Dressers and chests of drawers

Tall or wide is a room decision, not a taste decision

A chest of drawers comes in two useful shapes. The tall narrow one stacks drawers up a wall and takes about 23.6 inches of floor, which suits a bedroom where the wall space is between a door and a window. The wide low one runs to 63 inches and gives you a surface at hip height, which is what most people actually want under a mirror or a television.

Drawer count is the second axis and it runs from 3 to 12 across this department. More drawers at the same width means shallower drawers, which is better for socks and shirts and worse for jumpers. If you fold heavy knitwear, count the deep drawers rather than the total.

The stability rule that applies here and nowhere else

Since 1 September 2023, clothing storage units sold in the United States have had to meet 16 CFR part 1261, which incorporates ASTM F2057-23. The Consumer Product Safety Commission defines the unit in scope as free standing, at least 27 inches tall, at least 30 pounds, and enclosing at least 3.2 cubic feet. A unit in scope has to pass three separate stability tests and ship with an anti-tip device meeting ASTM F3096.

That standard is why 78 of the 80 chests here list anti-tip hardware in the box. It is also why we put the height of every piece in its name. A dresser under 27 inches is not covered by the rule, and knowing which side of the line a piece sits on is more useful than a reassuring adjective.

Fronts, slides and handles

33 of these chests carry a fluted front and 33 carry rounded corners or a curved edge, which is the look most of the range is built around. 19 state metal drawer slides, and where they are not stated we do not assume them.

Handles split three ways: brass and black metal pulls on most, hidden cutout handles on the fluted models built to read as a single surface, and knobs on the smaller chests. A hidden handle looks better in photographs and is harder to open with a full armful of laundry, which is a fair thing to know in advance.