Should I Use Campaign Furniture In My Home Design?

Have you ever heard of campaign-style furniture? If not, let Down2Earth Interior Design introduce you to this distinctive style—one you’ve likely seen many times before and may have even found yourself drawn to without knowing why. Perhaps you’ve wondered what it’s called, where to find it, or how it came to have its signature look. In this blog post, we’ll demystify campaign-style furniture and explore its history, defining features, and how and whether you should bring this timeless style into your own space.

When we talk about campaign style, we’re not talking about furniture that’s red or blue, or anything that refers to a modern-day political campaign. Although, as the folks on the Chairish blog humorously point out, campaign furniture wins “big points for being a bipartisan powerhouse, deftly treading the space between modern and traditional like a champ.”

Rather, we’re talking about furniture made for travel. It’s designed to break down and fold up so it can be carried by traveling armies on military campaigns. I recently had the pleasure of staying in a safari camp in Botswana that heavily leaned into this style:

The idea of campaign furniture has been around since Julius Caesar, but it’s more commonly associated with the British Empire, who would send their officers to colonize foreign lands. These officers would bring their own pieces of portable furniture, including chests, chairs, desks, beds, and dining tables.

Folding canvas coffee table:

Night table at bedside:

Small folding game table:

Trunks used as a bottom-of-the-bed bench:

Campaign Chairs:

A desk with lots of little pockets:

Even a ladder-like shelving unit that was used for robes and towels in our tent bathroom:

You can also see some ingenious foldable designs for beds and dining tables on Lynn Byrne’s blog.

However, Campaign style is most commonly associated with wooden chests of drawers, which are the pieces we’ll focus on in this blog post.

This chest of drawers was in our tent’s bathroom and the hardware is emblematic of the look. A “campaign style” chest of drawers typically features recessed hardware, small handles on the side of the piece, strap work, brass corners, and feet that can be removed.

Photo of Anglo Indian Campaign chest from Wikipedia

As war tactics changed and armies needed to move more quickly, the army discovered that these pieces did not provide the level of mobility needed. Furthermore, as speed of travel increased, the need to be nicely furnished for a long journey diminished. There are still many contexts in the modern world where having mobile, modular pieces is highly practical and valuable. Furthermore, the quality of the wood and brass that makes up many of these pieces gives them a sense of timelessness that we love. The style is evocative of luxurious travel of yesteryear. However, when I look at authentic colonial pieces, I’m also troubled because this kind of furniture is associated with aggressive colonial conquest and occupation.

Some of the furniture I saw at this particular camp was not small enough to be meant for travel at all. The piece below, for example, blended nicely with campaign style furniture, but even if it broke down into pieces, the pieces were still so huge, no one could travel easily with them. I couldn’t even understand how these pieces made their way to the camp, given that the roads are narrow and unpaved and bumpy and the biggest vehicle that seems to be able to fit on them is a Land Rover. I asked the staff specifically how they got the pieces there, and they said they waited until the dry season and then use the dried up river beds to get larger trucks to the camp. I’m sharing because this piece is just so giant and cool and honestly who would ever think to put something like this in a tent?

What are the ethical considerations around Campaign-style furniture?

If you love this style and want to incorporate it into your home, you can find second hand pieces. While these pieces may have a problematic history, it doesn’t do anyone any good to let well-crafted furniture made of solid wood and sturdy metal go to waste. My point of view is, use it but be mindful that its history is tied up with thorny power dynamics. Whenever you purchase antiques, it’s an opportunity to educate yourself about the original intentions of the piece and learn from the past.

Example of a Vintage Piece You Can Buy

Campaign Mahogany Chest of Drawers from Chairish

Examples of New Campaign-style Chests

Pottery Barn offers a 7-drawer campaign style dresser in Heritage Walnut:

It looks like this piece was formerly offered in white as well (but no longer is).

I personally think campaign style pieces lose something when painted white. There’s a depth and dignity to the stained wood that just cannot be replicated. However, a paint color can be a saving grace when a piece is damaged and cannot be restained to the original condition, or if the quality of the wood used to make modern pieces is not as readily available as it once was. If going with a painted piece of campaign furniture, I much prefer a deep bold color, like this 30” Campaign 3-Drawer green nightstand from Williams Sonoma:

This camp was truly amazing and decadent. We didn’t actually know what we were getting into ahead of time, and I had no idea that tents could be so luxurious. We were upgraded to a “family” tent (I guess it wasn’t being used during the time we were there) so it consisted of a common room, two bedrooms, two double bathrooms, an additional outdoor bathroom, a private deck and plunge pool. If you want to see videos of me marveling at these accommodations, as well as the stunning main dining tent, click over to our Instagram.

The safari camp’s campaign furniture made me feel like Colonel Mustard with alarming frequency, but I still enjoyed soaking in the environment, and the luxury of the camp experience itself was an unexpected bonus, since what I was really there to was ogle the animals. For all my love of interiors, nothing quite compares to the extraordinary expanse of Botswana’s wilderness and the wildlife that inhabits it.

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