A Buyers Guide to Tambour Cupboards

Tambour cupboards are office storage cupboards with slatted doors which normally roll sideways into the frame of the cupboard. Some of them have doors which roll upwards, but these are less common because the mechanisms are more fragile.

They probably offer the most efficient and practical storage method in a modern office, since they can be used for many different purposes, including general storage, filing and for storing books.

They are available in a number of different types, the most common being wood framed and metal framed. The metal framed is the least expensive an and the most common. The strongest cupboards are those with welded metal frames, but flat-pack versions are also available for locations where it would be difficult to put a fully assembled cupboard, eg if there are stairs to negotiate. When ordering tambour cupboards you need to consider how they will be brought into the room where they will be used.

Tambour cupboards come in a variety of sizes, from desk-high units to two metre cupboards for maximum storage. They also come in variety of widths from about 60cm to about 120cm.
Metal framed tambour cupboards are usually available in graphite or aluminium finish to match standard office furniture, but can also be obtained in other colours, eg black, white or silver. The tambour doors are available in these same colours, and also wood-effect (eg beech, oak, cherry, pear etc) to match the rest of the office. Decorative tops are also generally available to give shorter cupboards the same appearance as desktops, and to bring them up to the same height, so that they act as a desktop extension.

One of the most important things when choosing tambour cupboards is to establish what is required in terms of shelving. Some cupboards come equipped with standard shelves, while others require shelves to be purchased as optional extras. Take care, the price of the shelves can be high and may make a cheap-sounding tambour cupboard quite expensive. There are two main methods of storing standard files in a tambour cupboard, lateral filing and pull-out filing. Lateral filing is where the files are suspended directly from the underside of the shelves, with the file labels facing forward. Some tambour cupboard systems have hangers for lateral files built in to the shelves - this can be a significant saving. Pull-out filing trays can be used, but they tend to be quite expensive and can only be used on lower shelves.
There are also many optional items you should consider, for example special shelves for holding computer media, display shelves for books and magazines, pull-out reference shelves for holding books and files once they are removed from the cupboard. Extra-deep tambour cupboards are also available which can be used for locking away computers etc. There are also wardrobe variants of standard tambour cupboards for storing hats, coats etc in an office environment.