Hand Painted French Commode with Marble Top

In the United States, a chest of drawers, a bureau, and a dresser are all interchangeable terms, but elsewhere, a dresser looks more like a lowboy. MBW Furniture carries many variations of the chest of drawers: highboys, tallboys, dressers, commodes, etc. What’s the difference? Furniture is often renamed as it moves around cultural and societal circles.

It all began in medieval Europe with a chest that’s also called a coffer. These chests were extremely popular amongst nobles and others with dispensable income. Of simple construction, the coffer is no more than a wooden box with simple joinery and a hinged lid. As a slight variation, the chest received its first drawer under the main compartment. As the concept and popularity grew, cabinetmakers added drawers, and the coffer became known as a chest of drawers. The earliest English chests and extant examples hail from before the Restoration during the reign of Charles I.

The typical chest of drawers has several horizontally parallel drawers that are usually stacked vertically. A chifforobe is also similar: wardrobe and chest of drawers in one piece. Traditionally, chests of any kind are used for clothing and items that cannot hang in the closet. Chests of drawers generally have anywhere from 5 to 7 drawers. The top drawer is often substituted for two smaller, double drawers. Other variations, like the chest-on-chest, exist to further interior design options.

Variations & Different Chest Types

Tallboy: a “double” chest of drawers with a wardrobe on top (Solid Mahogany Cherry Chippendale High Boy Chest Dresser). The similar highboy might not be a doubled chest, but the upper and lower portions have drawers. This style was extremely popular during the Restoration and 18th Century.

Lowboy: a table-height chest with 1 or 2 rows of drawers. These were also popular during the Restoration and 18th Century in England and the United States. In England, lowboys were often called dressing tables or side tables even. A vanity is a lowboy that features a mirror (Solid Mahogany Antiqued Black Chippendale Lowboy Table Hall Desk).

Commode: of French design, originally a veneered chest that was much wider than it was tall with gilt-bronze mounts, ornate legs, and drawers sometimes. Commodes usually feature marble slab tops. These chests were usually showpieces featured beside the chimneypiece (Black/Gold Italian Chest Dresser Commode).