When Henry Ford was first making his model T automobile he was often quoted as saying you can have any color you want as long as it’s black. For a very long time this same idea and philosophy also applied to vertical metal filing cabinets. They were available in an almost military gray colour with virtually no other options. Eventually medium tan was added to the range.
Today that same boring metal filing cabinet has evolved to exist in a variety of forms. There are the traditional two, three and four drawer vertical cabinets which if one wishes can still be bought in gray. But also available are stylish lateral filing cabinets made in metal, wood or a combination of both and modular wooden filing cabinets designed to exactly match other office décor. Lateral filing cabinets differ from vertical in that they still store the files upright in a row but the height of the vertical filing cabinet is replaced by the extended width of the lateral model.