Sideboard, credenza and console dimensions

At a glance

Millimetres, heights measured from the finished floor to the top surface. S: a figure already published on our product pages or in our table heights sheet. P: typical practice, no source read; the partner workshop confirms each one.

Heights, depths and lengths: what sets each one

A sideboard has three sizes to settle and one to check. Height is a choice about use: 750 to 850 mm makes a serving surface a little higher than a dining table (our table heights sheet gives 720 to 760 mm for a dining table), and 900 to 1,100 mm makes a standing piece for drinks or a hall. Depth is set from inside: measure the deepest thing the piece must hold, then add the door thickness, the recess of the back panel and some clearance. Length is set against the wall and the room. Our credenzas page puts it plainly: a 220 cm credenza on a 240 cm wall reads as placed, while the same piece on a 360 cm wall looks like a floating object. The thing to check is the finished floor: heights are measured from it, so a rug, a thick carpet or an underfloor build-up changes the answer.

The drawing shows one example in elevation and section. The top is 25 mm, the doors and shelf 18 mm, the back panel 6 mm and recessed, and the legs 150 mm. Notice what the shelf loses: its depth is the carcase depth less the door, the set-back and the back recess, so a 500 mm deep sideboard has a shelf of about 430 mm.

Legs or plinth. Legs let the floor and the light run underneath and make the piece easier to clean around; a plinth makes it read as a block and hides the radiator or skirting behind. Both are P ranges. A tall credenza usually has shorter legs or a recessed plinth, as our credenzas page says, so the carcase carries the height.

Worked example: the top of a media unit

For a media unit, let the screen set the height. A screen sits best with its centre near the eye height of the people watching it seated. Our seat sheet gives a lounge seat of 400 to 450 mm, and our anthropometrics sheet gives sitting eye height of 700 to 860 mm (5th percentile woman to 95th percentile man, from a secondary compilation). Eye height above the floor is the sum: 1,100 to 1,310 mm. A 55 in (1,397 mm) 16:9 screen is 685 mm high. With its centre at 1,100 mm, its bottom edge is at 1,100 minus 342 = 758 mm; allow [60] mm for the stand or feet and the unit top is 698 mm. With the centre at 1,200 mm it is 798 mm. Many media units are lower than this, which puts the screen centre below the eyes of most seated adults. That is a choice, not a rule, and a wall-mounted screen frees the unit from the question. Take the final figure from the screen maker's installation guide and the real seat.

Behind the screen and the equipment, depth is set by the equipment plus room at the back for cables and air. Our credenzas page describes media credenzas with ventilated cabinetry; the amount of opening and clearance is the equipment maker's instruction, not a number to copy from a sideboard sheet.

Doors, drawers and shelves

These are the parts that sag, bind or warp, and where practice ranges stop being useful and the maker's data takes over.

Doors. How many hinges a door needs depends on its height and its weight, and the hinge maker publishes a chart for each hinge. One hinge catalogue we read gives the count against cabinet height and door weight bands and says door weight can also decide the number. Ask the partner for the chart for the hinge it fits, the weight of the door as built, and the count that results. Low, wide doors and heavy doors need extra care: ask whether the maker's chart allows the size, or whether a lift-up, bi-fold or pocket mechanism suits better.

Timber doors move. A solid timber panel changes width with the humidity of the room. Using the method on our tolerances sheet (Wood Handbook, chapter 4, American white oak, plainsawn, unfinished and unrestrained), a door panel 450 mm wide changes as follows from the reference of 50% relative humidity, about 12 mm between 30% and 70%. That is why wide doors are made as veneered board, or as a frame with a floating panel, rather than as one solid slab. Movement in panels and veneer has its own sheet: timber movement in panelling and veneer.

Drawers. The front height is a look; the capacity is the runner and the drawer box. Ask for the runner's published rated load and the extension in the drawing, and see drawer construction and runners for what to ask about the box.

Shelves. The span a shelf can carry depends on the board, its thickness and the load, and the sag grows with the fourth power of the span. The whole method, with a table of starting spans, is on shelf spans and deflection; do not size shelves from this page. For adjustable shelves the drilling pitch is usually 32 mm, a trade convention to confirm with the partner. Glass shelves and glass doors have their own rules: BS EN 14072:2003, Glass in furniture. Test methods, is named in the reference lists of both BS EN 16121:2023 and BS EN 14749:2016 on BSI Knowledge, and FIRA's test house lists a best-practice guide for glass in furniture. Ask which glass, which thickness and which edge finish.

Standing safe: tip-over, wall fixing and tests

A tall or heavy storage unit is a tip-over risk, and a wall-hung one is a falling risk. The BSI Knowledge listing for BS EN 14749 (domestic and kitchen storage units) says its safety requirements rest on the fact that such units cause serious injury when they are heavy and fall through a significant distance, which can happen if floor-standing units overturn, wall or screen hanging units become detached, or heavy components become detached. FIRA's test house says the same about storage in its own words: storage products can cause serious injury should they topple, so stability and suitability of wall fixings are key safety tests.

• For homes, BS EN 14749:2016 covers safety requirements and test methods for domestic and kitchen storage units, and BS 4875-7:2006 gives performance requirements for the strength and durability of the structure of domestic and contract storage furniture (it says it is not applicable to the safety of domestic storage furniture).
• For non-domestic use, BS EN 16121:2023, Non-domestic storage furniture. Requirements for safety, strength, durability and stability, is the standard BSI lists as current (published 30 April 2025; it replaces the 2013 edition). Its test methods are in BS EN 16122:2012. Its scope excludes domestic storage, kitchen and retail storage, and its Annex D is informative guidance on test severity in relation to application.
• The wall is outside the standard. BS EN 16121:2023 says its strength and durability requirements do not apply to the structure of the building: for a wall-hanging cabinet they cover the cabinet and the parts used for attachment, and not the wall or the wall attachments. BS EN 14749's listing likewise leaves out safety that depends on the structure of the building. So a test report on a cabinet does not prove the fixing to your wall.

What to ask for: a test report to the standard that fits the use, for this model or a representative sample of it; the loads the unit and its top are designed for; and, for any unit that is fixed to the wall, a fixing detail for the wall type it meets, from whoever is responsible for the wall. We give no fixing capacity, stud spacing or wall-type rule here, because none was read. Tell the maker early if a heavy screen or sculpture will sit on top.

Where it stands: corridors, lobbies and landings

A free-standing console in a hall, corridor or lobby takes its depth out of the width people walk through. In England, Approved Document M volume 2 (2015 edition incorporating the 2020 and 2024 amendments) says in paragraph 3.14 that corridors and passageways will satisfy the requirement if, among other things, elements such as columns, radiators and fire hoses do not project into the corridor, or a means of directing people around them is provided (3.14(a)), and the corridor has an unobstructed width, excluding any projections into the space, of at least 1,200 mm (3.14(b)). Where it is narrower than 1,800 mm there are passing places of at least 1,800 mm (3.14(c)). Paragraph 3.11 adds that narrower corridors might be reasonable in some places, such as existing buildings.

On our reading a fixed console is a projection, so a 350 mm deep console needs a corridor at least 1,550 mm wide to leave 1,200 mm clear. The document does not mention furniture there, and whether loose furniture is covered is for the architect and building control to say. The point for the specifier stands either way: every 50 mm of depth is 50 mm of corridor, so settle the depth against the route before the length.

Sideboard [ref]: finished size [1,800] mm long x [500] mm deep x [850] mm high to the top surface, measured from finished floor level. Legs [150] mm. Carcase [18] mm [board], top [25] mm [material]. Doors [2] of [540] mm wide; drawers [3] of [600] mm wide. All sizes as the shop drawing [ref], with tolerances as the agreed tolerance schedule.

Unit for a [55 in] screen: top at [700] mm, screen centre at [1,100] mm above finished floor level, confirmed on site against a seat height of [450] mm. Ventilation and cable routes as the equipment maker's instructions, shown on the shop drawing. Load on the top [ ] kg.

Doors [540] x [645] mm on [2] hinges rated by the hinge maker's chart for [ ] kg. Drawers on runners rated [ ] kg at [ ] mm extension. Shelves to schedule [ref] (board, thickness, span, load). Supplier to provide the published rating of each hinge and runner.

Unit [ref] to be [fixed to the wall by [detail ref] for [wall type] / free-standing and stable]. Test report to [BS EN 16121:2023 / BS EN 14749:2016 / BS 4875-7:2006, edition to confirm] for this model or a representative sample. Wall and fixings to be confirmed by [contractor or engineer] for [ ] kg.

Standards and sources

• BS EN 16121:2023: non-domestic storage. BSI listing: current, 30 Apr 2025; scope read.
• BS EN 14749:2016: domestic and kitchen storage units. BSI listing text read.
• BS 4875-7:2006: domestic and contract storage, strength. BSI listing: current.
• Approved Document M volume 2: 2015 ed. with 2020 and 2024 amendments, England; 3.11 and 3.14.
• Wood Handbook (USDA FPL, 2021), chapter 4: the door movement figures.

Questions we are asked

What is the standard height of a sideboard?

No standard sets it. Our credenzas page gives 75 to 85 cm for a standard sideboard and 90 to 110 cm for a tall credenza, and our table heights sheet gives 760 to 900 mm for a console. Treat these as practice ranges and settle the height against the use and the room.

How deep should a sideboard be?

A practice range is 400 to 550 mm for a dining sideboard and 300 to 450 mm for a console, but the real figure is set from inside: the deepest item to be stored, plus the door, the back recess and clearance. A media unit takes its depth from the equipment and the room needed behind it for cables and air.

How high should a media unit be so the television is at eye level?

Add a lounge seat height of 400 to 450 mm to a sitting eye height of 700 to 860 mm to get an eye height of 1,100 to 1,310 mm above the floor, then set the screen centre there and work down by half the screen height and the height of the stand. For a 55 in screen with its centre at 1,100 to 1,200 mm that puts the top of the unit at about 698 to 798 mm. Confirm with the screen maker's guide and the real seat.

How many hinges does a cabinet door need?

It depends on the door's height and weight, and the hinge maker's chart decides, so ask the partner for the chart for the hinge it fits. Low, wide or heavy doors may need more hinges or a different mechanism.

Does a sideboard have to be fixed to the wall?

That depends on the unit, the load on it and who uses the room. The standards test stability, and a test report covers the cabinet and its attachment parts but not the wall. Ask the partner whether the unit is stable on its own and, if it is fixed, for a fixing detail for your wall type.

How far can a shelf span?

It depends on the board, its thickness and the load. See the shelf spans sheet for the method and a table of starting spans; they are for a partner workshop to confirm.