Our dining room table is on its last legs (pardon the pun). It’s wobbly, the surface varnish has been scraped away over the years, the seats on the chairs have split (this is the second recovering).
We’ve looked into repairing it and frankly the cost greatly outweighs any benefit, although to be fair it’s done its time – my mum was given the table as a wedding present over thirty five years ago. But it was the abuse at my household over the last 7 or so that really finished it off.
So, I’m looking for another one. A fairly simple task, one would assume, but not so in practise. Apparently, I’m rather demanding of my requirements as our new dining set needs to be:
- able to seat 6 (although we’re happy for it to only seat 4 while unextended)
- modern looking (no heavy dark wood colours – it needs to be light wood or white)
- easy clean (wipeable surface, preferably faux-leather seating to be able to wipe clean the seats too)
- not dominate the room – it’s in the kitchen, so no thickly padded dark back which seems to be all the fashion
- no wider than 120cm
- no longer than 120cm (but can extend to up to 150cm at a push)
- must NOT have a drop leaf (so unusable when it’s just the four of you as you can’t get your legs under properly)
- preferably square/rectangular rather than round as it’s just easier to move round the space in our cramped room
- maximum cost of £500 (although the cheaper the better given that the children are still young and I hate being “precious” about furniture)
I wouldn’t have thought it was that unreasonable a set of criteria – there must be a fair amount of families with young children who are pushed for space but still want to receive visitors from time to time who would LOVE a dining room table just like that. But I’ve looked everywhere and not found anything that matches. Anything that comes even slightly close has a major flaw like cream fabric seats (like I can see THOSE lasting long with my two boys!) or the dimensions are too big.
Then this afternoon I remembered that Ikea now do some home deliveries and checked on their site. Found this table and these chairs. Okay, so the fabric of the chairs is still white (WHY do they do this – I can’t think of a worse colour with children in the house) BUT the covers are removable and machine washable (and easily removable also means easily recovered too). Yay, I think we’ve found the one.
Then I noticed that the table wasn’t available online. AND it’s out of stock in every branch that’s even vaguely reachable from here. BAH!
Back to the drawing board.
9 responses so far ↓
1 Elle // 25th Jun 2007 at 9:28 pm
My first suggestion would have been IKEA but you’ve had no luck there :( Do you have local shops that do pine furniture? The sort that make the tables and chairs in a workshop at the back? Often you can get a nice one for around £200 or so. I got one for £250 and it sits 6 just nice. It’s not the hardiest of woods but I’ve always thought them great for families.
2 Paula // 25th Jun 2007 at 10:08 pm
I bought a table and chairs set at IKEA for the grand sum of £85, are you sure there isn’t anything that would suit? Our original table was actually supposed to be a computer desk top with added legs from their diy range, seated 8 comfortably.
I won’t buy any furniture that I wouldn’t let the boys near. It limits my choices but I quite like IKEA anyway, suits our budget!
3 Jane // 26th Jun 2007 at 7:37 am
We have an Ikea bit of wood (actually not even wood – laminated chip block or whatever it’s called) with Ikea screw-in legs! Not very up-market but extremely child-friendly, great for moving house and no emotional attachment.
4 Jag // 26th Jun 2007 at 8:04 am
Goodness. We have had a very solid IKEA one for the last 5 years and it’s still going. It has a really think glass top – which we cover with clear plastic which you sometimes can’t notice it’s there. (Since it’s in the kitchen, the kids use the surface for *everything*). Underneath the glass surface are two huge drawers that come out either side of it’s length. You wouldn’t believe that could be possible looking at it – but it is – and this has been a boon for us. It’s things like that which make IKEA so good. Anyway – I can’t seem to find it in their site – perhaps they don’t do that line any more – but the chairs we got for it are excellent too.
5 Ys // 26th Jun 2007 at 8:44 am
You could try a local charity shop? Sometimes they have some nice tables. Cheaper to buy so you can spend some money on making it more to your personal taste.
6 Alley Katt // 26th Jun 2007 at 2:32 pm
We have a place near us called St Martin’s Emmaus that deals in second hand furniture, maybe there is something like that near you.
We did have a lovely one. But the dog ate it. Well, it was my sister’s dog, and we all lived at home then, the dog was a puppy and she died three years ago at the age of 15, so I don’t really think that counts. I just wanted to say we had a table but the dog ate it – coz I am 40 and I am MAD!
lol
7 cassie-b // 26th Jun 2007 at 3:22 pm
Nice looking table and chairs.
It looks like you got some good suggestions in your comments. Good luck with whatever you choose.
Cas
I think IKEA has good, durable furniture, and that sounds like what you’re looking for.
8 Paula // 26th Jun 2007 at 7:58 pm
Ahem IKEA have a SALE on now
9 Pewari // 27th Jun 2007 at 1:57 pm
Thanks for all the good tips. I have heard lots of good things about IKEA, so that is the route I’d like to take if possible but would like an expandable one rather than a fixed length table as we just don’t want it to dominate the room when we haven’t got visitors.
The good news is that the one we like seems to have come back into stock (yay), the bad news is we can’t take advantage of any sale prices as we have to wait until the money is available (boo).
Let’s just hope they don’t discontinue it before then!!
The views expressed in these comments are not the views of the publisher. However, we believe in the rights of others to express their legitimate views and concerns. Any legitimate complaint emailed to pewari@may.be will be seriously considered and the post reviewed as desirable and necessary.
Leave a Comment