French Provincial Curves Cost You Eight Centimetres of Drawer Depth

The French Provincial range is the only genuinely decorated furniture in this catalogue. Everything else runs to straight edges and flat fronts. These eight pieces have bowed drawer fronts, curved legs that scroll at the foot, shaped aprons and an arched headboard, and they look like they came from a different century than the rest of the store.

Which raises a fair question if you are shopping on measurements: does all that shape cost you anything practical? It does, and the number is about eight centimetres. Here is where it goes.

Key Takeaways

• Eight pieces, all bedroom, and no dining or living furniture in the range at all.
• The chest is 140 x 45 x 85cm and the tallboy 100 x 45 x 114cm, both standard.
• Chest drawers are 16cm deep inside, the shallowest in the catalogue by 8.6cm.
• The bedside table is 64.4cm tall, taller than any other bedside here.
• Every case piece is a painted frame with a timber top and dark bail handles.

Eight Pieces, One Room, and That Is the Whole Range

The list is short. Three bed sizes, one bedside table, one chest, one tallboy, one mirror, and the chest and mirror offered together as a set. That is the complete French Provincial offering, and unlike most ranges here it does not stretch into the dining room or the living room at any point.

The Newcastle Acacia Queen Bed Frame sets the tone: a painted frame with an arched top, an upholstered headboard panel and shaped legs that curve out at the foot. There is a double and a king built the same way, all standing 123.5cm at the headboard.

Everything else follows the bed. The Newcastle Acacia 2 Drawer Bedside Table, the Newcastle Acacia 6 Drawer Chest and the Newcastle Acacia 5 Drawer Tallboy all carry a timber top over a painted frame, bowed drawer fronts, dark bail handles and the same curved legs. It is the most internally consistent range in the catalogue.

Newcastle Acacia 2 Drawer Bedside Table

The Boxes Are Exactly Standard

Here is what surprises people who compare on paper. For all the shaping, the chest is 140cm wide, 45cm deep and 85cm high, which is the identical footprint of every other six drawer chest in the catalogue. The tallboy is 100 x 45 x 114cm, matching two other ranges to the centimetre. The mirror is a 100cm square.

That is genuinely useful information. It means a French Provincial chest drops into the exact space a plain modern chest occupies, so you can swap one for the other without re measuring the wall, and you can put this chest in a room where the rest of the furniture came from somewhere else and it will line up.

It also means the usual planning numbers apply. Forty five centimetres out from the wall, 140cm along it for the chest, one metre for the tallboy. The curves live inside those dimensions rather than adding to them, because the shaped legs tuck under the carcass rather than splaying past it.

Newcastle Acacia 6 Drawer Chest

But the Drawers Are the Shallowest in the Catalogue

This is where the decoration is paid for. The chest drawers measure 62.35 x 37.8 x 16cm inside. Sixteen centimetres is the shallowest drawer in any chest here, and the deepest range in the catalogue runs 24.6cm. Same outside dimensions, 8.6cm less depth inside every one of the six drawers.

The tallboy tells the same story at 18.5cm across all five drawers, where comparable tallboys run 20.8cm to 22.5cm. The bedside drawers are 15.1cm. Nothing here is broken, it is simply that a bowed front, a thicker shaped carcass and a decorative apron under the bottom drawer all take their space from somewhere, and that somewhere is inside.

In practice a 16cm drawer takes folded t-shirts, underwear, socks and anything flat, and it flattens a chunky jumper into a pancake. If your winter storage is knitwear rather than shirts, plan on the chest holding perhaps two thirds of what a flat fronted chest of the same size would. That is the honest trade for the way it looks.

Newcastle Acacia 5 Drawer Tallboy

The Bedside Table Is the Tallest One Here

At 64.4cm the Newcastle bedside is the tallest in the catalogue. The others land between 55.9cm and 60cm, so this one stands roughly 5cm proud of the pack, and that is a number worth checking against your own bed before ordering.

Most mattress tops in Australian bedrooms finish between 55cm and 65cm off the floor once the base and the mattress are stacked. Against a traditional base with a deep mattress, 64.4cm is close to perfect: the surface sits level with where your hand naturally lands. Against a low platform bed at 45cm, it will loom.

The two drawers are 42.6 x 34.7 x 15.1cm, so the same shallow rule applies. That is fine for a bedside, where the contents are a book, a charger, hand cream and the blister pack of paracetamol nobody admits to. Bedside drawers are the one place in the house where shallow is the correct answer.

The Mirror Finishes It, and It Sits Rather Than Hangs

The Newcastle Acacia Mirror is 100 x 100cm and 5cm deep, framed in the same white with a shaped and scrolled crown across the top. It is built to pair with the chest, which is why the two are also sold together as the Newcastle Acacia 6 Drawer Chest with Mirror.

Resting on an 85cm chest, the top of that mirror lands at 185cm, and the bottom of the glass at 85cm. It is a face and torso mirror rather than a full length one, which is what a bedroom mirror above a chest is actually used for while you are putting earrings in at seven in the morning.

The shaped crown is the detail that makes the range read as period rather than merely painted. It is also the reason to leave clear wall above the chest: a mirror with a decorative top set 15cm below a picture rail looks cramped in a way a plain rectangle would not.

Newcastle Acacia Mirror

Who the Range Is Actually For

Period homes, first. In a Federation or interwar bedroom with high ceilings, deep skirtings and a picture rail, this furniture matches the architecture instead of arguing with it, and the curved legs stop the room reading as a box full of rectangles.

In a plain modern bedroom it still works, but the rule changes: buy one piece, not the set. A single shaped chest against a flat white wall reads as a deliberate choice. The full set in a new build bedroom with square skirting and a flush door starts to look like a stage set, because there is nothing in the room for the detail to answer to.

The other thing it needs is air. Shaped legs and a scrolled apron only exist to be seen, so a piece jammed into an alcove with 3cm either side has given up most of what it is for. Give the French Provincial range a wall it can be looked at from across the room, and the shallower drawers stop mattering.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is in the French Provincial range?

Eight pieces, all bedroom: three bed sizes, a two drawer bedside table, a six drawer chest, a five drawer tallboy, a mirror, and the chest and mirror sold together as a set. There is no dining or living furniture in it at all.

What are the dimensions of the French Provincial chest and tallboy?

The chest is 140 x 45 x 85cm and the tallboy is 100 x 45 x 114cm, which are exactly the dimensions every other chest and tallboy in the catalogue uses. Despite the shaped fronts and curved legs, these pieces occupy standard footprints.

Why are the drawers shallower than other ranges?

Because the bowed front and the shaped apron take their space from inside. The chest drawers are 16cm high internally against 24.6cm in the deepest range here, so the same 85cm tall cabinet holds noticeably less than a flat fronted one.

How tall is the French Provincial bedside table?

64.4cm, which is the tallest bedside table in the catalogue. Everything else sits between 55.9cm and 60cm. Against a high mattress that extra height is useful, and against a low platform bed it will stand noticeably proud of the mattress top.

Does French Provincial furniture suit a modern house?

It can, but it needs space around it. The shaped legs and curved fronts read best with room to be seen, so a piece pushed into a tight alcove loses everything you paid for. In a plain modern bedroom, one piece works better than a full set.