Sideboard

A sideboard, also called a buffet, is a long, large piece of dining-room furniture used for displaying china, storage, and for serving food. The body is a storage unit, composed of drawers, sometimes flanked on each side by cabinets with doors.

Apron

A structural support placed at right angles to the underside of a shelf, chair seat, or table top to provide additional weight bearing strength and often decorative flourishes.

Commode

French form mimicking an English chest-of-drawers, dating from the mid 17th-century and very popular in the 18th century. Fashion greatly determined variances in styles and decoration, but commodes generally are wider than they are tall.

Parquetry

Parquetry is a form of geometric mosaic composed of pieces of wood. The wooden pieces are typically different kinds and colors. This method is used to decorate floors, furniture, boxes, and other decorative objects.

Veneer

A wood finishing technique in which thin sheet of fine wood is applied to a the surface of a coarser wood or other structural material for decoration. Veneer is used to give furniture pieces a finer, more pleasing appearance. It was first used in ancient Egypt, classical Greece, and Rome, but did not appear again until the 17th Century in the Netherlands.