When furnishing a living room, people usually choose a sofa, TV unit and coffee table, and then one wall is left bare. Two options come up most often to fill it: a slim console table or a chest of drawers. From a distance both are low pieces standing along a wall, but in the room they play quite different roles. One keeps the passage open and provides a surface for decor; the other hides the household's everyday things.
The console: narrow, light, made for passages
A console is a narrow table, often with an open base. It is shallow, so it stands in a walkway, at the end of a hallway, between two doors or behind a sofa without taking up space. Its main job is to provide a surface for a lamp, a vase, a key bowl or a couple of books. Storage is limited, usually no more than one shallow drawer.
A console does not weigh a room down visually. With an open base the floor stays visible and the room feels larger, which is a real advantage in small living rooms and spaces that open straight from the entrance.
The chest of drawers: a storage workhorse
A chest of drawers is deeper and closed. Its drawers hold things a living room needs but you would rather not see: table linen, candles, documents, games and chargers. A chest adds weight to a wall and becomes one of the room's anchor points.
Its top is also used for display, but unlike a console it gives a stronger visual base for a large mirror or painting above. If the living room is combined with a dining area, a chest can partly take on the role of a sideboard.
Which to choose: decide by location
- The back of the sofa faces the middle of the room: a console. It dresses the back of the sofa, gives room for a reading lamp and does not narrow the passage.
- The front door opens into the living room: a console or a shallow wall-mounted console. A surface for keys, post and phone is enough.
- A long empty wall and not enough storage: a chest of drawers.
- The wall opposite the TV unit: a chest balances the room, and it looks more resolved if its height lines up with the TV unit.
- Under a window: a low chest, leaving room for radiator heat and curtains.
Size and proportion
The width of a console or chest is chosen relative to the wall. A piece taking up about two thirds of the wall usually looks balanced, while something very small in the middle of a large wall looks lost. When a console is level with or slightly higher than the sofa back, the arrangement behind the sofa looks natural.
The depth of a chest affects movement. Where a route passes through the living room, a deep chest becomes an obstacle people bump with their elbows. In such places a reduced-depth chest or a wall-hung one works better: lifted off the floor, it makes cleaning easier and looks lighter.
Linking with the TV wall and other furniture
Consoles and chests should not be thought of separately from the rest of the living room. Using the same decor, handles or leg style as the TV unit makes the room feel whole. Sometimes planning the chest on the same line as the TV unit creates one long composition instead of two separate pieces.
A console, on the other hand, can deliberately differ: metal legs, a glass or stone top, a slim form. It plays the role of accent furniture, and contrast is acceptable here as long as it stays within the colour palette.
A quick checklist
- Do you need storage here, or only a surface?
- How often do people walk past it?
- What will go on top, and if there is a lamp, is there a socket nearby?
- How does the width of the piece relate to the width of the wall?
- In a home with children, will a heavy chest be anchored to the wall?
Marking the outline of the piece on the floor and wall with masking tape is the simplest way to compare both options in place. Living with that outline for a day or two shows clearly whether the passage becomes too tight.
Zaferoğlu Mebel makes TV units, chests of drawers and other living room furniture to measure. The size, decor and interior layout of a console or chest can be planned together with the furniture already in the room.
