Sideboards
21st Century and Contemporary British Modern Sideboards
Sycamore
21st Century and Contemporary British Modern Sideboards
Brass, Nickel
21st Century and Contemporary British Modern Sideboards
Nickel
1950s Belgian Mid-Century Modern Vintage Sideboards
Stainless Steel
1940s Swedish Mid-Century Modern Vintage Sideboards
Oak
1960s Danish Mid-Century Modern Vintage Sideboards
Teak
2010s European Modern Sideboards
Metal
2010s Canadian Modern Sideboards
Leather, Walnut
Mid-20th Century Czech Mid-Century Modern Sideboards
Glass, Wood
1950s American Mid-Century Modern Vintage Sideboards
Aluminum
2010s American Sideboards
Walnut
19th Century French Louis XVI Antique Sideboards
Marble, Bronze, Ormolu
21st Century and Contemporary French Sideboards
Ceramic
2010s American Sideboards
Walnut
21st Century and Contemporary Portuguese Modern Sideboards
Carrara Marble, Brass
Antique, New and Vintage Sideboards
Once simply boards made of wood that were used to support ceremonial dining, sideboards have taken on much greater importance since their modest first appearance. In Italy, the sideboard was basically a credenza, a solid furnishing with cabinet doors. It was initially intended as an integral piece of any dining room where the wealthy gathered for meals in the southern European country.
Later, in England and France, sideboards retained their utilitarian purpose — a place to keep hot water for rinsing silverware and from which to serve cold drinking water — but would evolve into double-bodied structures that allowed for the display of serveware and utensils on open shelves. We would likely call these buffets, as they’re taller than a sideboard. (Trust us — there is an order to all of this!)
The sideboard is often deemed a buffet in the United States, from the French buffet à deux corps, which referred to a storage and display case. However, a buffet technically possesses a tiered or shelved superstructure for displaying attractive kitchenware and certainly makes more sense in the context of buffet dining — abundant meals served for crowds of people.
An antique or vintage sideboard today is a sophisticated and stylish component in sumptuous dining rooms of every shape, size and decor scheme, as well as a statement of its own, showcased in art galleries and museums. Furniture maker and artist Paul Evans, whose work has been the subject of various celebrated museum exhibitions, created ornamented, welded and patinated sideboards for Directional Furniture, collections such as the Cityscape series that speak to his place in revolutionary brutalist furniture design as much as they echo the origins of these sturdy, functional structures centuries ago.
If mid-century modern sideboards are more to your liking than an 18th-century mahogany sideboard with decorative inlays by Hepplewhite, the particularly elegant pieces crafted by designers Hans Wegner, Edward Wormley or Florence Knoll are often sought by today’s collectors.
Whether you have a specific era or style in mind or you’re open to browsing a vast collection to find the right fit, 1stDibs has a variety of antique, new and vintage sideboards to choose from.