Bedroom Armoires
If you go into almost any furniture store or visit their website you'll probably find a variety of armoires for sale. However they seem to vary tremendously in appearance - so what exactly is a bedroom armoire?
What Is An Armoire?
The word armoire is French, possibly deriving from the Latin armarium for a chest or safe. As such almost any closed container from a laundry hamper to a wardrobe could possibly be considered a type of armoire!
In practice the word is usually reserved for use to describe a large wooden cupboard with doors. Many wardrobes could also be called armoires.
The most common form of armoire is a large, free-standing storage cupboard with two doors. Very often they also have one or two storage drawers at the base. Others will have shelves inside instead. Modern armoires come in natural wood finish or a variety of colours - white is common.
Being free-standing rather than built-in, armoires are more flexible should you choose to redesign the layout of your bedroom. In earlier times one's armoire was often a personal piece of property taken from one dwelling to the next.
Doors
The key point about an armoire is the doors - it is these that are normally considered to distinguish an armoire from other forms of cabinet. Two doored designs are the most common, however some have only one. Three doored varieties exist however they are less common.
Today many people buy armoires specifically because the doors allow them to store an item such as a TV or computer andhide it away when not in use. In doing so they serve not just a practical but also an aesthetic design purpose.