All the dressers in Switzerland

The market interest in Switzerland is low for dressers, so most stores here do not provide many options to choose from. Without a closet, most people have to buy wardrobes anyway and they often have everything you need – drawers, shelves, clothes rails – built in. With all that variety in one spot, most people find an additional dresser redundant.

With our drawer-filled wardrobes looking too expensive to order, we are on the market for some affordable dressers to go with Option 1 wardrobe.

Sadly, the biggest variety can be found at IKEA because they are international and already making dressers for other markets so it doesn’t take much effort to offer them in Switzerland. I didn’t necessarily want to go the IKEA route (yet), so we made trips to Pfister, Möbel Pfister, Micasa, and Interio to see what else was out there.

Not only was Pfister out of our price range (2-3k for a designer dresser? No way.) but we didn’t love anything there. Micasa was a boon, we didn’t even bother visiting Fly again because their quality is terrible, so this left me with Interio, which is a slightly nicer, more expensive version of IKEA.

Here are a the few options I found.

1. SCHRÄG Kommode from Interio for 699CHF ($762)

2. SCHRÄG Kommode from Interio for 799CHF ($871)

I thought these ones were slightly interesting but a little expensive for how short or narrow they are. The lower drawers in the taller one are quite slim and would only work well for things like undies and socks. I think on their own, each dresser is not enough and I wish the shorter one was at least wider or something for more storage.

3. HIGHLIGHT Kommode from Interio for 899CHF ($980)I really liked the Highlight series at Interio, but Kay and I both agreed that while this dresser is nice, the drawers are slightly too thin.

The wardrobe guys in Dogern warned us not to get too thin drawers or you are limited how much you can put in them. A few on top would be nice for under garments, but we need some big drawers for sweaters and pants. The drawers have a nice soft close though!

4.  Interio Kommode (discontinued)

These ones below were also at the store just a couple weeks ago, but are not available online at the moment, so I’m not sure on the price or if they are still available for purchase. They would also be around 900-1000 a piece.

I didn’t pay too much attention to the price because while the drawers are nice and deep, they have a closing mechanism that makes them slam shut with a loud snap. I definitely don’t want noisy dressers in the room if someone is trying to quietly pick out clothes while the other is sleeping!

5. HIGHLIGHT Kommode (discontinued) from Interio for 999CHF ($1089)

We just saw this dresser a week or two ago. I knew it was being discontinued, but as I write this, it looks like it’s already offline. I thought it was an interesting concept with a dresser and built-in cupboard. It is meant for use in living rooms as well, but I thought one could use the shelves for sheets and pants and things and the drawers for undergarments.

When it was closed, the shape was really cool. It looked a bit like a stacked dresser and the height was really nice for the cabinet part. There was also one more thinner dresser in this series (only in the very lower right of this photo) but it is also discontinued now I believe.

That was about it from Interio. They had a few other offers, but nothing else really fit our style or needs. I wasn’t totally in love with any of the dressers above either and couldn’t justify the price for what you get. The whole point of skipping the expensive drawers in the wardrobe is mainly to save money… so we have to save on what we spend on dressers as well!

After exhausting all our other options, we turned to IKEA, which has many dressers and price points. Without glossy white options for most dressers, we are leaning heavily towards the black brown colors because we already have several pieces of furniture from IKEA with this color and it matches our bathroom cabinets perfectly, which are visible from the bedroom.

1. Malm Six-drawer dresser from IKEA for 199CHF ($216)

It seems like every time a dresser is wide enough for the space in our bedroom, the designers cut it down in height a bit. This one might be OK, but I don’t like when dressers or sideboards are lower than my hips. It just makes them a bit awkward and it makes me feel like a giant.

2. Malm Six-drawer dresser from IKEA for 199CHF ($216)

This one is a nice height, but all of the Malm furniture is pretty darn basic. It’s just so simple. I like that there are two drawers at the top to divide for undergarments, but it’s not the most exciting design.

3. Hemnes Eight-drawer dresser from IKEA for 249CHF ($271)

Again, I’m not sure if this one is too short for my taste, but I like how it has more drawers than the taller options and unlike the Malm, the drawers are split on the top level. This would be easy to split between the two of us without making me nervous that I don’t have enough sweater and pant space.4. Hemnes Six-drawer dresser from IKEA for 199CHF ($216)

The other option from Hemnes is the six drawer version. It is pretty tall, which I like. The top drawers are a little thin and it’s maybe a little weird that the second drawer is bigger than all the lower drawers. If I designed it, I would have put the largest drawer on the bottom or made all the lower drawers equal heights.

Kay actually dislikes the knobs on the Hemnes dressers. They are too old-fashioned for him, but if we buy one we could always upgrade the knobs to something more chic like simple brushed metal knobs. Kay is just not a fan of anything not simple and modern! (No beveled molding, not a fan of lots of materials, textures, patterns, etc.)

5. Malm Six-drawer dresser from IKEA for 149CHF ($162)

I admit that ever since one of my first trips to IKEA, I have wanted this dresser because it has a flip up mirror and jewelry box type thing going on. Love the idea of having easier access to my jewelry!

If we buy this, we would put it in the small space between the windows in the bedroom, but I’m concerned that Kay will just pile stuff on top of it since that is his side of the bed. But you cannot pile things on this dresser or the flip top becomes inaccessible!

Well… decisions! To be honest I’m actually worried that if we get a shorter dresser with lots of counter space, Kay will also pile clothes on that. He can be really bad about leaving things out and it drives me nuts.

I don’t want to have IKEA furniture forever, but you really can’t beat their prices here. We don’t have any of the cheaper brands here like Target, Kmart, Walmart (hate Walmart!) or Kohls, so with house things we are usually stuck with IKEA or paying $$$. If we move in another few years outside of Switzerland, I don’t want to invest thousands in furniture that we’d just have to sell, so I think it makes sense to stick with IKEA for now.

We just have to decide between a low and wide dresser with more storage or a more aesthetically pleasing taller dresser with a little less storage. In either case we will probably get the last option as an additional dresser because I really want that mirror option, so maybe another tall dresser would be fine. It would help me avoid the Kay-clothing-piling situation.

Where do you buy your dressers from? Is most of your house also furnished in IKEA and the like or have you been able to splurge for some nicer pieces?

10 thoughts on “All the dressers in Switzerland”

  1. This summer we stayed at my grandparents and used the Hemnes Six-drawer dresser and it worked really well, we each took one top drawer for undies or in my case odds and ends like lipstick and ticket stubs and the large drawer fit a good many pants and sweaters.

    1. We are leaning towards that one I think… if we go for the taller option we might have room for a full length mirror too. Nice to hear how it works out space wise! 🙂

  2. We have the 8-drawer Hemnes Bureau, and we love it. It gave us so much space, and the height is really good. When standing next to it, it’s about up to my waist. The hardware is a little different than the picture shows – they are actually metal and a dark gray in color, but it can easily be changed out if Kay still doesn’t like it. The drawers slide very nicely, and they are actually as deep as the front parts show, which I think is a great size. My husband and I each took a side, since they are identical, and I actually have over 40 shirts in just the smaller of the two widest drawers. It was also very easy to assemble, and took just under an hour with two of us working on it. Good luck on your search!

    1. Yep, I think it’s up between the two Hemnes. We’ll have to look at the height again as we are both pretty tall. Kay actually wants hardware more similar to the long bars we have on the kitchen cupboards, but I don’t think it’d work unless we filled in the holes on the dresser. We’ll find some compromise, but he’s kinda picky about things being “old fashioned” as he says. I think the Hemnes standard knobs are fine!

  3. Right now my dresser is a big piece of hand-me-down furniture from my aunt, but we do have quite a lot of IKEA and Target furniture. I think hubs used to have an IKEA dresser, but we got rid of it when he loaded up one of the drawers too heavily and it broke and all his stuff fell into the drawer below.

  4. I think IKEA furniture can be great when paired with other furnishings to avoid the “IKEA showroom” feel in your house. The Hemnes 8-drawer dresser is one of the better quality pieces that IKEA sells, IMO, and it would work great on the wall opposite your giant windows. I’ve seen that dresser in the store and it was actually TALLER than I thought it would be, break out the tape measure in your room if you need to visualize the height. I would also think about hanging two of these mirrors (http://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/90178428/#/30125980) over the left and right drawers of the dresser for a “His & Hers” effect, and they would help bounce light around the room from the windows. Additionally it would be super easy to change out the knobs, something like this (http://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/50138750/) from IKEA or this (http://www.lowes.com/pd_250161-76633-89013_0__?productId=3609608&Ntt=cabinet+knobs&pl=1&currentURL=%3FNtt%3Dcabinet%2Bknobs&facetInfo=) from another store. Lastly, I think you should go for the tall Malm chest that you’ve been wanting, the black-brown finish will coordinate with the Hemnes and since they’re not right next to each other it will look absolutely fine. Modern knobs on the Hemnes will make the 2 pieces coordinate even better! Good luck and happy shopping!

    1. Yeah, exactly… sometimes I get the feeling our house looks like an IKEA catalogue. Hoping the homemade curtains in the bedroom and living room help out a bit, but I’d love if we could get a cool sideboard in the living room to avoid eeeverything being from there.

  5. The first Malm dresser you listed but think it’s too low – they make a 4 drawer dresser and if you put two beside each other it ends up being the same length as the 6 drawer, but with 2 extra drawers.

    I know it’s the cheapest option IKEA has, and that everyone else has it as well, but I’ve had my Malm dressers for 5 years without any problems.

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