A china hutch, a specialized china cabinet, has its top half recessed back from the bottom half creating a flat, usually wooden, serving or displaying area between them called the apron. The top of the hutch has two or more glass doors with wood trim for displaying china or other items of interest; the bottom has wooden doors that conceal compartments for storage. Styles of hutches fall into many common furniture categories. Does this Spark an idea?
Queen Anne
The graceful, moderately proportioned Queen Anne, a popular traditional antique style, has a subtle simplicity. It features an interesting leg/foot combination in that each leg is a cabriole, which means that it has double curves and tapers down to a flared drake foot. This type of leg is sometimes called a ball-and-claw or just a paw foot. The hutch has scalloping on the apron, ornate molding and raised panels on the doors. Made of solid hardwood, usually cherry, this cabinet flaunts elaborate brass hardware with bat-wing-shaped drawer pulls.
Victorian
Victorian china hutches traditionally came in mahogany and rosewood and occasionally oak, but today they consist of those hardwoods plus hickory and maple. This style reflects Gothic, Tudor, Renaissance, English Rococo, Elizabethan and Neoclassical influences in its heavy proportions, elegant carving, dark finishes and elaborate ornamentation. Some cabinets emulate the later Victorian Period by using straight lines, dark stain, raised styling and defined moldings.
Traditional
Some china hutches termed traditional, consisting of darker woods such as mahogany and cherry, fail to fall into any particular category by combining elements from other furniture styles such as Queen Anne, Chippendale and Victorian. These formal hutches incorporate fluted, rope-twist or turned legs and ornate aprons with scalloping. Raised-paneled doors (with cathedral arches) and drawers (with fronts having decorative routing) come in full overlay, which means they cover the whole front of the cabinet. Wavy crown-style moldings may feature rope twists.
Mission
The simple Mission Style hutch stands unadorned, with a utilitarian design that features flat, square surfaces and straight lines. Square legs and posts support mildly curved or straight aprons, and plain square door panels close flush along the front of the cabinet. Plain wooden drawer and door pulls along with black imitation wrought-iron hardware add to the simple design of these pieces, as do the flat, 45-degree plain moldings. These pieces were originally made out of quarter-sawn oak, but today they come in cherry as well.
Shaker
The distinctive style of Shaker hutches features legs with a slight taper, flat door fronts that overlay the front of the cabinet, and simple arched aprons. Raised or inset door panels can be either square or slightly arched, while moldings remain plain or plain cove. Similar to the Mission Style, the Shaker Style hardware, in keeping with the rest of the unit's design, is plain; pulls are wooden. This furniture piece has no traditional type of wood associated with it, so it comes in a large variety of woods.
Tags: front cabinet, Queen Anne, china hutches, door panels, doors with, fall into, Mission Style