A staple in most homes a generation or so ago, the sideboard has seen a resurgence. Not that it's a return to formality and fustiness. Where once it may have been somewhere for your grandparents or great grandparent to keep the dinner service and doilies 'for best', now it's more likely to house games consoles and tablets amongst the everyday tableware.
The cool and capacious sideboards in our edit not only offer sleek storage, but make a bold style statement too. Made popular during the 50s, sideboards are most at home in a dining area or living room, hiding away cables as a TV stand, or storing additionalglassware,table linen, crockery and cutlery.
See the 7 Steps to a Stylish Dining Space.
However, a stylish sideboard can also be a chic way of breaking up a wide hallwayinstead of a console, with the extra space providing somewhere practical to stash school bags or gym kits, so they're out of sight but near the front door, where they're ready to grab and go.
Or why not use your sideboard to double up as a cocktail cabinet? Many of those in our edit ahead have the height required inside to store bottles of your favourite hooch, so you could stand bottles on one side and glassware on the other.
Alternatively, display artisanal alcohol and stylish spirits on a tray on top and keep ice buckets, tumblers, high-balls and the like neatly behind closed doors.
Want a stand alone cocktail cabinet? Check out these beauties.
Whether you prefer the unfussy mid-century look, a more traditional style or streamlined contemporary shapes, there are a host of new designs to choose from. Materials veer from traditional timber to elegant marble and brass, as well as on trend raffia and colourful finishes.
So take a look at our current favourites and choose which one is yours.
There's a touch of the 70s about this piece with its on trend rattan doors.
A jade green marble surface and brass finishes offer a luxurious feel.
A jade green marble surface and brass finishes offer a luxurious feel.
Designed to look like saplings, the legs have been cast from a brass mold, while the exterior is an ebony wood veneer.
The lacquered wood panels on this slender model are available in 16 colour options.
The elegant doors look like marble but they are hard-wearing ceramic.
These painted doors are customisable in a colour of your choice.
Made in oak, this piece provides simple, stylish storage.
Aptly named Firefly, the translucent porcelain bi-fold doors naturally soften and diffuse LED light from within,filling interior spaces with a gentle, calming and candle-like glow.
Available in different colour ways, this lacquered sideboard with glass sliding doors is ideal for showcasing treasured possessions, or for providing additional storage in a dining room.
With three generous drawers and a cabinet, there's plenty of space for stashing dinnerware and hiding games consoles and other gadgets.