Thursday, September 4, 2008

In Search of

The Perfect Table. That has been my most recent quest. Tables come in all shapes and sizes but most of them so far are either too tall, too small, too formal, too ugly, too big, too square, too oval, too long or my favorite - too expensive. I also have complaints about the finish, the wood, the pedestal, the table legs, the way the chair hits my shoulder blades. Being a mom has also ruined some of my choices. I have no desire for a built in lazy susan in the middle of my table that could only be used to fling food around the room. Do you think the person that designed that also thought about what would happen if you spilled milk on the table? Isn't it going to go right through the space between the table and the lazy susan? And then lets talk about grooves. They are not so groovy I have to say. I keep picturing myself trying to get frosting, crumbs, juice, who knows what out of the grooves in the table. And then there are the chairs. Is rattan really a good option with children? Doesn't that just seem like a crumb catcher? What happens when that same glass of milk that is headed for the lazy susan changes direction and heads right towards the rush seats? Oh, these also come in a fabric of my choice? Let me repeat the ages of my children 6, 9, and 11. Let's get serious here.

I have narrowed a few things down - this is a table for the kitchen. The breakfast nook is round - requiring a round table. To adequately seat our family without elbows, knees, or fingertips touching it needs to be a 60" table. I'm currently leaning towards this one:
But with this chair
Did I mention I'm sort of cheap though? UGH!!

If you're curious this is the space it will go into:

4 comments:

Pam said...

funny you should mention trying to find a dining set. i've been wanting to change our set to something that matched the style of this house. the old table worked fine, but an oak veneer farm-style table wasn't cutting it. i wanted to be able to fit 8-10 people. the wood had to be somewhat dark. every table i'd seen that i liked was at least $800 or more. cue our master community forum: someone we knew, the principal of one of the two schools here, was selling a table that was exactly what i had been looking for. because my husband saw it and knew it was what i wanted he called up. they were asking $200 but said that if whoever was interested could pick it up, he'd listen to offers. stinky asked if he'd take $150 since we had a truck to get it, and he did. it has 6 chairs to leaves to extend out far enough to accommodate 8-10 ppl. now i just have to find at least 2 more chairs similar in style...they don't have to match. got a feeling that finding those are gonna cost us as much as the table set itself! but i do love my set. stinky is VERY, not even SORT OF cheap LOL he knew a good deal when he saw it! LOL

btw i like the back style of the blue chair. very cool. much better than the ones that go along w table. oh, and rattan is strong stuff as long as it's real! LOL growing up we had rattan furniture my parents bought in the philippines. i kind of miss that stuff. they don't make em like they used to :-/

Christie O. said...

very cute table! i had all of your same fears -- and i wound up with literally, a blonde-wood table, a plain, ungrooved, unspectacular rectangle piece of wood with legs, and four wooden chairs just as unplain and ungrooved. As simplistic as you can get, really. Turns out that's my style. Wish I'd picked out something a little prettier though sometimes.

Amazed said...

If we're voting, good thoughts on grooves. I have grooves on my "formal" table and it is a regret. Rush chairs and kids? I don't think so. Picture pancakes and syrup and mashed potatoes and mac and cheese all smooshed down in the rushes. How are you liking the weather change? Are you back into the US groove? Are you still wearing your same old t-shirt? (just threw that in since you've mentioned it a few times!) It will be so fun when you get to move in. Well, not the moving in but when you're "really" in!

Anonymous said...

Beautiful table!

I was showing my husband,(who's a custom woodworker), this man's website, where you are thinking about getting your table from, and my husband thought, this man makes some very beautiful pieces.

I love what you've chosen, and I know it will fit perfectly in your new house!

So, how are you liking this crazy Summer weather? :) Have you been getting alot of rain?