The Discriminating Furniture Buyers Guide To Heirloom Quality Dining & Kitchen Cabinets
Part 2 - Our Dining Room & Kitchen Cabinet Heritage

Do You appreciate beautiful hardwood furniture built by craftsmen to last for generations?
Are You seeking fine custom hardwood cabinets to grace Your dining room or kitchen?
If so, read this Furniture Buyers Guide To Heirloom Quality Dining Cabinets

Heritage Colonial Curio Display Cabinet
by American Heirloom Furniture

Our Dining Room & Kitchen Cabinet Heritage

Furnishing styles and tastes continuously evolve, but throughout the decades no dining room could ever be considered complete without some form of cabinetry. Colonial, Shaker, Mission... there are many different styles of dining room furniture available to us from our rich heritage of North American furniture craftsmen.

Traditionally, the dining room cabinet was used to display the best china and crystal that a family possessed. These days, people also proudly display artistic figurines and collection pieces, as well as their children’s school art projects. Whatever they hold, these furniture pieces should always provide stable storage utility and a stylish focal point in the room. Share some time with us to consider the features that contribute to an ‘Heirloom Quality ‘dining room cabinet, and why it provides such supreme and lasting value.

Unlike 'built-in' cabinets that derive structural stability from the kitchen or dining room walls that support them, 'free-standing' dining room cabinets have to be sturdily constructed to support both their own weight and the often considerable weight of everything that we place within them, including silverware, crockery, glassware, collectibles, etc. Let us first recognize the various types of dining room cabinet favored in today’s North American homes.

Floor-Standing Lower Cabinets
Lower Cabinets range from monolithic and capacious pieces to light and airy pieces and include
(ordered by storage capacity):
Sideboard Cabinets
Buffet Cabinets
Huntboard Cabinets

The Sideboard Cabinet is the work horse of the dining room. For the space it occupies, it provides more practical storage space than any other cabinetry piece. Serving utensils and “good” flatware store handily in the shallow drawers, which, by the way, can be provided with optional silverware liners. Larger serving dishes and other utilitarian miscellany find their place behind the ample lower doors, where, though hidden from view, they are readily available.
The photo features a Heritage Colonial Sideboard.
Hardwood Sideboard Catalog

The Buffet provides a superb focal point for those whose entertaining style leans toward the casual. As a buffet table or a place to repose multiple courses, the longer buffet cabinets provide ample space for quite a spread. As with the sideboard, serving utensils and “good” flatware store handily in the shallow drawers (with optional silverware liners). Larger serving dishes and other utilitarian miscellany find their place behind the ample lower doors, where, though hidden from view, they are readily available.
The photo features Heritage Shaker Buffet.
Hardwood Buffet Catalog

The Huntboard initially became popular in the first half of the nineteenth century in the mid-south, serving as a buffet table at the famous hunt breakfasts of the genteel cavaliers. We well suppose that after an early morning chase on horseback, they were more comfortable to serve themselves while standing. In our modern day, the huntboard fills a place in which storage space is not at a premium, but where a graceful accent piece, doubling as a serving table, is needed.
The photo features a Heritage Queen Anne Huntboard.
Hardwood Huntboard Catalog

Upper Cabinets
Most people who buy a floor-standing sideboard cabinet either order a matching upper cabinet with it, or return later to take advantage of the increased storage capacity and aesthetic appeal that a well-crafted upper cabinet can offer. Popular combinations include the:
Sideboard With China Cabinet
Sideboard With Dutch Cupboard
Huntboard With Hutch Top

Sideboard Cabinet With China Cabinet Top
It is difficult to distinguish between Colonial cabinets intended for the library and those intended for the dining room, and the China Cabinet Top seems to have evolved from an Early American secretary bookcase. At some point, a creative housekeeper got the inspiration that she could display her family’s good chinaware behind glass bookcase doors just as well as their valuable book collection. It is also worth noting that the earliest cabinets for displaying dishes were often built-in corner cabinets.
The photo features a Heritage Colonial Sideboard With China Cabinet Top.
Hardwood Sideboard & China Cabinet Catalog

Sideboard Cabinet With Dutch Cupboard Top
The Dutch Cupboard is a closed cupboard which has a small open space between the upper doors and the top of the supporting cabinet. These were popular among the “Dutch” or German occupants of Colonial Pennsylvania and Maryland. Many of the very early prototypes had an extremely narrow open area which raises the question as to its original purpose. Today’s Dutch Cupboards provide ample space to enable the top of the supporting cabinet to serve as a buffet table.
The photo features two sideboards with Dutch Cupboard Tops, Colonial Style (left) and Shaker Style (right).
Hardwood Sideboard & Dutch Cupboard Catalog

Huntboard Cabinet With Hutch Top
The Open Hutch Top is a kitchen piece whose origin seems to have been in simple open shelves hung on a kitchen wall. Its original purpose was, not so much to display the crockery and food items that it held, but rather to present them readily at hand when needed. As open hutches became more widely used and refined, they were generally placed on a closed sideboard or buffet cabinet, which provided additional hidden storage.
The photo features a Heritage Colonial Huntboard with Hutch Top.
Hardwood Huntboard & Hutch Top Catalog