BH | Studio Étretat Curved 2-Drawer Nightstand

The serpentine front, an S-shaped curve worked across a drawer face, was a hallmark of the commodes of eighteenth-century France, where cabinetmakers curved the fronts of their finest chests in and out until they seemed to move, a line as easy as the chalk cliffs of the Normandy coast. Georgian England borrowed the idea, and in either country shaping a curve like that took skill and good timber. It has signalled care in a piece of furniture ever since.

This one is built around a gentle serpentine curve: the two drawer fronts swell and dip across their width, and the rounded plinth beneath follows the same line, so the whole piece looks carved rather than assembled. No pulls break the surface; each drawer opens from its shaped edge. Both drawers are deep, with space for paperbacks, glasses, a charger and the remote. The case is sturdy engineered wood under a smooth wood-grain laminate in Almond or Hazel, its fine grain catching the light along the curve. Assembly is required.

Set a pair either side of a queen or king bed, a ceramic lamp on each, and the bedroom takes on the calm of a good hotel. It works as well at the end of a sofa, holding a lamp and the evening's reading, or in a guest room. The fine grain suits a calm Scandinavian or coastal room: dress the bed in white and oatmeal linen, then add a woven rug, a linen-shaded lamp and a sprig of eucalyptus in a stoneware jug. This listing is for one nightstand.