New House: Dining Room Planning

Last August,  I revealed our new dining room and living room. Although the after was great and we love how open the space is, the dining room table and chairs (and lack of other furniture in the space) were never meant to be permanent.

The table we currently have is problematic in a few ways. First it is much too small for the space. It's meant to sit 6 on a regular basis and comes with 2 extensions. Those extensions make the table longer, but still limit the seating - we could seat 10 with the extensions in, but people would either have to straddle the legs or squish together between the sections. Second, the table looks cheap and worn (it is cheap - it's Ikea!) and is the wrong color wood and style for our house. The table worked great in our other tiny home, but our style has evolved and we need something more substantial for this space.

For the past few months I've been pinning ideas and searching online for the right style, size and shape table for the dining room. We have taken our time replacing the table and chairs because we wanted to save up some money to pay for everything in cash, but also to live in the space for a while and see what would make sense. Sadly, everything we like is either too costly or isn't big enough, or has legs in the wrong spots (like at the ends so you can't seat someone at the "head" of the table).

So we are thinking of building one on our own - one that would be about a foot or more longer than our current table and about 8 inches wider. This would give us the ability to seat 10 comfortably and squeeze 12 in if we needed to. It would also allow for us to leave platters and serving dishes in the middle of the table during meals. We are leaning towards a table that is slightly rustic with clean lines and a mid-tone wood grain that would mirror our kitchen countertops, like this:

Via

Or this:

Via

We would also look for chairs that would fit the new aesthetic. We have these chairs in white as our arm chairs, but need to find something different, but complementary for the sides. (If you have any suggestions or ideas, please share!) Also, I'm thinking about whether we need any additional pieces in the space - a shallow buffet and a large corner plant perhaps? (Again, if you have an opinion, please share!)

The search continues... Also, is it just me, or is decorating and styling a home so much fun? I wish I could do this as my full time job!

Happy Friday!


P.S. I'm also about to replace the birch colored legs on my sofa with these handmade beauties. What a steal!!! Now my couch can look more custom and mid-century :)