Mexican coffee culture, a coffee break is an opportunity to exchange ideas and laugh together, which helps to relieve stress and let off steam. However, coffee not only has a relaxing effect – it is also stimulating. Enjoying a cup of coffee alone or with someone else allows you to reflect for a moment, to exchange ideas and to be inspired.
Coffee is therefore the ideal solution in the professional environment to ensure that you feel motivated and work efficiently. "Drinking coffee is a real ritual for us. It gives us a chance to talk to each other on both a professional and personal level. A lot of the best ideas start this way," says Sergio Sánchez, Technical Manager at Blum Mexico. After all, Mexico is one of the biggest coffee growing countries in the world. The idea to develop a mobile coffee station was therefore right in front of us.
Sergio headed up the creative side of the coffee bar project together with Karen Morales and Sahara Islas from the marketing department.
Why a coffee station?
The colleagues at Blum Mexico first and foremost wanted to achieve two aims:
A practical, mobile coffee kitchen:
A versatile piece of furniture which can be moved back and forth between the office, meeting rooms or work areas. This will save time and reduce the amount of time spent walking around the office.
Space for various items including cups, saucers, cutlery as well as for ingredients such as coffee beans, tea bags and sugar. It also provides space for tall items such as milk bottles and the coffee machine itself of course.
Piece of statement furniture:
The furniture was intended to be a special focal point and eye-catcher in small and large rooms alike.
Handle-less and screw-less appearance – none of the elements of the coffee bar should disrupt the geometry of the furniture. Instead of a conventional handle, an opening was milled into the side panel to ensure the furniture can be moved more easily.
Regular Blum products brought to life in extraordinary furniture – they represent an inspiration for new possibilities far and beyond standard furniture.
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The mobile coffee bar reveals plenty of storage space in the smallest of dimensions
Turning the idea into reality
Blum Mexico had to make a number of modifications when making the leap from the original idea to the finished item of furniture.
The dimensions therefore changed multiples times during the design process until the ideal size was concluded upon. This is now a good balance between a compact item of furniture which can be easily transported and an almost fully equipped coffee kitchen.
The implementation team also needed to draw upon some creativity when it came to using electricity for the electrical opening support system and coffee machine. When it comes to prototypes, the chipboard backs for the SPACE TWIN had to be adapted to hide the cables and ensure a harmonious overall appearance, even when the coffee bar is opened.
Details of the finished coffee bar:
Dimensions 1037x893x610 millimetres
Worktop: 50 square centimetres
Load capacity: 120 kilogrammes
Equipment: 2 large LEGRABOX drawers, 1 SPACE TWIN pull-out, 2 pull-out shelves
Material: MDF boards with polyurethane paint, smoked glass and stone
During the design phase, the Cabinet Configurator was used for the initial plans and the entire cabinet was split into individual areas for this.
The SPACE TWIN on the right side was implemented really quickly and it was only the dimension that had to be adapted due to the final overall width of the piece of furniture.
Planning the left side of the furniture was a little more tricky due to the different depths and opening situations of the pull-out shelf and drawers. A regular base cabinet and a "worktop mounted cabinet" were each planned with a pull-out shelf instead of the regular storage surface here. The results from the Cabinet Configurator were used for dimensioning in the CAD program. In addition to this, the parts list for the products used were automatically created and
the Product Configurator was used to find the suitable inner dividing system. With the knowledge of what was to be stored, the suitable product could be selected based on the drawer dimensions – colour coordinated to the drawer side colour.
The advantages
The mini coffee kitchen offers multiple drawers over an area of 0.5 square metres, and providing enough storage space for coffee beans, cups and more.
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Everything can be stored inside to ensure a streamlined and tidy appearance, as there must be nothing on the worktop when the coffee station is being moved.
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The item of furniture offers various work areas and storage options despite its compact size.
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The station moves on rollers, offering flexibility, but if the coffee machine is used stationary, only a power connection is needed.
Blum applications, reinterpreted
The innovative furniture comprises the and a , which are all standard Blum products.
The LEGRABOX drawers have an elegant carbon look and the inner dividing system inside keeps things tidy. LEGRABOX is also used in the narrow SPACE TWIN cabinet which is used to store tall items such as milk bottles, carafes or the coffee grinder.
It only takes a moment to extend the handy pull-out shelf with the runner system and secure it in place with the pull-out shelf lock. This provides additional space – 50 square centimetres of worktop is available overall despite the narrow dimensions of the furniture piece.
Motion technologies by Blum offer added convenience – thanks to electrical opening support system, a touch on the front is all it takes to open the drawers and pull-outs. This meant a clean look without handles, even though it was a challenge for Sergio and his team to completely hide all the cables for the SERVO-DRIVE and coffee machine in the small piece of furniture.
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The narrow SPACE TWIN pull-out is the perfect solution for small storage spaces. Tall and narrow items such as carafes or the coffee grinder can be stored with ease here.
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The decision was made to go with elegant LEGRABOX drawers for the coffee station. The AMBIA-LINE inner dividing system organises interiors.
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The handy pull-out shelf lock from Blum means that the coffee machine is ready to use in next to no time – even where space is limited.
More inspiration for practical cabinet solutions:
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Ideas for other applications
The mobile coffee station is not only suitable for the office – it can also be transferred to other applications if it is suitably adapted. For example for:
Kitchen studios and showrooms
Conference hotels and training centres
Gardens or terraces
Hairdressing salons and make-up artists
Your creativity has practically no limits. Sergio and his team are also considering how they can make the coffee bar even smaller.
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The mobile coffee station at a glance
A mobile coffee bar was designed to meet a personal need,
as the station offers pure coffee pleasure on the spot.
Cleverly placed drawers provide space for everything you need to make coffee.
There are various applications for the design such as hotels, hairdressing salons or outdoors.