Aesthetically Concealed Key Cabinet

Abstract

An aesthetically concealed key cabinet integrated into a kitchen or other household cabinet system and comprising a back wall, two side walls, a top, a bottom and a door. The side walls are a contiguous extension of the front and back of a cabinet in the cabinet system and the top and bottom are a contiguous extension of the top and bottom of a cabinet in the cabinet system. The back wall is coincident with the side wall of a cabinet in the cabinet system. Key holding devices are appended to the back wall. The door matches the decorative design of the cabinet door fronts of the cabinet system but neither a door knob nor a hinge nor other hardware is visible when the door is closed thereby providing a concealed cabinet for storing household keys and key chains.

Description

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION[0001]1. Technical Field[0002]The present invention regards a concealed key cabinet, fully integrated into a common kitchen cabinet system or other installed cabinet system and containing hooks or other means for retaining and organizing, and thereby inconspicuously storing, a plurality of keys or key chains with keys.[0003]2. Background of the Invention[0004]Keys are often hard to find in the household. Placed in drawers in an unorganized fashion, it is often difficult to see which keys are present and which keys are missing. Furthermore, keys in table top elevation drawers or on countertops may be accessible to small children who may misplace them. Keys and key chains that are simply stored on countertops are also unsightly.[0005]Conventional, wall mounted key holders are generally too small to hold all the keys for a household in a manner both convenient and so that all the keys are visible. When such wall mounted holders are big enough to contain such ...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

[0007]Therefore it is the object of the present invention to provide a domestic key cabinet, in particular a key cabinet integrated into a kitchen cabinet system or other household cabinet system, which is spacious enough to hold a large number of keys used by the occupants of the household, including for example, keys to the residence, vehicle keys, mail and safety deposit box keys and the like, which is also easily accessible, but which can be closed so that the unsightly key display is not obvious.

[0008]It is also an object of the invention to provide a key cabinet that conceals stored keys from view and which does not conspicuously reveal the location or existence of keys or the location and existence of the key cabinet when the cabinet door is closed. These and other objects of invention are realized by a key cabinet that is aesthetically concealed as a decorative end section of a kitchen or other installed household cabinet system. As the key cabinet needs to be only a few inches in depth it may be conveniently added to the end section of a set of kitchen cabinets without excessively adding to the size of the cabinetry or reducing the cabinet space available for other purposes.

[0009]It is further advantageous that, in a kitchen cabinet system or other cabinet system comprising door fronts of a particular decorative design, the door of the key cabinet match the decorative door fronts, thereby appearing as a decorative side panel of a conventional kitchen cabinet. The key cabinet door may include hinges similar to any cabinet door, but preferably no exposed hardware, such as a door knob or hinge is apparent when the door is closed. The cabinet requires very little space and can be easily incorporated into a new kitchen installation, or retrofitted to an already existing installation.

Problems solved by technology

Keys are often hard to find in the household.

Placed in drawers in an unorganized fashion, it is often difficult to see which keys are present and which keys are missing.

Keys and key chains that are simply stored on countertops are also unsightly.

When such wall mounted holders are big enough to contain such keys, they tend to look aesthetically unappealing in the household.

In particular, large exposed key holding boards tend to have an industrial look, which is generally not desirable in a home.

Additionally, when a plurality of keys are stored upon such exposed devices they tend to look disorganized and therefore, visually unappealing.

Large exposed key holding boards also pose a considerable risk of unauthorized use of the keys by intruders.

The more keys displayed in one place, the greater the risk that the keys may be used by persons not authorized to do so.

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