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Welcome to our Shabby Chic Sideboard collection. Each one is hand crafted from solid wood and features the unique, distressed characteristics you would expect from the Shabby Chic style. With free delivery and a delivery crew to place your order in the room of your choice all you need to do is choose the furniture !
Browse through our Shabby Chic Dining Tables to complete the unique Shabby Chic look.

Looking for a dining table or even a dining set to go with one of our Mexican Sideboards?  Browse through some of our wonderful Dark Wood Dining Tables and Sets.

How did Mexican style arrive in Britain?
The Republic of Mexico is immediately to the south of the USA.  It was originally populated and governed by the indigenous civilisations such as the Olmec, the Maya and the Aztecs (none of whom had Mexican sideboards!) but in 1521 the country became a colony of Spain.  This situation continued for 300 years, until Mexico became independent in 1821.  

After 300 years as a colony of the Spanish Empire it is not surprising that the country acquired many of the trappings of its European rulers.  These included the language and the style of furniture - perhaps even Mexican sideboards.  A study of Spanish Colonial furniture will show that it has many similarities to that of Mexican furniture.  In Mexico the style was embellished with the use of exposed metal hinges and metal fittings designed to show off Mexico’s skills in metalworking.

It is perhaps surprising to realise that, at independence in 1821, Mexico’s territory included Texas, California, Wyoming, Idaho, Oklahoma, Nevada, Utah, Arizona, New Mexico and Colorado.  These were lost to the USA and then in the 1860s it was invaded and colonized by the French.  

Spanish or Mexican sideboard?
Why is this relevant to Mexican furniture? Well there are two reasons: the Spanish influence on the style of the furniture and then the later French influence that encouraged Mexican furniture to be painted.  But surely, Mexican furniture isn’t painted?  Well it’s certainly true that the general opinion of Mexican furniture is that it is not painted, but research in the USA suggests this may be due more to a misunderstanding than anything else.  

Many 18th and 19th Century Europeans had a fondness for painting their furniture – and not just in white, but a host of different colours including reds and blues.  The research indicates this habit or tradition was also common in Mexico.  Mexican sideboards at this time might possibly have been in a rich scarlet or red colour. However, the researcher’s theory suggests that as this furniture grew old and was replaced, many Mexican householders simply put the old, painted, furniture outside.  

The dry climate helped preserve the discarded furniture while the combined effects of sun and wind sandblasted off the old paintwork and bleach the timbers.  When American tourists began travelling to Mexico in the 1950s they discovered this ‘traditional’ Mexican furniture and bought it from locals to furnish their own homes in the USA.  Hence the myth arose that Mexican furniture was typically rustic and had a rough, bleached appearance.

Of course this would explain the existence of Mexican furniture in the United States of America, but not in the UK.  Britain’s overseas links or influences would have come from its own portfolio of colonies, dependencies’, protectorates and so forth.  While this would explain African or Indian influences, Britain’s interests in South America were pretty much limited to the Bahamas, British Honduras, British Guiana and the West Indies.  

American cultural imperialism
There are perhaps two potential explanations: one is that Mexican furniture in the UK arose as a consequence of American cultural imperialism.  In other words, the USA gave us so many style and design icons, from car styling to bubble gum and Cocoa Cola that a liking for their taste in furniture was a logical progression.  The other theory is that with the introduction to Britain of cheap package holidays in the 1960s, many people would have travelled abroad on holiday for the first time – particularly to Spain.  Once there, the enjoyment of the place and its surroundings might perhaps have spawned a desire for Spanish style furniture on returning home.  

The fact that many bungalows were built in the 1970s with Spanish-style architectural features and archways between, for example, living and dining rooms, lends some credibility to this idea..  The Spanish, in common with many other parts of Europe, had stopped painting their furniture by this time so any shrewd furniture importer could have seen the similarity between Spanish and Mexican-style furniture and taken matters on from there - hence the UK market for the Mexican sideboard !

Shabby chic sideboards are a really unique piece of high quality furniture. Each shabby chic sideboard has its own unique character injecting rustic feminine charm into any room including living rooms, dining rooms or bedrooms. All our shabby chic sideboards are made from the finest cuts of solid mango – if its charm you are after, our shabby chic sideboards are as charming as you can get.