What Are Sideboards for?

Serving

• A sideboard is often placed to one side of a dining table to hold chafing or warming dishes, platters and bowls of food and a variety of drinks. Its placement provides convenient access to servers waiting upon the dining table and is out of the way of arriving and departing dining guests. The sideboard can also be used as a buffet where food is conveniently laid out for guests to fill their own plates.

Storage

• Also used as storage for dinnerware, there may be a hutch with shelving on top of the sideboard to hold and display china or other plateware with cup hooks from which to hang cups. The sideboard has cabinets and drawers below to store glassware, silverware and table linens, such as tablecloths, placemats, napkins and napkin rings. Matching china serving platters, dishes and silver servers may also be stored in the cabinets below.

Display

• The sideboard top is often used for display purposes when it is not in service for meals. Some common display items include a coffee or tea service, including a coffee urn or teapot and china cups and saucers. Others use it for decorative collections, such as mercury glass or carnival glass displays. A sideboard can also serve as a small bar where decanters of liquors and other drinks are set out on a tray with an ice bucket and tongs.

Entertainment Shelving

• Contemporary sideboards are often designed with entertainment purposes in mind. While the top still functions as a serving or display surface, the cabinet below can come with sliding doors or cut-out areas for shelving to hold a stereo and receiver, flat screen TV or a small projection screen. The doors can fold or slide in for access to the entertainment equipment and then close when the equipment is not in use.