Blanket chest - Store your linens in a handsome blanket box

Store off-season bedding in a blanket chest designed to complement your décor and keep your blankets close at hand in the event of an unexpected shift in the weather!

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Many of today's furniture makers include a blanket chest in their collections, but antique chests are much sought after as well, appreciated as much for their rich heritage as their usefulness.

The modest blanket chest been an important part of American households for over 300 years - in fact, historians document it as the first piece of American-made furniture, crafted around 1640. Early blanket chests were the equivalent of a storage trunk - whether coming across the ocean on a ship or across the prairie in a wagon, the blanket chest safely stored all the comforts of home, and for many, the hopes for a bright future. In fact, "hope" chests filled with pretty handmade linens and blankets would accompany a bride to her new home, a tradition that still exists for many American families today.

Traditional, utilitarian designs still prevail among current blanket chests available today. One of the most popular styles has become known as the "New England" blanket chest, designed with a single drawer along the bottom and storage compartment above, where the blankets would be folded and put away. Many of the early chests were either constructed or lined with cedar, to protect fine wool blankets from hungry moths. Simple pine, Black walnut, hickory and maple were also used in chest construction. Today's manufacturers offer chests in just as broad a variety of woods as well as painted finishes, but a cedar lining is still a construction mainstay in a true blanket chest.

Prices for blanket chests vary according to manufacturer or degree of antiquity. New chests can be purchased unfinished, or custom finished, even personalized. What better way to protect a special blanket or quilt, than a blanket chest, ready to do its duty

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