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The ‘bottom drawer’ is traditionally the place that a young bride-to-be would put things for when she set up home as a married woman.

The things she stored would be useful things – such as tablecloths and bed sheets. They went in the bottom drawer because that is the least accessible drawer.

The idea of putting things away in a less accessible place helped to make it special for that special event.

Does anyone think like this any more?

Well maybe people no longer put things away in the bottom drawer, but romance is not dead and I don’t think it ever will be as long as people have hearts that dream.

A Chest Of Drawers

A chest of drawers is one of those items of furniture whose history must surely be lost in the mists of time. Who can say for certain when someone somewhere put a stack of drawers in a frame?

And what was put in that first chest of drawers? Was it used by the maker or made on commission for someone with the means to pay for it? Was it used for storing clothes or something else?

Looking backwards in time it almost seems inevitable that it would be put in the bedroom and used for storing clothes. But perhaps it was originally used for some other purpose?

And when did it get its name as a chest of drawers? Put a set of shelves above it and move it into the kitchen and stack plates on the shelves, and it is Welsh Dresser. In American English a chest or drawers IS a dresser.

Before chests of drawers there was the coffer, a box with a lid. The word coffer dates from the mid-13th century when it was a box or a chest for keeping valuable items.

The word comes from the Old French word cofre, meaning a chest, which in turn came from the Latin word cophinus, meaning a basket and is related to the word that came through to English as coffin.

A Heart In A Frame

I drew this particular chest of drawers as a link to the bedroom and to romance and love with the heart in the picture frame. I drew the top and sides of the chest, and the drawers as different layers directly by hand in Photoshop.

Then I added a wood grain effect to the frame and the drawers and a pale beige carpet to represent the floor and the corner of the room.

Finally, I imported it into our greeting card template and topped the sketch off with the words Happy Anniversary’.

Tip: Click the image of the card and it will take you right to the card.