BH | Studio Dornoch Fluted Sideboard

Fluting, a run of narrow rounded channels, has dressed fine furniture since the Regency, and it returned strongly in the 1930s, when cabinetmakers used it to soften long, plain fronts with light and shadow.

It is a long, low cabinet with rounded ends, its front and sides covered in close vertical fluting so the doors all but disappear into the pattern. Four handle-free doors open with a light push, so there are no knobs to catch on, onto roomy compartments, and the centre bay has a shelf you can move up or down to fit tall bottles or stacked plates. A hole at the back feeds cables through to a television or speaker above, and foot caps keep it from marking the floor. The top is rated to hold 254 lbs. It is engineered wood in a Chestnut or Jet wood-grain finish, and assembly is required.

Run it along a dining room wall as a buffet, with dinner plates and serving dishes inside and lamps, a big bowl of clementines and a stack of linen napkins on top. In a living room it makes a media console below a wall-mounted TV, cords out of sight, with records and games behind the doors; in a home office it is a credenza for files and printer paper. The fluted wood suits cream walls, a large round mirror, ceramic lamps and a rattan or bouclé chair nearby.