A tallboy is a tall, narrow chest of drawers, typically 40cm to 50cm deep and 50cm to 80cm wide, standing between 100cm and 140cm high. It suits homes where floor space is scarce but wall height is available, which describes a great many UK bedrooms. The main things to check before buying are stability, drawer runner quality and whether the top drawer sits at a comfortable height for you.
A standard chest of drawers spreads horizontally and offers a usable surface at around 80cm, which is roughly worktop height. A tallboy stacks the same storage vertically, giving more drawers in a smaller footprint but placing the top surface too high for most people to use as a display or dressing area.
That vertical stacking is the point. In a room where the walls are occupied by a bed, a wardrobe and a door, a tallboy can occupy a 60cm strip and still deliver five or six drawers.
The trade off is access. The lowest drawers require bending and the highest may need a stretch, so plan what goes where before filling it.
Measure the available wall width first, then the depth you can lose without narrowing the walkway. A 40cm deep tallboy is far easier to accommodate than a 50cm one, and the difference in capacity is smaller than it sounds.
Height deserves equal thought. A tallboy that finishes just below a picture rail or window sill looks settled. One that stops at an arbitrary point can look unresolved. In rooms with sloping ceilings, check the height at the exact position where the piece will stand, not in the middle of the room.
Consider the top surface too. If the tallboy is above 120cm, treat the top as storage for rarely used items rather than as a display shelf. Anything placed there will be seen from below.
Drawer runners determine how a tallboy feels after five years. Metal runners with ball bearings glide smoothly and carry weight well. Simple wooden runners work in lighter pieces but can stick in humid conditions. Soft close mechanisms are a genuine benefit on tall units because they prevent the whole piece rocking when a drawer is pushed shut hard.
Check drawer boxes as well as fronts. Dovetailed or grooved construction lasts longer than stapled boxes, and a solid base rather than a thin panel stops the bottom bowing under folded clothing.
Drawer depth matters more in a tallboy than a chest. Very deep drawers in a narrow unit become heavy and awkward. A mix of shallow top drawers for small items and deeper lower drawers for jumpers is the most usable arrangement.
Any furniture taller than it is wide needs securing to the wall. This is not optional in a household with children, and it is sensible everywhere. Most tallboys include a strap or bracket, and fitting it takes a few minutes.
Load the unit from the bottom up. Heavy items in high drawers raise the centre of gravity and make tipping more likely when a drawer is open.
Check the floor as well. On thick carpet, a tall narrow unit can lean slightly. Placing a thin rigid board under the feet, hidden by the carpet pile, levels it and removes the wobble.
Solid timber and oak veneered tallboys are the most robust and age well, with grain that hides everyday marks. They are also the heaviest, which helps stability but makes repositioning a two person job. The modern wooden chest of drawers UK sale range gives a sense of how timber tone changes the presence of a tall unit in a room.
High gloss finishes reflect light and suit contemporary schemes, particularly in rooms with limited daylight. They show fingerprints around handles, so pieces with recessed grips rather than protruding knobs stay cleaner. The modern high gloss chest of drawers UK selection covers this style in several tones.
Painted and mirrored finishes each have their place. Mirrored tallboys work well in narrow rooms because they visually dissolve, though they need frequent cleaning. Painted finishes allow colour matching with existing furniture and can be touched up.
The classic position is beside a wardrobe, continuing the vertical line and creating a storage run. This works well when the heights are similar or when the tallboy is clearly lower, since a small height difference can look accidental.
Another option is the wall opposite the bed, where the vertical shape balances the horizontal mass of the bed. Avoid placing a tallboy directly beside the bed as a bedside substitute, because the height is wrong for reaching a lamp or a glass of water.
Alcoves either side of a chimney breast are often the exact width for a tallboy, which makes them the most efficient location in period properties. Measure at both the front and back of the alcove, as walls are rarely perfectly square.
A tallboy is useful in a hallway for gloves, keys and post, provided the depth does not obstruct the route past. In a home office it holds stationery and files without the footprint of a filing cabinet.
In a spare room that doubles as a dressing area, a tallboy alongside a hanging rail covers most storage needs without a full wardrobe. If you are comparing options for a whole room, viewing the bedroom furniture UK sale section as a set rather than as individual pieces tends to produce a more coherent result.
We supply a great many tallboys to customers in flats and terraced houses at Furniture in Fashion, and the pattern is consistent: they are chosen when the wardrobe is already full and there is no floor space left for a wide chest.
A tallboy only feels efficient if the contents are arranged by how often they are needed. Put daily items in the drawers between hip and chest height, which is the range you can reach without bending or stretching.
Reserve the lowest drawer for bulky or seasonal items that come out a few times a year. Bending to a low drawer every morning becomes tiresome quickly, and it is the main reason people say a tallboy did not suit them.
The top drawer is usually the shallowest and works well for socks, underwear and small accessories. Drawer dividers make a real difference here, because narrow drawers turn into a jumble faster than wide ones.
Keep weight reasonably even across the width. Loading one side of a narrow drawer consistently can cause it to tilt on the runners and eventually to stick.
Handles change the character of a tallboy more than any other detail, and they are the cheapest element to replace. Long vertical pulls emphasise the height of the unit, while small round knobs break it into horizontal bands and make it look shorter.
Match the metal finish to what already exists in the room. Brass warms timber and painted finishes, matt black sharpens pale units, and brushed steel suits gloss. Mixing finishes within a single room is possible, though it needs at least two examples of each to look intentional.
Check the hole centres before ordering replacements. Standard spacings vary, and drilling new holes in a drawer front rarely ends well. If the existing holes do not match, a back plate can cover them.
Most tallboys arrive flat packed, which solves the access problem that a rigid 140cm unit would create on a narrow staircase. Allow floor space for assembly, ideally in the room where the piece will stand, since a completed tallboy is awkward to carry through doorways.
Assemble on a soft surface such as a blanket to protect the finish, and follow the sequence for the back panel carefully. The back panel provides most of the rigidity in a tall unit, so a loose or skipped fixing here causes racking later.
Check drawer alignment before loading. Small adjustments at the runner are easy while the unit is empty and difficult once it is full.
A tallboy is taller and narrower, stacking drawers vertically in a smaller footprint. A standard chest is wider with a usable top surface at around 80cm, which a tallboy is usually too high to offer.
Most sit between 40cm and 50cm deep. A 40cm depth is far easier to fit into a narrow bedroom and holds folded clothing comfortably.
Yes. Any unit taller than it is wide should be anchored using the supplied strap or bracket, particularly in homes with children, and loaded with heavier items in the lower drawers.
It is not ideal. The top surface is usually too high to reach comfortably from lying down, so a lower bedside cabinet remains the better choice beside a bed.
Timber and matte painted finishes hide fingerprints best. High gloss looks striking and reflects light but needs regular wiping, especially around handles.
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