Decorating With Antiques: Chests, Dressers and Buffets

The wonderful thing about decorating with antiques is that they add instant history and soul to a home. There’s something especially human about an object that was made by hand, or that has survived the ravages of time intact. I wonder about the people who made it and used it. What was their life like? What events has that dresser or chair or teapot witnessed? What conversations has it overheard?

Another reason I love to decorate with antiques is the sheer beauty of them. It’s a joy to live with things that may never be made the same way again, and making practical use of them allows the past to come alive in the present. This is reason enough to make antiques a part of your home and your life.

Is it a chest or a trunk? The answer is yes.

A trunk is always a chest, but a chest is only a trunk if it has no drawers visible from the outside. Otherwise it is a chest of drawers, or a dresser.

This antique steamer trunk provides storage and visual weight and interest at the foot of the bed. (This placement is where the term “foot locker” came from.) Don’t you wonder where it has traveled?


I have always had a love-hate relationship with barrel-topped trunks. Their shape is so appealing, and of course they’re great for storage. But the very thing that makes them appealing also eliminates their usefulness as an end table or coffee table. That is, until I saw this picture!

A little thinking outside the box can open up a world of possibilities for using antiques in decorating.


This primitive chest acts as a low entry hall table. It provides visual interest and a surface for display and technology, as well as storage for seldom-used items. The strength provided by dovetailed corners suggests to me that this piece might have originally been a tool chest.


Is it a dresser or a chest of drawers? “Dresser” is short for dressing table, and is different from a chest of drawers only in that it has an attached mirror. Although this Regency-style chest of drawers is paired with a mirror, it isn’t technically a dresser, because the mirror isn’t attached.

This chest functions perfectly for clothing storage. But since it doubles as a nightstand or bedside chest, it could also hold reading materials, pencils and notebooks, and tissues for a runny nose.


If these nuances of terminology seem nitpicky to you, no worries. If you call this a tall dresser rather than a chest of drawers, the word police probably won’t arrest you. Everybody will know what you mean.

I love the way this imposing chest adds drama and richness to the bedroom. The capacious lower drawers could easily store blankets and comforters — or a small Volkswagen. The upper drawers are great for sweaters, lingerie and other clothing items.


This antique William and Mary chest on stand, also called a tallboy (England) or highboy (America), was originally intended for clothing storage in a bedroom. But of course, like any chest of drawers, it’s a wonderfully versatile piece of furniture that can store bathroom, kitchen, dining room or office items, or simply the flotsam and jetsam of life. Once again, beauty and function join hands to create a very special room.


The owner of this bathroom was lucky enough to find a fantastic old pine buffet that was converted to a vanity. The patina and history of this piece make it so much more engaging than something new and mass produced, and the choice of faucet works perfectly for this configuration.


Or how about this elegant Eastlake-style dresser (notice the attached mirror)? It dominates and adds charm to a potentially ho-hum bathroom in its new use as a vanity.


An antique chest can also live comfortably in a living room flanking a fireplace and adding great decorative variety.


Or, in the form of an apothecary chest, it can provide a focal point for a large, blank family room wall, while adding storage for all those little items that need their own drawer. In mine I store lightbulbs, DVDs, extension cords, a first-aid kit, a wireless router etc. This kind of chest really is a storage queen.


Here a chest has changed hats once again, serving as a buffet in this dining room.


An actual buffet is a chest of drawers combined with a cupboard, as in this wonderful old French one probably from Provence.


Buffets work perfectly in a dining room to store dishes and silver, as well as providing a surface to hold gravy boats, vegetable bowls and meat platters awaiting hungry diners …


… but they can also charmingly accommodate a pair of lamps and a bouquet in an entry hall …


… or act as a kitchen island when resurfaced with a granite top, as in this enviable kitchen. (It’s hard for me, as someone who loves to cook, to decide which is more awesome: the buffet-cum-island or the incredible blue range, which makes me green with envy.)


What’s in a name? Whether it’s a trunk, chest, chest of drawers, dresser, tallboy, highboy, chest on stand, buffet or a Japanese tansu chest like the wonderful old antique here, decorating with these pieces is a soul-satisfying adventure that will open your home to a broad range of beautiful and practical solutions.

More:
Smart Shopper: How to Judge Antique Furniture Quality
Buffet, Sideboard, Server, Credenza: What’s the Difference?

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