By Kingsley Adegboye

Do you know you can enhance your dining area with a stunning sideboard? Sideboard is simply a piece of furniture that sits by the side of the dining room table and enables you to have a display area for storage of flatware such as breakable plates and other decorative dining room items.

According to Mrs. Funmi Olukanmi, an interior decorator, sideboards which come in a variety of styles add colour to the dining area of a home. She added that sideboards will give colour to enliven the living room and give support to the dining room table and chairs.

Olukanmi noted that even though sideboards are intended to free up one’s hands when entertaining and serving meals, they also make the dining areas beautiful by their display. Because sideboards are meant to compliment the dining room table, their arrangement or display is clutter-free. ‘They add visual interest to your dining room with the display of decorative vases, pottery and other little decorative collections.

Dining room with sideboards

You should, however not clutter the sideboard with lots of items or it will lose its visual interest. A few key elements can make your sideboard a beautiful display area’, she advised.

The Lagos-based interior decorator further noted that the ability of sideboards to have incredible storage may be their best hidden advantage. “Sideboards have doors to hide drawers or shelves behind. This area is used for seasonal table settings, table linens, candles and other accessories that don’t always need to be on display.

The sideboard storage area is an ideal place to house matches and candle lighters for easy reach. For dining rooms that need additional storage, you should consider hanging a complimentary wall shelve above the sideboard.

While most sideboards tend to be long and rectilinear, there is no set dimension or style for a sideboard. It is therefore the responsibility of the homeowner to be creative when displaying them.

Some sideboards can be small and have the ability to only hold a few choice decorative items or dinnerware while a grand dining room can have multiple sideboards in varying sizes.

‘Since the dining room table is the main attraction of most dining rooms, you need to decide how pronounced you want your sideboard to be and then go for it. Bringing a sideboard into your dining room will not only enhance the decor, it will also add functional storage and display area’, she stated.