Our “New” Kitchen Table!

For quite some time now, we have used a metal folding table covered in a plastic tablecloth for our kitchen breakfast table. The chairs we have sat on are back from my college days, purchased at Montgomery Ward for a few dollars apiece. Given we have carpet in our dining area, and four small children, it has seemed prudent to eat in the room with flooring, which is more easily sanitized after each meal! So, we’ve taken most all our meals for the past two years around our humble folding table.

While we really would have liked to find a different table/chairs for our family meals, we had delayed making a purchase because of our assumption we would soon be in a different home with an unknown-sized breakfast nook. So we hated to spend money if in a few months we would have to find something different based on size constraints. But ultimately, the current table and chairs were becoming less useable. Those poor old chairs have been wobbling for a long time (one even broke several months back) so every time Jay sat down to eat he wondered if this would be the time his chair gave out underneath him, or worse yet, under one of the children! And the table, while fairly stable, has cost me many a gash and bruise on my knees (I sat at the end, which isn’t really designed for knees and legs to fit properly).

So, a couple weeks ago I hit upon a solution to our table situation. We’d looked at tons of new dining sets, never finding something we liked enough to spend a wad of money on. But we live in Dallas, home to an amazing amount of furniture stores, and people who love to shop in them. People who are downsizing, upsizing, leaving town, whatever, and selling off perfectly good pieces of furniture for ridiculously low prices. So, with a modest budget in mind, I began perusing the classifieds. And after following many many leads, I stumbled upon a set that fit my qualifications: 6 chairs, table large enough for six people but no larger, good quality, sturdy enough to stand up to our household, and (yes, also very important!) beautiful, at least to me. Here it is!

The chairs actually had a bit of an overdone, very shiny finish on them when I purchased them – a bit too much for our tastes, so using very fine sandpaper, I got most of that off, leaving a warm wood finish that was much softer-looking and pleasing to our eyes. I love them. The table is not one I would have thought to pick were I buying new, but it is really beautiful with the chairs, and the set looks just wonderful all set up in our kitchen. Given my elation over finding something I liked so much for such a great price, imagine how fun it was to find this online, and note how closely it resembles my table, down to the similar number and pattern of turns on each leg! And the chairs around it are my favorite Pottery Barn chair as well – feel free to notice the resemblance to my classified ad chairs!

I am thankful for the dear friend who on the spur of the moment, agreed to go along with me to look at, help carry and move, and deliver the new set to our home. Bless you! When I returned home yesterday afternoon from our prior-to-school-starting-up 2nd grade girls’ ice cream party with Abigail, my sweet husband had carried in, and set up the table in the kitchen to surprise me. We enjoyed our first meal last night around our “new” table, and could not be more pleased and thankful for this wonderful addition to our home. We look forward to sharing many family moments here in the years to come.