The chest that suits you depends on two things: how much floor space you can give it, and whether you fold more than you hang. A wide low chest suits people who fold, have wall length available and want a usable top surface. A tallboy suits people short on floor area who are happy to store upwards. A combination chest, mixing deep and shallow drawers, suits households where one piece has to handle several categories at once.
Beyond that headline choice, the details decide whether a chest works for a decade or becomes an irritation within a year. Here is how the main designs differ.
Typically 90cm to 120cm wide and 70cm to 85cm tall, this is the traditional bedroom workhorse. It gives you a large usable top surface at a comfortable height, which means it can double as a dressing surface or hold a television.
It suits rooms with an uninterrupted wall and households that fold most clothing. The wide drawers take folded jumpers, jeans and bedding without creasing.
The drawback is footprint. Including the drawer extension and standing room, a wide chest claims around two square metres of usable floor. In a small bedroom that is significant.
Usually 50cm to 70cm wide and 110cm to 140cm tall, a tallboy gives comparable capacity on around half the floor area. The drawers are smaller, which suits socks, underwear, shirts and accessories better than bulky knitwear.
It works well in narrow rooms, beside a chimney breast, or as a second chest alongside a wider one. Vertical furniture also draws the eye upwards, which helps in rooms with low ceilings.
Two practical points. Tallboys should be secured to the wall, particularly in homes with children, since a loaded top drawer shifts the centre of gravity forward. And the top surface sits above eye level for many people, which limits what you can usefully put there.
You can compare both formats across our modern chest of drawers UK sale range.
These mix drawer sizes, often with two or three shallow drawers at the top and deeper drawers below, sometimes alongside a cupboard section.
They suit anyone storing several categories in one piece: a single chest in a spare room, a child’s bedroom where clothing sizes vary, or a main bedroom shared between two people with different storage habits.
The compromise is that no single drawer is especially large, so bulky items can be awkward.
Mirrored fronts reflect light, which helps in rooms with limited daylight, and they visually dissolve the mass of the furniture so a large chest reads as smaller than it is.
They suit more decorative schemes and rooms where the chest is not the most heavily used piece. The maintenance is the honest drawback, since every touch shows. In a household where drawers are opened many times a day, this becomes a chore.
Our mirrored chest of drawers UK sale range covers both full mirrored and partly mirrored designs, the latter being more forgiving day to day.
High gloss fronts give a clean uniform surface with no visible grain interruption, which is why they often read as more expensive than they are. They also bounce light, which suits north facing bedrooms.
Handleless designs with push to open drawers take this further, producing an unbroken front. Check the mechanism quality if you choose one, since a push catch that fails is more disruptive than a loose handle.
Timber remains the most flexible choice. It suits almost any scheme, ages well, and marks can often be dealt with rather than becoming permanent.
Solid timber costs more and is heavier, but the drawer fronts can be sanded and refinished. Timber effect finishes are lighter and less expensive, and modern versions are convincing, though they cannot be refinished in the same way.
For most households, a well constructed timber or timber effect chest with metal drawer runners offers the best balance. There are options in most widths in our wooden chest of drawers UK sale selection.
If you fold most of your clothing, prioritise drawer depth and width. A chest with four deep drawers holds far more folded clothing than one with six shallow ones.
If you hang most things, the chest is a supporting piece and a tallboy or a narrow combination unit will do.
If you share a bedroom, two matching tallboys often work better than one wide chest, since each person gets their own storage and the symmetry suits most room layouts.
If the room doubles as a dressing area, a wide chest with a clear top gives you a surface that a tallboy cannot.
If you are furnishing a child’s room, prioritise safety fixings, rounded edges and drawers light enough for small hands to open. Our children’s chest of drawers UK sale range is built with those requirements in mind.
Drawer runners take the most punishment. Metal runners, ideally soft close, will outlast basic timber grooves in daily use.
Drawer bases should sit within a groove rather than resting on pins, since this is what prevents sagging under weight.
The back panel should be fitted into the carcass rather than pinned across the rear, which keeps the unit square over years of use.
Anti tip fixings should be included with any chest over about 100cm tall, and should be used.
Allow the full drawer extension plus around 30cm of standing space, which usually means about 80cm of clear floor in front of the chest.
Avoid placing a chest directly in front of a radiator, since the heat is wasted and prolonged warmth is not good for timber or finishes.
If the chest sits opposite the door, it becomes a focal point, so this is the position for your best looking piece. If it sits behind the door swing, check the door clears the drawer fronts when open.
You can see the full bedroom range at Furniture in Fashion.
A chest holds far more when the drawers are organised vertically rather than stacked. Folding items so they stand on edge lets you see everything at once and stops the bottom layer being forgotten.
Divide the wider drawers with simple inserts or fabric boxes, particularly for socks, underwear and accessories, since these are the categories that spread if left loose.
Keep the heaviest items in the lowest drawers. It makes the chest more stable and it reduces strain on the upper runners, which are the ones that usually wear first.
Timber tops benefit from a coaster under anything wet and an occasional wipe with a barely damp cloth rather than a soaked one. Oiled surfaces can be refreshed once a year with a light application, which restores depth to the colour.
High gloss fronts clean best with a soft microfibre cloth used dry, since abrasive cleaners leave fine scratches that catch the light permanently. Mirrored fronts need a glass cleaner sprayed onto the cloth rather than the panel, which keeps liquid away from the edges.
Handles loosen over time on any chest in daily use. Checking and tightening them twice a year takes minutes and prevents the fixing holes enlarging.
One chest suits a single occupant with reasonable wardrobe space. Two people sharing usually need either one large chest and a tallboy, or two matching tallboys placed symmetrically.
There is a point where adding another chest stops helping. Once furniture occupies more than roughly a third of the floor area, the room starts to feel crowded regardless of how well the pieces are chosen. At that stage the answer is storage under the bed rather than another unit against a wall.
A chest of drawers is one of the pieces most likely to move house with you, so it is worth thinking beyond the current room. Neutral finishes and simple fronts adapt to a new scheme, whereas strongly styled pieces rarely survive a move intact in terms of looks.
Consider weight and assembly too. A chest that dismantles cleanly is far easier to move than one built as a single rigid carcass, and keeping the fixings in a labelled bag after assembly saves considerable effort later.
A tallboy suits small floor areas and smaller items. A wide chest suits folded bulky clothing and gives you a usable top surface. Room size usually decides it.
Four deep drawers suit one person who folds most clothing. Six is comfortable for two people sharing, though two separate chests often works better than one large unit.
Any chest over roughly 100cm tall should be secured with anti tip fixings, and this is essential in homes with young children.
Matt timber or timber effect. It hides fingerprints, tolerates daily use and can usually be cleaned without marking.
Around 80cm of clear floor, which covers the drawer extension plus room to stand comfortably while using it.
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