Another meaning attested is a washstand, a piece of furniture equipped with basin, jug, and towel rail, and often with space to store the chamber pot behind closed doors.
[3] Commodes were made by ébénistes; the French word for "cabinet-maker" is derived from ebony, a black tropical hardwood notable as a foreign luxury.
Rectilinear neoclassical, or Louis Seize, commodes might have such deep drawers or doors that the feet were en toupie—in the tapering turned shape of a child's spinning top.
In the English-speaking world, commode passed into cabinet-makers' parlance in London by the mid-eighteenth century to describe chests of drawers with gracefully curved fronts, and sometimes with shaped sides as well, perceived as being in the "French" taste.
This piece of furniture is termed in French a chaise percée ("pierced chair"); similar items were made specifically as moveable bidets for washing.