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One Long Sideboard or Two Smaller Cabinets?
Posted by liyue posted on September 29, 2026
Two 80 cm cabinets can take up more of a wall than one 160 cm sideboard. Leave a gap between them and the difference becomes obvious. Yet if your serving dishes belong beside the dining table and your paperwork belongs near the sofa, forcing both into one cabinet may make the room less convenient.
Choose one long sideboard when you need a continuous surface and most of the contents are used in the same part of the room. Choose two smaller cabinets when storage genuinely needs to live in two places, or when a long wall unit would interrupt a doorway, switch or existing piece. You can compare current shapes in Casa Lusso’s sideboard and cabinet collection; make the room decision first.
Draw the storage on the room, not just the wall
List what you want to put away, then add where you reach for it. Crockery used at dinner has a natural home near the table. Chargers and notebooks that end up on the sofa side of the room are less likely to stay tidy if their cabinet is across the room. That may sound minor, but the distance between storage and use determines whether things get put back.
If everything on your list serves one dining area, a single sideboard is usually the simpler answer. Its top can hold a lamp or provide a place to set dishes while the table is being cleared. Two small cabinets spread across the room give you two landing spots, but neither is necessarily long enough for the same task. If you need a closer look at plate and serving-piece storage, our crockery storage guide deals with the inside of the cabinet.
The Avolo photograph shows a continuous top and a cabinet door opened below it. It is a product setting, not a measured room plan.
Count the gap when you count the width
Put the proposed pieces on a floor plan at their full outer widths. A pair of 80 cm cabinets is 160 cm only when the units sit flush together. If you want 20 cm between them, the arrangement occupies 180 cm. A small gap can look accidental; a larger gap may become useful space for a plant or floor lamp, but then you must allow for that item as well.
Do not compare outside width as if it were storage capacity. A cupboard with shelves, a chest with drawers and a sideboard with doors hold different things even at the same width. Ask whether your tallest serving piece, folders or table linens will fit the actual compartments. If you are still choosing a single cabinet’s dimensions, the sideboard size guide covers width, depth and height in more detail.
Also mark the space in front. You need to stand there and open a door or pull out a drawer. Two smaller pieces can solve a difficult wall, but they also create two access zones. One of them may land behind a dining chair when it is pulled out. Test the room with the chairs in use, not pushed neatly under the table.
One long piece makes a stronger visual line
A sideboard under one picture or a row of dining-room pendants can make the wall feel settled. You get a continuous edge and one area to arrange. This can be particularly useful when the room already has several chair legs, door frames and open shelves competing for attention.
Two cabinets can work beautifully when the architecture offers two natural spots: either side of an opening, for example, or one near dining and another near a reading chair. They do not need to match. Keeping a similar height or repeating one material can make the relationship legible without pretending they are one long piece. What tends to look awkward is splitting a single long wall into two little cabinets simply because each one seemed easier to buy.
The Milo Low Cabinet is shown as a single 80 cm unit. Its drawers illustrate a different storage pattern from the Avolo’s doors; the photo does not show a pair installed together.
Compare the actual pieces
The Avolo Sideboard is listed in 140, 160 and 180 cm widths, all 45 cm deep and 92 cm high. The Milo Low Cabinet is listed at 80 cm wide, 42 cm deep and 86 cm high, with four drawers. Two Milos would total 160 cm in cabinet width before any gap, but that does not make their internal layout equivalent to a 160 cm Avolo. Compare the items you need to store, as well as the floor space.
If you expect to rearrange the room, two separate cabinets offer more placement choices. You might move one to a bedroom later. A single long sideboard commits more strongly to its wall. This is a practical advantage only if both smaller cabinets work well on their own; do not buy a pair that makes sense solely when pushed together.
Consider delivery access before committing to the longer piece. Measure the tightest turn from the entrance to the room, not only the destination wall, and confirm the product’s delivery details for your chosen configuration. Smaller units may be easier to route through a difficult home, though their combined cost and storage can differ. Do not infer that two pieces will always be cheaper or easier to deliver.
There is also a perfectly good third option: one modest cabinet now. If half the proposed storage is for things you have not yet found a home for, sort those items before filling a whole wall. You can add a second cabinet when a genuine second point of use emerges.
Make the choice in the room
Tape the full widths on the floor, including your intended gap. Place a chair in its pulled-out position and stand where each door or drawer would open. Then carry the things you use most often from their storage spot to where you use them. If both walks end at the dining table and you want a generous top, the long sideboard has earned its place. If the walks end in different parts of the room, give each job its own cabinet.
One Long Sideboard or Two Smaller Cabinets?
Two 80 cm cabinets can take up more of a wall than one 160 cm sideboard. Leave a gap between them and the difference becomes obvious. Yet if your serving dishes belong beside the dining table and your paperwork belongs near the sofa, forcing both into one cabinet may make the room less convenient.
Choose one long sideboard when you need a continuous surface and most of the contents are used in the same part of the room. Choose two smaller cabinets when storage genuinely needs to live in two places, or when a long wall unit would interrupt a doorway, switch or existing piece. You can compare current shapes in Casa Lusso’s sideboard and cabinet collection; make the room decision first.
Draw the storage on the room, not just the wall
List what you want to put away, then add where you reach for it. Crockery used at dinner has a natural home near the table. Chargers and notebooks that end up on the sofa side of the room are less likely to stay tidy if their cabinet is across the room. That may sound minor, but the distance between storage and use determines whether things get put back.
If everything on your list serves one dining area, a single sideboard is usually the simpler answer. Its top can hold a lamp or provide a place to set dishes while the table is being cleared. Two small cabinets spread across the room give you two landing spots, but neither is necessarily long enough for the same task. If you need a closer look at plate and serving-piece storage, our crockery storage guide deals with the inside of the cabinet.
Count the gap when you count the width
Put the proposed pieces on a floor plan at their full outer widths. A pair of 80 cm cabinets is 160 cm only when the units sit flush together. If you want 20 cm between them, the arrangement occupies 180 cm. A small gap can look accidental; a larger gap may become useful space for a plant or floor lamp, but then you must allow for that item as well.
Do not compare outside width as if it were storage capacity. A cupboard with shelves, a chest with drawers and a sideboard with doors hold different things even at the same width. Ask whether your tallest serving piece, folders or table linens will fit the actual compartments. If you are still choosing a single cabinet’s dimensions, the sideboard size guide covers width, depth and height in more detail.
Also mark the space in front. You need to stand there and open a door or pull out a drawer. Two smaller pieces can solve a difficult wall, but they also create two access zones. One of them may land behind a dining chair when it is pulled out. Test the room with the chairs in use, not pushed neatly under the table.
One long piece makes a stronger visual line
A sideboard under one picture or a row of dining-room pendants can make the wall feel settled. You get a continuous edge and one area to arrange. This can be particularly useful when the room already has several chair legs, door frames and open shelves competing for attention.
Two cabinets can work beautifully when the architecture offers two natural spots: either side of an opening, for example, or one near dining and another near a reading chair. They do not need to match. Keeping a similar height or repeating one material can make the relationship legible without pretending they are one long piece. What tends to look awkward is splitting a single long wall into two little cabinets simply because each one seemed easier to buy.
Compare the actual pieces
The Avolo Sideboard is listed in 140, 160 and 180 cm widths, all 45 cm deep and 92 cm high. The Milo Low Cabinet is listed at 80 cm wide, 42 cm deep and 86 cm high, with four drawers. Two Milos would total 160 cm in cabinet width before any gap, but that does not make their internal layout equivalent to a 160 cm Avolo. Compare the items you need to store, as well as the floor space.
See the Avolo SideboardWhen the smaller pieces are the better buy
If you expect to rearrange the room, two separate cabinets offer more placement choices. You might move one to a bedroom later. A single long sideboard commits more strongly to its wall. This is a practical advantage only if both smaller cabinets work well on their own; do not buy a pair that makes sense solely when pushed together.
Consider delivery access before committing to the longer piece. Measure the tightest turn from the entrance to the room, not only the destination wall, and confirm the product’s delivery details for your chosen configuration. Smaller units may be easier to route through a difficult home, though their combined cost and storage can differ. Do not infer that two pieces will always be cheaper or easier to deliver.
There is also a perfectly good third option: one modest cabinet now. If half the proposed storage is for things you have not yet found a home for, sort those items before filling a whole wall. You can add a second cabinet when a genuine second point of use emerges.
Make the choice in the room
Tape the full widths on the floor, including your intended gap. Place a chair in its pulled-out position and stand where each door or drawer would open. Then carry the things you use most often from their storage spot to where you use them. If both walks end at the dining table and you want a generous top, the long sideboard has earned its place. If the walks end in different parts of the room, give each job its own cabinet.