Page 3: What else can you do with a chest?
A useful chest of drawers can be indispensable for anyone who moves frequently, since it can be placed in a variety of rooms, and serve a wide variety of functions, as it moves from home to home.
To complete our list, here are more uses for chests in your home:
TV Stand
Place a TV on a chest in your bedroom, family room or guestroom. Use the top drawer for videos, remote controls and TV guides.
Nightstand
Use chests next to your bed instead of smaller (less versatile) night tables. Top with a reading lamp and books. In the top drawer keep pens and paper, notecards, tissues, or reading material. Use lower drawers for phone books, magazines or clothing.
Gift wrap center
Find a place for your gift wrap, ribbons and bows by using the bottom drawers of a chest in your guestroom. Keep scissors, pens and tape there too, along with a supply of gift tags and birthday cards.
Baby changing table
A well-chosen chest of proper height can be set up to work as a changing table for an infant. Later, fill your chest with toddler clothes or toys. A really good piece will grow up with your child and be useful for many years.
Hall Chest
Add interest and function to a wide hallway by adding a chest. Store your photo albums, pictures and scrapbook supplies here. Stock it with lots of pens to date and label photos. Fit a drawer with organizing inserts that will keep your photos and photodisks in chronological order.
Support for a Desk
Make a desk out of a hollow-core door or a length of laminate countertop. Support one side of the desk with your chest. Attach the back and opposite side of the desk to brackets screwed into wall studs, or rest it on top of a small file cabinet. Stock the chest with office supplies and you're in business.
Bathroom Cabinet
Add some texture and interest to a large bathroom by placing a chest on a blank wall. Use it to hold cosmetics, towels or bath toys. Put your favorite decorative objects on top (baskets, pretty jars or boxes) that can hold rolled washcloths, perfume, cotton balls.
Closet Chest
Save yourself some steps when you get dressed each day. If you have enough room in a large walk-in closet, move a chest inside and stock it with all of the small items you may be keeping in a dresser somewhere else. With double closet rods you'll still be able to use the hanging space over the chest. This can also be very helpful in a child's closet too.
Look around your living space -- where could you use a chest of drawers right now? Or, better yet, two or three!
Next: > Storage Tips and Types
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