This post may contain affiliate links. If you make a purchase through the links below, I may receive compensation. This post was originally sponsored by Serena & Lily. It has been updated since its original publication in 2021, and is still loved and treasured in our new home in Bethesda.
A lot of us are in the midst of furnishing or re-furnishing our homes at the moment, and I wanted to shine a spotlight on one of my absolute favorite furniture investment pieces over the past few years: my Serena & Lily Blake dresser. If you have been following this blog for awhile, you probably recall that I had been eyeing this dresser for years, and when we moved into our second Manhattan apartment, I finally had the space to buy it. I bought mine in the “wide size” in fog gray (no longer available, but their coastal blue is very similar), which felt like a perfect match for our predominantly gray/blue/silver bedroom. I was principally attracted to the raffia texture, which contrasts beautifully with the other pieces in our bedroom (upholstered headboard, mirrored side tables, wood desk, and upholstered desk chair), and somehow just makes the space feel “softer” in general. As I have gotten older, I have found myself increasingly drawn towards rooms (and outfits, actually) that feel coordinated but not matchy-matchy, so I loved that the Blake dresser was in the same fog gray as our bed (also Serena and Lily) but they did not look to be purchased as a set. I appreciated the way they both boast strong, nearly architectural (?) designs — the Pondicherry bed with confident curves and the dresser with a bold, block-like Parsons-style design — but they aren’t the same designs. Something about the play of curves with lines in these two major pieces of furniture in my bedroom just makes my heart sing. I have also always loved those gorgeous brass pulls. Mr. Magpie often jokes about my obsession with that detail, as our bedside tables also feature them, and I presented him with several consoles with the same style of pull when we were looking for one for our living room. What can I say? It’s like jewelry? It adds polish? It offers dimension? I don’t know, but the dresser gets me.
From a functionality standpoint, the drawers of the dresser are wide and beautifully constructed of wood. They are a near-perfect match for these drawer-dividers (so much so Mr. Magpie asked whether they came built-in to the dresser!), which help me keep my shirts folded perfectly a la Marie Kondo. A small thing, but the scroll of the drawers along the metal glides really speaks to the quality of the dresser’s construction in my opinion — previously, I had used a cute little bead board style dresser I’d bought from Crate and Barrel right out of college whose drawers would sometimes dribble open (I suppose the dresser was not totally flat, or the metal glides weren’t?), and then I had a love-hate relationship with an old cedar dresser Mr. Magpie inherited — the kind whose drawers sort of hang at an angle when opened. These were not insurmountable problems by any stretch of the imagination, but once I had the S&L dresser, immediately noticed the absence of any such foibles. This thing is built beautifully, and to last. (As an example, the entire back of the dresser is covered in raffia, too, so you could easily position it somewhere in a room where the back is visible without batting an eye! Every detail is done right, no expense spared.)
My one hesitation with buying the dresser was upkeep. I had noted that you shouldn’t use any cleaning products on it, and that you must instead address any spills/stains with “a clean dry cloth.” Does anyone else with children shudder upon reading those words?! I mean, how on earth…? I actually went back and forth on whether to wait to buy it until our children were older, imagining my daughter running into our bedroom and swiping my beloved dresser with chocolate-covered fingers, but in the end, this has not been an issue at all. It’s not common we have food in our bedroom, and in fact the children are rarely in our bedroom, full-stop. I also think that the variegated texture/colors of the dresser could hide a random spot or two — as you can see in the photos above, there are natural variations and color differences in the raffia itself. I have just been using a microfiber cloth to wipe it down and rid it of dust/debris. In fact, my experienceon the upkeep front has made me think differently about outfitting my home with small children in tow. I now feel comfortable investing in pieces in our bedroom and offices, as our dresser has fared beautifully and without incident for nearly two years now, but will continue to be highly cautious and reasonable when outfitting the family room, kitchen, and dining room. Accordingly, I am already contemplating the purchase of one of their stunning chaises for our new bedroom — can you imagine the luxury of reading on it, especially if outfitted in a fabulous print?! — or possibly (finally!) upgrading to a King bed and moving our queen-sized one to one of the guest bedrooms. I have no qualms about having a room almost entirely outfitted in Serena & Lily (we also have their Amelia rug in our bedroom) as I think you can achieve an effect that looks eclectic — different textures, shapes, finishes — but all hangs together. So much to look forward to — just trying to remind myself that slow and steady wins the race when it comes to decorating…!
P.S. ICYMI: we are moving to D.C.!
P.P.S. A detailed review of a great pair of jeans from Citizens.