Well, it's been a little over 7 months now since we swapped out our dining table. 7 months!! Where does the time go? And since the switch, I have received oodles of comments, emails, Instagram questions and Facebook inquiries about our new dining room table. I am SO excited to finally be posting about it!
Back in July of 2012 I acted on impulse. I do this from time to time, and luckily this impulsive act came with a happy ending.
We had been working endless hours on our home getting ready for our big Better Homes & Gardens magazine shoot. Majority of what we took on included DIY projects, painting, cleaning... and just two weeks before they were going to be in our home, photo equipment in hand, I gazed at my dining room wishing that our dream table was sitting there...
My husband and I had been chatting about swapping out our dining table for a good two years. We had a small budget set aside, and had been playing with all of our options. We even picked up a large round table found on Craigslist that lived in our kitchen for a good six months, waiting to be refinished, before we decided it wasn't right for us. Lucky enough, it was right for another family member.
We looked at the numbers and searched Craigslist for comparable listings to see what tables similar to ours were selling for. We had tried to sell the chairs separately prior, since I like to mix and match pieces, and because we also had recovered the chairs three times already due to the kidlets. They had been sitting in storage for over a year and we didn't have intentions of bringing them back into our home. Instead, we were using temporary espresso wood chairs from our old lower level game table. We were finding that we weren't going to get what we wanted out of the maple chairs, unless we gave in and sold the table and chairs together as a set.
Some of you may be wondering, what was so wrong with our previous table?
The table itself has a special place in our hearts. More on a sentimental level since it was our first furniture purchase when we built our home over eleven years ago. But it was just that, our first furniture purchase. We knew nothing about purchasing furniture, or had any clue about how our family would expand. The chairs were covered in a beautiful ivory fabric and we purchased everything as a set vs. mixing and matching pieces to create a more unique feeling {which I later grew to adore}. Although beautiful in the photo above, the table began to show it's age. It had a maple veneer finish that would easily scratch and ding and wasn't something that could be fixed easily. And at the end of the day, we were just over the Maple. And since it wasn't a real wood top, we couldn't even have sanded it down to refinish it to better please our style.
So, we decided to list it on Craigslist. Surely we would be able to find a table in our budget before the photo crew showed up at our door. No problem.... ha!
Little did I realize that within hours of listing the table... she would be gone....
She sold on a Monday, so we made plans to keep on with the house projects throughout the week and begin our table search on Saturday. Big mistake.
Who would have thought searching for a dining table would be so hard? Especially because we knew exactly what we wanted! And Bryan and I even agreed what style table we were after, which meant is would be even easier to bring one home. We wanted this table:
Oh, but we didn't want that price. $1300 for just the table? I knew I could do better. I was determined to do better!
Seventeen stops it took us before finding the right table. Sun up to sun down on Saturday, we hauled a trailer around the entire Twin Cities area. We looked at high end furniture stores. We looked at thrift and consignment stores. We looked at design centers, more furniture stores and even unfinished wood furniture places. And then we thought we found it. The perfect match to our high end Pottery Barn inspiration table....
We had stopped into the Macy's furniture store and we gazed at this beauty. My hubby was about to hand over the cash, $600 total {now on sale for even less!} But then we got to chatting and they were going to be able to have the table delivered. They didn't have any in stock. So after taxes and delivery charges, the table wasn't $600 anymore. And then the bigger news, the delivery date would be the day before our magazine shoot. And it wasn't even guaranteed. That didn't sit so well with me.
So we told them we would call back and let them know for sure, after we did a little more searching. Our very last stop of the day was a cute little furniture boutique in Minneapolis, called Nadeau.
This store has always been a favorite of mine to check out, as they always have unique pieces and pretty finished furniture for reasonable {and sometimes unreasonable} prices.
Ten minutes before closing, we made it there, and it took me a total of two minutes to find the table! Happy dancing, jumping up and down and squealing are all a few of the things I did right then and there. And even better yet, we could take it home that very day! And even better the table was the best price we had found.
But my husband got cold feet. The table didn't offer any leaves to expand or shrink down. And there were small imperfections in the wood. So he said no. He said, we needed to sleep on it. All of that running and searching and he was making me wait... Ugh! Darn logical thinkers!
So I begged the kind folks at the store to hold it and I promised to let them know right away our decision in the morning.
My hubby and I chatted and chatted and went over all of the pros and cons. The table was the perfect color, match and price. It was available now and it was made of REAL wood. That was my biggest argument. Real wood that could be dented and dinged and scratched and the same dark beautiful wood would be below the surface. Real wood that could be refinished someday. It wasn't veneer and it would have love marks and character over the years of being used by our family.
But my husband was still concerned about the size and the inability to shrink it if we needed to. The full size of the table was the same as the full size of our previous table. Which we only removed the leaves from twice in our years and years of using it. In the end, all of the pros outweighed the single con, and we went back for our new dining room table!
Loooooooove doesn't even describe it.
Her curvy legs, beautiful wood finish.... sigh... it is amazing.
So, now we had our table, but we also needed seating. Again, looking at the inspiration pic, I knew I could do less than $300 per chair for the slip-covered options, so we went to IKEA and snagged four of the Henriksdal.
I know what you are thinking. Am I nuts? Quite possibly, but I am also sure we have already confirmed that a few times over the past three years. White slipcovered chairs while raising three busy boys. I am seriously looking to be punished.
But I refused to believe my kids were messy. And that I would have a problem having white chairs. It was only a matter of time before the white chairs were moved around the home, and the brown espresso wooden chairs were back. But that didn't make me happy. I didn't want espresso wooden chairs and after looking hours upon hours for a suitable replacement, I knew I just wanted my slipcovered chairs back. They were so so comfortable, they were washable and they gave our dining area the bright and fresh look I was after. Plus, I needed something that was cozy since I love to move around my home when I work, and I figured quite a few hours would be logged at the table...
And then it hit me one day. Boooom! Like a ton of bricks! What about a bench instead? So I scoured inspiration pics and I totally loved the look. And the practicality! If we were to use a bench instead, we could fit three bottoms on the bench and bring the white chairs back! Sweet!
I began looking into benches and found a few really great options, and then boom, it hit me again that we already had a bench in our master bedroom that we would toss our pillows and bedding onto at night. So I grabbed it to see how it would fit and look.
It was only meant to be temporary, just to see how it would fit the table and the space. Could the kids all fit on it? What size would we need. Would it look unbalanced or funny?
But it was perfect. Like it was meant to be. And then it happened, ketchup spilled on it the first day. And I wanted to cry. But I grabbed a cloth that I ran under water and quickly wiped up the spill. It came up and seconds later, it was like it was never there. It was magical and I thought... this could work!
And it has! It's been working for a good four months and I couldn't be happier!
The boys like the bench and fit on it perfectly, and if they decide they would rather sit in a white chair, I am at ease since I know they can be washed. In fact, I have only had to wash them once in the past seven months, and they still look great.
The room is used and abused daily, but we love it and adore that it now offers a great compromise of pretty finishes, soft upholstery yet is family friendly and versatile.
Funny how the table completely changed the feeling of the space!
And to really drive the happiness home, the side by side dining table before and after:
So there you have it. The roller coaster, happy ending story of our dining room table and seating.
And for the final budget:
- Table: $500
- Chairs: $360
- Bench: Already owned
- Cash from selling previous table on Craigslist: -$400
- Total: $460
Let's chat. Have you ever been on a wild goose chase for that perfect item that you refused to settle on? Are you a furniture mixer and matcher too? Have you recently discovered that a piece of furniture that has been living in your home for years, would work oh so much more brilliantly somewhere else?
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