Sit in a Sheffield front room measuring 3.4 metres across — sofa, two armchairs nobody can quite agree on, a TV unit, the radiator that can't be moved — and the maths gets brutal fast. A standard sideboard is 80–90cm tall and 140–180cm wide. By the time you've slotted one against the only free wall, the room reads "storage cupboard with a sofa in it". I've lived in three flats like this. In every one of them, the answer wasn't a wider piece of furniture. It was a taller one.
Highboards — the tall, narrow, often LED-lit cabinets that sit somewhere between a bookcase and a sideboard — solve a very specific British problem. UK rooms tend to be short on floor space and long on wall above the picture rail. A 180cm cabinet that's only 40cm deep gives you more usable storage than a chunky sideboard, and it doesn't crowd the seating area. The trade-off is they're trickier to style and they're heavier to position. So I went through the highboards Villalta Home actually stocks, lived with the layouts for a couple of weekends, and picked five that earn their wall.
How I'm thinking about this
A highboard has to do three things or it doesn't deserve the slot. It has to hold real stuff — not just five fairy lights and a candle. It has to look intentional from across the room, because at 180cm tall it isn't fading into the background. And it has to be possible for two people to get up the stairs of a Victorian terrace without taking a chunk out of the bannister.
Anything thinner than 40cm front-to-back tends to wobble. Anything wider than 105cm starts dictating the room. I've ignored the very glossy "showroom" units that look great empty and dreadful with three remotes on top. The five below all have either a dedicated wine rack, a work surface, plug sockets, or — in one case — a pegboard you can actually use.
!Tall white cabinet with app-controlled LED lighting, sliding door and three drawers
The one I'd start with if you're not yet sure whether a highboard is going to land. At £125 it's a long way the cheapest here, and the 92cm work surface is genuinely useful — high enough to use as a coffee station without bending in half. The app-controlled LED isn't a gimmick once you've lived with it: dim, warm, off altogether for film nights. Sliding door means it can sit close to a wall corner without an open hinge eating the gap.
That said, it's MDF and glass, and you can tell. The drawers aren't soft-close, the back panel isn't structural, and if you stack anything heavier than crockery on top of it you'll want to wall-anchor the thing. Bring this one in if you're testing whether a tall unit suits the room before committing harder.
See it on Villalta Home
!Two-tone white and black 180cm tall display cabinet with glass uppers, central work surface and lower storage
This is the one you buy when you've got a few things actually worth showing — books with proper spines, a decent set of glasses, the cafetière you spent too much on. Glass upper cabinets, a central worktop that doubles as drinks station, concealed storage at the bottom. The two-tone white-and-black finish keeps it from drifting into "rented holiday cottage" territory. The LED's app-controlled, the layout's smart, and 180cm of height makes a tiny 3m room read taller, not smaller.
The honest caveat: it's MDF dressed up well, so don't expect heirloom build quality, and the glass uppers want a quick wipe more often than you'd think. Also worth measuring your staircase before ordering — the longest panel needs a clear 190cm turning radius.
See the 180cm display cabinet
!Antique green tall cabinet with glass doors, integrated wine rack and built-in AC and USB sockets
The single most underrated feature on any of these is that this one has actual mains sockets and USB ports built into it. If you've ever tried to charge a phone, run a coffee grinder and plug in a desk lamp from a single wall socket behind the sofa, you'll know how unusual this is. The antique green finish is a proper colour decision — it'll either fit the room or it won't, no middle ground — and the wine rack and glass-fronted display make it feel like a piece, not a box.
Where it falls short: green is a commitment. If your room is already busy (patterned curtains, a printed rug, a feature wall), this will overwhelm. Best in a calm, neutral room where it gets to be the colour. Also: check the socket type before ordering and confirm it ships with UK three-pin, not Schuko.
See the green cabinet with sockets
!Tall black highboard with integrated pegboard panel, sliding glass door and LED lighting
The pegboard is what makes this one. Most highboards give you a fixed grid of shelves and a glass door and that's it. This one builds in a section you can actually rearrange — hooks for headphones, a clip for the post, a small shelf for keys if your hallway has run out of options. Pair that with adjustable internal shelves and a sliding glass door, and you've got a unit that flexes as the room changes (kids' toys this year, a record collection next).
Caveats: the pegboard is MDF, so don't overload it — light decor and small accessories, not power tools. The black finish shows dust, particularly the door track at the bottom. Worth a quick weekly wipe.
See the pegboard highboard
!Walnut-finish 145cm highboard cabinet with sliding glass doors, integrated wine rack and ambient LED lighting
If you want a highboard that doesn't read as "modern flat-pack", this is the one. Walnut finish, sliding glass doors with a softer profile, metal feet that lift it off the floor instead of grounding it like a wardrobe. The wine rack holds six bottles properly (not the apologetic two-bottle slot some of these have), and the LED sync is the same music-reactive one as the cheaper pegboard cabinet — which is fine, it's the look that's doing the work here.
At 145cm it's shorter than the 180cm options, which makes it the easier pick for rooms with a low picture rail or a window cutting across the wall. The honest caveat is that it's still MDF underneath the walnut veneer, so don't expect it to feel like solid oak. It looks the part, particularly in evening light — but treat it gently.
See the walnut highboard
A few things to check before you buy
Measure the door, then the corridor, then the turn at the top of the stairs — in that order. A 180cm cabinet that ships flat-packed is fine in a Victorian house. One that arrives assembled almost certainly isn't. Check whether the LED unit comes with a UK plug or an EU adapter (most of these are app-controlled via 2.4GHz Wi-Fi only — 5GHz networks won't pair). And if you're in a rental, confirm the unit's anti-tip strap goes into a stud, not into the plaster — landlords are picky about wall damage and a highboard at 180cm needs a proper anchor.
What I'd actually buy
If you're not certain a highboard is right for the room, start with the £125 white cabinet — it'll tell you within a week. If you've got the budget and a calm neutral room, the green socket-built-in cabinet is the most genuinely useful piece here; six months in, you'll wonder how you charged your phone before. And if you want it to look intentional from across the room, the walnut splurge does it without much styling effort.
By the Villalta Home Editorial team, June 2026. Edited by Juan Antonio Villalta Pacheco.
