We’ve been wanting new dining room furniture for a while. Unfortunately, we have very little to no time to shop during the week and the boys don’t really like shopping for furniture during the weekend. I can’t say that I blame them, either.
Our old dining room set was a pedestal base with a square, beveled glass top and four black lacquered, slatback chairs. It was contemporary and not exactly bad looking but it was getting a little long in tooth. I’d recovered the seats of the chairs once with in a beautiful, but formal, gold and black scrolled pattern. This was when we had a separate dining room and a contemporary, somewhat formal set was appropriate. Currently, though, our dining room and kitchen are one big room, separated by a breakfast bar. The dining room furniture looked very out of place. Plus, our current table was a little too big for the space. We needed something a little more casual/country and flexible.
My husband and I don’t do casual and we certainly don’t do country. We recognized, however, we’d have to find something we normally wouldn’t purchase because contemporary just wasn’t a good fit. Since we’ll be moving in the next two years and didn’t want to shell out big bucks for furniture we might not want to keep, we decided to check out Ikea. We usually like Ikea, but, as we soon discovered, they didn’t have what we were looking for with regards to country/casual dining room furniture. Frankly, we didn’t even know what we were looking for but we knew we’d know it when we saw it. We typically have the same taste in decor and this is how we shop. We’re a salesperson’s worst nightmare because of this.
I didn’t really want to go any cheaper than Ikea so for months we just stopped looking. We went to a few upscale consignment stores hither and yon but their offerings were too elegant-antique or distressed country-antique for our tastes. Besides, you have to either a) commit to going to consignment stores every weekend or b) tell the salesperson what you have and mind and have them call you when a suitable set comes in. Neither option worked for us.
The kids hated being dragged to furniture stores, too. I mean they just hated it! They either wanted to try out ever chair, sofa and love seat in the house or just wanted to get the hell out of the store. Can’t blame 'em, either, because that’s pretty much what I wanted to do, too.
Back in August, on a whim, we went to Ethan Allen. Before going in, we promised the kids as soon as we left, we’d head straight to Target and they could pick out whatever toy they wanted as long as it was less than twenty dollars. We usually don’t bribe the kids but desperate times call for desperate measures. And, boy, were we desperate! If I had to clean fingerprints off the glass top of our dining room table one more time, I was going to scream. I’ve inhaled so much Windex that you can probably see your reflection in my lungs.
Anyway, we’re strolling through Ethan Allen, lamenting on how nothing’s a good fit, style-wise or price-wise. Suddenly Nathan, our ten year old, points to a table and tells us he loves it. Looking all around the ugly table to which he’s pointing, my husband I ask him which one he likes. Surely, we both though, it can’t be that heavy, oak table. I mean, yuck, it’s so old and fuddy-duddy looking. Yep, that’s the one he likes. While we’re explaining to him there’s no way we’re buying that, the four-year old chimes in to tell us he likes it, too. Not only does he like it but he’s going to buy it for us. He fishes two dollars out of his pocket and starts to go in search of a salesperson.
My husband I look at each other, look at the table, back to each other and, finally, at the boys. We’re tired and weary from furniture shopping. We look at the table again and cringe. Twenty minutes later we were checking out at Target, fifty bucks lighter and a few Beyblades and Transformers richer.
A few days later, Nathan asks us if we can get the table we saw at the furniture store. I sigh and try to explain to him that we really don’t like it. He lets me finish my explanation and starts to tell me how much he really likes the table. He doesn’t like our clean lines and contemporary stuff. He wants something that --and these are his exact words-- ‘feels like home’. It was all I could do not to roll my eyes.
Later that evening Nathan and I went back to Ethan Allen, just the two of us. I look at the table. It really isn’t that bad, I think to myself. It’s a little smallish but I see that it can support a leaf or two. I don’t like the chairs they have with the table, though. I see some bowback chairs in black with another table. If they have those chairs in the same finish as the table, I’d much rather get them, I conclude.
After calling my husband and letting him talk to Nathan, we reach a decision. I find (!) a salesperson, ask about the chairs and delivery. She asks me to follow her so we can discuss financing. I tell her that won’t be necessary. Nathan realizes we’re getting the table and, out of the blue, gives me a hug. I ask her for her best price for the table, two leaves and six chairs and, while it’s far more than I originally wanted to spend, I write a check.
We got the set on Saturday. It’s not as bad as we remembered it. With just one leaf in, it’s the perfect size. It freed up a lot of room in the dining room, too. The kids love it and my husband and I are warming up to it. We keep it covered with a table cloth, though, when we’re not dining at it.
Here’s a link to the chairs; they’re just regular old bowback chairs, though.
I can’t find a link to our exact talble, but it looks like this one but it’s a the color of the chairs, the pedestal’s column isn’t reeded and the base is a little heavier. Our base looks like the one on this table, actually, but it has ball feet.
