Add a stylish cabinet to boost storage and display space

The true joy of a statement piece is that you really don’t have to match it to anything – just follow your heart and choose something you know you’ll love. While the classic sideboards of the 1960s and 1970s were often teak with distinctive mid-20th century styling, there’s a huge and diverse choice available today including burnished metals and modern takes on marquetry and lacquers.

There’s also a good choice of sizes available too. Not enough room for a long sideboard? Opt for a tall hero cabinet instead. What to put inside? With entertaining at home back on the cards, a swish bar with stylish glasses and barware is a popular choice but it can equally be the place you send your ‘office’ packing to at the end of the home-working day.

While the extra storage is appreciated, it’s what happens around this type of furniture that makes it such a star – it’s a prime place for showing off. Building a display here can bring character to a room that lacks a stand-out feature such as fireplace. Think of sideboards as punctuation and build on that effect with a feature wall in a bold paint colour or wallpaper. A table lamp will create a soft pool of light that will benefit the whole room and that can be magnified all the more by adding a wall mirror. Framed prints linked by a common theme or palette are also great for adding impact and, if you don't want to drill into the wall, go with the stylist’s favourite trick and prop them up.

Sideboards offer plenty of storage without being too big or dominating. Traditionally, a sideboard was a piece of dining room furniture used to house barware, drinks and glasses as well as the posh cutlery. But these days we’re less formal about dining so feel free to fill it as you wish with the space on top just ripe for a statement display.

For the surface choose a considered selection that tells a story. Think about adding height with tall vases and house plants. This can also be a great place to show off any intriguing collections you possess.

‘A hero piece allows you to be adventurous with accessories,’ says Sandra McCall, Partner & Home Design Stylist. ‘Pick interesting shapes, textures and colours to enhance the statement look.’ It‘s something you can have fun with, shaking up the look every few months – it takes little expense or hassle, and a bit of housekeeping will help stop clutter from gathering.

Slim, airy and designed for the hallway, a console table with a small drawer or drawers offers so much more than just a reliable place to find sunglasses and car keys – although it’s undeniably brilliant for this.

Its narrow proportions will make the most of a tight space, creating room to assemble an eye-catching display or to house a lamp. It can also work as a dressing table or occasional desk – just make sure you have a seat at the right height.

Not just for socks, the chest of drawers has become a seriously versatile piece of furniture for any room – our kitchens are testament to how much we love pull-out storage we can peer into. Drawers allow for oodles of storage space in a relatively compact footprint, encouraging order as well as offering accessibility.

A chest of drawers can fit neatly into an alcove, on a landing or in a wider hallway, making good use of the space between doorways, and it can be used for anything from work paraphernalia and paperwork to craft materials, maps or pet accessories – whatever suits your passion. And like our other hero pieces, it will benefit from a few well-chosen accessories.

Smaller than a sideboard, a hero cabinet is still a statement-maker and one that can fit comfortably into an alcove or sidle up to a sofa or cocktail chair. A cabinet of this size is brilliant for hiding away tech and media as well as providing a platform for gadgets in use. And practical can still be beautiful – a statement mirror or print above will give it more substance, or you could introduce mood with a hanging pendant light or plug-in wall light.