Oak sideboards are not only practical pieces of furniture that offer you a place to store your glass and dishware and a surface from which to serve your guests or display fine china or flower arrangements, they can also be elegant works of art in their own right. The type of oak sideboard that you buy will depend on many factors, including your budget, available space, storage requirements, and design aesthetic.
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Types of sideboards
Sideboards come in a wide variety of styles, and can include drawers, cabinets, shelves, and even built-in wine racks. Before you begin shopping for a solid oak sideboard, determine what you’ll be using it for and what you’d like to store within it. You should measure your dishware and glassware to make certain that you don’t purchase a antique oak sideboard with shelves that are too shallow for your large serving dishes or too short for your stemware. If you have fine silverware, you might want to look into sideboards that offer felt-lined silverware drawers to help protect your cutlery.
Practical considerations
While you have your measuring tape out, also get an idea of the space you have a available for the light oak sideboard. You may even want to try placing several pieces of furniture you already have in the space as stand-ins to see what size piece of furniture looks appropriate for the space. Also remember to make sure that you still have room to walk comfortably in front of the large oak sideboard if it’s going to be placed close to the dining table. Make sure you will also have room to pull a chair out to seat a guest comfortably.
You also need to decide whether you want a sideboard with solid wood cabinet doors or inlaid glass doors. Inlaid glass doors can require a little more cleaning time, since both the wood and the glass will need to be cleaned, but they do offer a beautiful view of any family heirlooms you are storing in the sideboard.
The price of oak sideboards
Solid oak furniture is relatively expensive. If it’s just not in your budget, you can purchase oak furniture sideboards made out of cheaper woods and particle board stained to look like oak. These pieces usually start at around $150 at the major discount retailers. If the piece includes particle board in its drawer and shelf designs, just make sure that it’s actually going to be strong enough to hold your heavy dish and glassware.
Solid oak sideboards usually start at around $500 and only go up from there. It is possible to find better deals at places like Overstock or Amazon if you purchase when they’re having a furniture-specific sale.
Antique oak sideboards are especially pricey, starting around two thousand dollars and easily reaching the tens of thousand of dollars for a valued piece. Unless you value owning antiques, it’s always possible to get a good quality reproduction at a much lower price.
A cheaper option
If you can’t afford to buy a solid oak sideboard at retail prices, and cheaper woods and particle board don’t interest you, you might try your luck at local garage sales or swap meets. Modern kitchens with fitted cabinets mean that many people don’t need the storage space offered by a carved oak sideboard and are often looking to make some money off pieces left to them by friends or relatives. Even if the piece isn’t in perfect condition, you can always refinish it yourself or hire a local handyman to do it.
If you do order your cheap oak sideboard over the internet, try to purchase when there’s a free shipping offer. Otherwise, the shipping costs could easily exceed $100. Also make sure that you have the option to return the sideboard free of shipping costs if it is damaged or not exactly what you ordered. Even if you do want to order online, for convenience, it might be worth going into a store to see what the oak buffet sideboard you are going to purchase, or one like it, looks like in person, especially if it’s a cheaper wood sideboard stained to look like oak. Online photos often vary considerably from what a piece looks like in person, or in your dining room.
