Now that the painting, plumbing and carpeting is complete, the O’Shea abode is officially ready for some furnishing and accessorising action.
Yet as per usual when I actually need things, I am unable to find anything I really love/and or make any kind of final decision.
At the moment we have a storage issue. Which is ridiculous as we’ve never had so much loft space or specifically built in wardrobes in our entire lives. I didn’t envisage that I would need drawers necessarily. But certainly when it comes to Mabel’s clothing, pilates gear, nightwear and vests/T-shirts that you wouldn’t hang per se, what alternative is there to store these items?
The thing is, I’m not entirely convinced I like chests of drawers. Or maybe my perception is all askew (I find it difficult to tear myself away from the matchy matchy orange-y pine bedroom furniture of my misspent youth).
I have however found an amazing piece from Oliver Bonas for Mabel’s room The Penelope Six Chest Of Drawers. She has requested a colour scheme of “pink, black and blue” (?!) which has recently changed from “purple, green and brown” so I’m actually going with a coral, peach, charcoal and copper. I’m sure she’ll ahem, love it.
For the adult room of rest (seriously who am I kidding? it’s been a 5am wake up call from her majesty since we moved in last October) I am altogether lacking inspiration. We have a fairly sizeable space – I’ve filled a little nook with a small dressing table and that’s about it, apart from a temporary bed, the place is empty. I’m tempted to go for a bit of a statement dark-and-mysterious vibe and I’m currently considering the Bourbon chest of drawers from Made.com. However, I’m worried it’s very “on trend” in terms of colour at the moment and in a few months time it will be so last season. I’m also very attracted to the industrial Rankin storage unit. But I feel it’s more hallway cabinet than store-your-smalls.
Ideally I want something timeless and unique, which leaves me with desiring some kind of stripped/lime washed wood type number and up cycling with pretty drawer pulls or unusual handles. I’ve still got 10 french-esque looking grey knobs I picked up in a John Lewis sale for a quid each that I’m keen to put to good use. They no longer sell them so I am unable to share but this Filigree design has also caught my magpie eye.
Love a shiny knob me.
Hell, maybe I might even find some stripped pine to add my fancy knobs to?!
Do you have a chest of drawers? Where did you buy yours from? Or do you have alternative furniture to store your clothes and things? And any up-cycling triumphs do let me know in the comments section below.
P.S The stripped drawers in the header image are via wallpaper.com and if anyone knows how I can get my hands on some similar then I will buy you pizza.
I love a chest of drawers chat. We had the same dilemma when it came to our bedroom. I think I’m the opposite to you, I hate wardrobes and love chests of drawers.
I think this is mainly because I love scouring the web for pretty knobs (that sounds disgraceful but hey ho) – just ask Philippa/Phirefly we can go for days on WhatsApp with a “have you seen these amazing knobs from Anthro?” chat.
Anyway, for the bedroom I looked everywhere but kept coming back to Ikea. We ended up buying Tarva units, painting them in F&B Cornforth White and changing the knobs to something a little more special. I’d share the final versions but as with everything in my life I haven’t finished them yet! They’re all undercoated, but time just runs away with a two-year-old doesn’t it?
I also love a gorgeous upcycled chest but found that a lot of the time, the solid, chunky wood left much less storage space inside. I had to admit defeat on that front. xx
Oh Karen I too love a good look at knobs – I like all kinds 🙂
I will have a butchers at Ikea’s current offering – I haven’t in a good while.
x
#knobchat
Check these out!
PS – I love a classic Margherita pizza x
http://www.sellingantiques.co.uk/antique-chest-of-drawers/antique-pine-chest-of-drawers/
Siobhan this is an excellent website – I didn’t know you could search antiques like this. I’ll have a good old look later. Pizza is on the way x
This post has made me long for a chest of drawers! I’m the opposite and would love one but the random nooks and crannies of our bedroom (coupled with doors and windows) mean I just don’t have space with our two wardrobes. Instead I have to have storage cube things inside the bottom of my wardrobe. I hate having t-shirts piled on a wardrobe shelf and everything just seems ‘messy’. Molly has her chest of drawers hidden inside her build in wardrobes otherwise I would love to get her a funky one like you have shown. So pretty xxx p.s. I probably shouldn’t tell you this but my mum just sold two of those exact stripped pine chests for the bargain price of £100 as she needed space. Definitely worth looking at Gumtree.
Oh no! If only I’d told you I was looking 🙁
Will take a look at Gumtree – it’s not somewhere I ever remember to check x
We’ve had some orange pine hand me downs … a bit of lime wax and they’re looking pretty good. Worth a go. Or chalk paint.
Or if budget no option Loaf do gorgeous ones.
Victoria I love Loaf, but tend to avoid it due to the spendiness. We went to their showroom in Battersea a few months ago and I wanted EVERYTHING.
eBay is usually good for things like that! X
Hi Alice, I have looked on ebay (admittedly not for very long) they do have some decent looking pieces – I just need to find something that’s nearer to where we live as a lot is collection only and miles away. Although I guess for the right drawers it’s worth the drive x
I second Victoria with Loaf. There furniture is spendy but the quality is so good and they are gorgeous. They have some nice washed options at the moment http://loaf.com/products/dandie-chest-of-drawers. We had our bed and a chest of drawers from Loaf, it was eye watering at the time but I love it and we use it everyday so price per use… 😉 good luck on your search, looking forward to seeing the final reveal. x
Natasha that is stunning!!!!! And you are so right about making the investment in “everyday” pieces x
WOW that is beautiful! Definitely worth the investment if its a classic piece that will see you for many more years to come. Do it Charlotte! If you don’t I will haha x
Alternatives to drawers would be an amazing post. My husband has a chest of drawers which usually contain 3 mismatched socks, a few old t-shirts and that’s about it. The rest of his clothes lay piled. He’d be much better with a shelving type storage but I can’t find anything suitable. Been thinking about getting a carpenter to make something but we are still a bit in flux as to which room the clothes will eventually live.
Sarah I’ve considered the carpenter route too. We had one to create the doors on our wardrobes and they’re great.
After having lived for years with a combination of upcycled/antiquey/flatpack stuff – and the all of the foibles therein, this time I thought s0d it, I’m just going to buy classic, super-well-made John Lewis cabinets. I’m tired of drawers sticking, bottoms collapsing and handles coming loose. And I’m SICK of self assembly.
The grey JL Darton chests we bought were actually selected to dress a house we sold, I thought they might be a bit too traditional for my liking but I was so impressed by the quality and the truth is they just disappear so we decided to keep them for our bedroom. Also, they’re so well designed and made that they’re just a joy to use so much so they start to take on a new aesthetic as they’re such a pleasure to live with. I’d planned to change the handles and probably still will but the ones they come with are inoffensive.
Eventually after the renovation we’ll have 3 bedrooms which they could potentially live in so it feels like less of a long-term commitment as it would if they definitely going to be in our room forever, but they still might. The older I get, the more inclined I am towards timeless, high quality items and these definitely fit that bill. God I’m turning into my Dad 🙈
https://m.johnlewis.com/john-lewis-darton-5-drawer-chest/grey/p/1635439
Philipa my Dad is the worst – in that he doesn’t change furniture for decades! James is the opposite in that he’s quite scrooge-y, he just doesn’t like to spend the money on it that you need to in order to get quality pieces that don’t fall apart. He’s coming around to my way of thinking though or at least he bloody well better 🙂
I LOVE John Lewis.
I have also hidden drawers inside my built in wardrobe. The wardrobe has sliding doors so we have one at each end. Because they’re hidden, I just bought the perforated white ones from IKEA which they advertise for laundry. Can’t remember the name of them now. I actually quite like the look of them in there and have convinced myself that the holes are good for allowing air to flow around the clothing and stop rarely used things from smelling musty.
I do actually think small draws in my wardrobe for underwear would be useful Jade and if you can’t see them then IKEA is as good as anything – I like the idea of the perforation for freshness.
What is it with knobs? I have 8 that I bought in an flea market in NY with the idea of buying some antique furniture and starting a project. Four year and two children later they are still in a draw (oh the irony) I’ve decided that it’s probably never going to happen but I still want to see the knobs put to good use so am thinking of going for the Greyed Paulownia wood chest of drawers from Maison du Monde. If I had the extra cash I’d probably look at Loaf too though!
Hi all,
I discovered this shop on ebay and he has some lovely pieces, I really liked the black with Oak grain and shiny handles – just working out how I justify it when I don’t actually ‘need’ them 🙂 http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Black-Painted-Edwardian-Dressing-Table-With-Mirror-Elegant-Farmhouse-Mirrored-/322439652361?hash=item4b12e6a409:g:COoAAOSw~AVYuB7U
Nikki, I think you need them?
I went on a great chest of drawers hunt at the end of last year. After much internet searching we went we drawers from Warren Evans (we got our bed from there years ago). Furniture is all made in London and no flat pack assembly. It’s not super cheap but also no super spendy! There aren’t tonnes of style options but you can customise with the stain/paint finish. We have two of their drawers – my favourite being this one in a teak finish: https://www.warrenevans.com/furniture/chests-of-drawers/contemporary-7-drawer-chest/
Happy hunting!
Thanks for the tip Bridget – I’ve never heard of this brand but really like the shape of these x
I’d definitely reccomens up cycling some IKEA ones. I’m exactly the same with drawers but we have plain white, very inoffensive ones in the bedroom. I did recently upcycle an old IKEA desk with some dark grey chalk paint that cost barely anything and only took a couple of hours so I’d go for an IKEA upcycle! Put on your new knobs (ahem), paint it (I’d go dark, I LOVE those navy drawers you’ve included!) and you’re away 🙂 plus if you buy cheap IKEA and do decide quickly you hate it, at least you haven’t spent a fortune!
Georgia a few friends of mine have done some EXCELLENT Ikea hacks – and I do like the dark blue (well, this week anyway!) I wonder if I can talk James into visiting Ikea over Easter weekend? 🙂 x
Oh no haha I know exactly what you mean about the orange-y sets of drawers lol!😂 We just moved in to our new place a couple of months ago and space is tight so we’ve had to get our creativity flowing and figure out some space saving ideas! Hubby is going to build an open wardrobe off of a brick wall in our bedroom, and we’re hoping to go for an industrial look with key clamp and wooden shelves. We haven’t really got room for a seperate chest of drawers so the plan is to incorporate shelves under the hanging space and store t-shirts, jeans etc..in storage baskets as they’ll be on display, H&M had some awesome looking industrial ones a while ago but having a hard time finding similar ones! I know the perfect ones are out there somewhere!! Think I need to do some serious web surfing😏Xx
Katie I love Industrial styling – in fact both James and I do, it’s about the one decor style we do agree on (!)
Struggling in this house though as it’s such a…cottage, but I have introduced a few pieces into my home office. H&M have new stock in all the time so worth checking back – and believe it or not John Lewis had some cool baskets/boxes last time I was there.
I love these:
http://www.awin1.com/cread.php?awinmid=1203&awinaffid=195689&clickref=&p=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.johnlewis.com%2Fjohn-lewis-croft-collection-knitted-basket%2Fp1633476%3Fcolour%3DGrey
Pink, black and blue colour scheme, Mabel you are AWESOME! I’m sure she’ll love that chest of drawers from Oliver Bonas, it’s pretty epic.
So my BIG THING with chest of drawers at the mo (and I think it’s actually post-baby) is that I get super frustrated with the ones where the drawers don’t glide in and out easily. Which, I think, it basically most ‘nice’ ones?! We got some lovely chest from Warren Evans but our cheapies from Ikea actually ‘work’ much better as drawers which is pretty vital when Keanu is stuck on our changing table, bellowing his impatience while I’m desperately trying to find a new pair of trousers for him. Our Warren Evans one is gorgeous but I’ve really got to PUSH or PULL to get them open or shut and, meh.
I think maybe the solid wood ones won’t be what I need. Maybe the industrial ones are the way forward? Loving the ones on Made.com!
Kate YES! This is my frustration too. And I was about to say, Ikea for whatever reason do seem to “glide” better?! And they just seem…roomier. On the whole I mean. At this rate I definitely am talking myself into an Ikea hack 🙂 x
Oh good, I’m glad it’s not just me! I think Ikea seem roomier because they glide open so much easier, honestly half way through pulling out my Warren Evans drawers and I’m so over it and can’t remember what I went in it for in the first place.
Ooh I’m not even sure how you’d do an Ikea chest of drawers hack but, if you do, please post all about it! <3
Drawers are often overlooked as being one of the most important pieces of furniture in the room. Unlike the wardrobe, they have the ability to have personality because their tones and colours can be graduated, contrasting the simple front of most wardrobes. The slightly rickety trend of the last few years is an absolute favourite (as long as they don’t actually fall apart), and I too am dying to know where the gorgeous piece in the right-hand picture can be found. I would definitely pay good money for that!
I don’t have any chest of drawers 😉 I rent and only furniture available here is two wardrobes (one with drawers, so there’s that). Thanks to IKEA I’ve put nice compartments into the drawers, so I can store my clothes properly. But those woodden chests of drawers definitely caught my eye. When I have a home of my own, I’d have furniture made of real wood.
Definitely check out Swoon. They are reasonably priced and quality is excellent- we bought ours from there a year ago and I love it every time I see it in our bedroom!
Our bedroom is not big enough for a chest of drawers (mainly because we have a super king bed that we refuse to give up for the sake of something as mundane as storage!?), other than a tallboy chest from Habitat which just about fits all my tights and about three pairs of my OH’s pants in! 😒. I’m desperate to get our built in wardrobe redone (not top of the to do list yet though unfortunately) as there’s plenty of hanging space but the shelves are so high up I have to stand on a chair to reach my t-shirts and it drives me mad. I love a chest of drawers.
Considering getting a nice ottoman for the end of the bed for gym kit etc. Would double up as a seat to sit on an put shoes on, and/or another surface to put “stuff” on.
The Hoxton chest of drawers from Next are pretty cool: http://www.next.co.uk/http://www.next.co.uk/g75746s4#700897
Oh, sorry, don’t think that link worked. http://www.next.co.uk/g755846s16?gclid=CPD-gZy0q9MCFUk8GwodX4MI6w&gclsrc=aw.ds&dclid=COaiv560q9MCFRAi0wodjLwIDQ
i found an amazing website with antique chests and i bought two
https://antiquesworld.co.uk/antique/chest-of-drawers/
one was painted and the other was a more polished mahogany and they both go really well together. They really make my room look nice and they they fit all my clothes in, lovely!