1. If you have a large and imposing bed such as a canopy bed or sleigh bed, consider how the horizontal or vertical orientation of your dresser or chest will contrast with the bed. A shorter and wider dresser may help to strike a better visual balance within the room.
2. Private and secluded, the bedroom is the one place in your house where you should feel at liberty to decorate in a way that'll make you feel completely relaxed and comfortable. Look for dressers, chests, and other bedroom furniture items that match your personal style rather than a predetermined style such as modern or country.
3. Need to make a small room look bigger? Choose bedroom furniture with brighter colors or a light wood finish, and look for a dresser that has a vanity or can accommodate a large mirror.
4. Armoires and door chests provide both lower drawers and an upper area enclosed by large doors in which you could hang clothes or store other personal items - or even keep a television out of sight when it's not in use.
5. Chests of drawers are sometimes referred to as tallboys, highboys, or lowboys. A highboy is a tall chest of drawers with upper and lower sections. The upper portion often features a top row of double or triple drawers. Lowboys are short and feature only two or more rows of drawers, at least one row of which usually consists of two or three smaller drawers.
6. Modern dressers typically feature clean, sharp lines; neutral colors; and unornamented designs.
7. The terms dresser and chest of drawers are now often used interchangeably, but dressers were originally designed not for people to dress in clothes, but for "dressing" or stuffing meat in the kitchen.
8. If your bedroom is short on space, don't automatically assume that taller, narrower chests are the best option. The bigger surface area of large dressers could be used to hold jewelry boxes, books and bookends, a stereo, or other items that might be difficult to fit in elsewhere.
9. Keep function in mind as you shop for a stylish dresser. More drawers usually means smaller drawers, which could be good or bad, depending on whether you're storing thick wool sweaters or socks and jogging shirts.
10. Kids love color, which is one reason why the dressers and chests in our Other Colors category (in the Finish section of the menu on your left) would make great children's dressers for both boys and girls.
