Over the years, there have been pieces of furniture that have come along that proved especially useful. 

Pie safes, coat valets and even card tables are a small handful of the pieces.

Here are some great ideas for different uses for some of the pieces of furniture you might run across:

Blanket chest—this is a piece of furniture with a hinged lid and a large storage area inside.  There are pieces that also come with one or two drawers under it.  As the name suggests, it was common to store blankets inside—you can use this now to store anything from CD’s ad DVD’s to your kid’s toys.

Telephone chairs—this chair has a built-in table on the side, and its main use was to hold your landline telephone.  These days you can use these to hold your laptop or tablet while you get some work done.

Old Magazine racks—this was to give you a place to stash your magazines and newspapers.  Today, you could use this to stash your boxes of aluminum foil and plastic wrap, have it hold cutting boards, or even a place to put your flip flops.

This is just a few pieces that you can use differently.  What kinds of furniture do you use differently?