Furniture Chests

Here are a few things that I learned about furniture chests. The type of drawers called a “chest” is often more tall than wide, though still plenty wide, and tends to have only one column of drawers, which themselves are wide, and the exception is usually one or two rows at the top with smaller drawers.

There is a certain configuration called “chest on chest,” which appears to mean that they have attached one chest on top of another, though it is not the case, the design of the tall dresser makes it visually seem that a regular style hope chest is on the bottom. Now that I think about it, I do believe the tall dresser in my bedroom is a chest on chest style. Well what do you know.

The highest quality chests are made with solid hardwood. While sturdy and solid, these can be quite heavy, easily weighing in at 250 pounds.

Some furniture chests come with a drawer that has a jewelry tray in it. Now that’s clever.

Makers of furniture chests like to use the word “capacious” when describing to their chests. Of course, I’ll have to look it up. It looks awfully like “spacious,” but does it have the same meaning? Let me find out…

Turns out “spacious” is a synonym for “capacious.” I was about to whine that they could just use the word spacious, but are probably wanting to sound sophisticated, when I noted that the main definition is “capable of holding a lot.” Just because something is spacious doesn’t necessarily mean it can hold a lot. But if there are many shelves/drawers in a spacious area, then it can hold a lot. So I’ll let them slide on this one.

Many chests are made to look like popular antiques, with the Victorian era being perhaps the most popular antique style. I’ve also seen the word “bombe” which apparently is another style and likely pronounced “bombay.” Other popular styles include traditional and Newport. At least I think Newport is a style and not a brand. Some furniture chests open up and fold out into a mini bar.

Finally, it turns out I was wrong about chests usually being tall. It seems that furniture chests are just as often short and wide, as you would expect a treasure chest to be.