Les, I tried that on your suggestion. It does fit, but just perfectly. The table is a 3' x 5' only and I'd like to get one at least 6' long. Also, I'm struggling what to do with that side of the counter because there isn't a barrier between the sink and the edge of the counter. All water spills from the sink go on the floor. Hence, the kids table...that catches the spills for now. :) hlove, I'm not TOO worried about covering the floor because the same flooring runs throughout the main rooms of our first floor. There's about 850sf of it. I'm ok with covering a portion in the dining area and in the living area and keeping the rest open. I like your idea of putting a smaller rug on top in front of the door. The rug I have in there now was perfect with the old floor which was a solid-colored, light wood. The rag rug style added texture. Now the floor has a ton of texture and it all looks too busy. rt, I like your suggestion about a black table. I've been eyeing them. I actually have a black table in the formal dining area that we turned into a library/homework area. I love it in there! I also like neutral walls and furniture and accessorizing with art and pillows and such. My walls are BM Taos Taupe (library) and BM Stone Harbor (LR, DR, Kitchen). They all flow together so separate colors for each room is out. I'm trying. It to decorate for two young kids and a puppy because I know they won't be young for long, but it's so hard to have nice stuff at this stage in our lives! Here are some pics of the table centered. I took them right before dinner so you can see how the setting sun can be a problem (and with my phone camera, hence the bad quality). We live right on the edge of a small Northern Midwest town. Before we put up the fence (for the puppy) our yard ended in someone's corn field! I know the lighting is all wrong, but we'll deal with that once we get the layout figured out. Thanks for all your help! This is my first real house so I'm a newbie at this!

What are the dimensions of your table as you normally have it set up? You don't want the length of the fixture to be fine with 2 or 3 leaves if you only use those once or twice a year. I'm looking at rectangular also in the new home we are building with a very open floor plan. But since we wouldn't have leaves in it on an everyday basis I'm thinking of the length of the rectangular chandy being maybe 3/4 of the length of table with no leaves. Does this sound reasonable?

Thanks for all the advice! I think I am on the side of getting a rug. The more time I have spent looking at the room today has made it more obvious. Thanks for the pictures Beth, super helpful! I am an extremely particular person, especially when it come to rugs haha (I spent 3 or 4 weeks constantly/obsessively searching for the one in our living room). It is nice to have a jumping off point. Let the search begin... I have a black rectangular planter coming that I was planning on placing on the table and planting some low succulents in (picture). I thought that the table needed something black on it to pull in the light fixture more effectively. I was also planning on putting large plant in the corner. I'm not sure what type of art to put on the wall under the window. The window placement is...awkward. I wonder if a live/moss planting would work? There will be more mini projects and questions that come up for this main area as we move through it. We have most of the major pieces but are missing a lot of the smaller elements to tie it all together.

House looks beautiful!! I would want more rug than just the middle hole... I’d do a bit bigger than the whole sectional