We have another reason for pushing the chairs in all the way...helps keep the kittens from using them to get to the table tops!

I had to think about that one a minute too. Without looking, I know mine are out just a bit for the sole reason I don't want the finish on the table or the chairs to be marred.

I like to see chairs pulled slightly back from the table. WTBS there are instances, like in Annie's case, that chairs tucked the whole way in serves a good purpose.

I think with island stools I would prefer them tucked in as far as possible.

I prefer chairs and stools slightly back from tables and counters. Aside from protecting the wood and upholstery, I just think it looks better. Chairs/stools mashed all the way in just feels cluttered and claustrophobic to me.

I always keep tablecloths of various types on my table. I don't care for the wide expanse of the brown wood tabletop. I love the colors and patterns the cloths add. I use everything from flocked-backed vinyl to vintage 1930s lace.

I keep the chairs pulled out far enough from the table that they don't touch the tablecloths or interfere with their drape.

Annie, hahahahaha. Good luck with that. Next time you turn around, the kittens will be able to scale all heights without needing a chair. I've fought in the Kitten War, and I was badly beaten.

Re the Kitten War - they will be sleeping on the chair and you'll try to pull out the chair with little effort but you can't because there is the weight of the cat on it and then you'll have tweaked your back, shoulder, elbow... .

Our chairs are tucked in because we have towels on them all - see above comments re:cats on chairs.

At the moment I am not pushing some chairs all the way in because I love walking by the dining room and seeing that gorgeous new green damask on the chairs......I may pull the others out as well!

KSWL, your lovely damask chairs make me smile. Your dining room is just beautiful.

Thank you Holly Kay, right now it's my favorite room!

My chairs are not pushed in all the way, but they are pushed in. In my school, you were required to push your chair in when you left the cafeteria. It has stuck with me all these years and I can't not push in my chair.

Although I like most of what Joni Web on Cote de Texas does, I cannot abide this look

That looks like someone is preparing to mop under the table.

I can honestly say that I have never thought of this before so I had to go look. Good grief, some are and some aren't. So thanks, just another thing for me to obsess about. Ignorance is bliss!

The Cote de Texas chairs looks like a game of musical chairs.

The Cote de Texas pic looks like the aftermath of a nasty family argument.

Musical chairs while mopping up after a nasty argument! I think y'all nailed that look!!

Side chairs are out about 6 inches and end chairs about 8 inches (can't be pushed further in). They are upholstered chairs and if you pushed them up to touch the table, you will develop a crease line in the fabric.

The wood chairs around the kitchen table are also out about 6 inches. They are six large chairs around a 60" round table and that is as far as you can push them in.

I hadn't ever measured it till now, always eyeball the distance, but it seems that chairs that are 6-8" out from the table is what is visually appealing to me!

I'm in the Annie and Linnelle camp; it's all about the cats. And, yes, I've lost the battle. Still, I push my chairs in. I don't mind having one, usually at the end, pulled out a bit and maybe turned like kswl has hers, but all of 'em? No way. Looks sloppy to me, like a herd of kids got up all at once and ran off to play. Maybe it's all about manners ("put your chair back when you're done") or not having a lot of room to walk around unless they are pushed under the table.

kswl: what a gorgeous room. Is it fabric or paint on the wall? what color?

Thank you, vedazu! The color is Benjamin Moore Chili Pepper red. Like most colors it is an utter chameleon, looking almost a deep raspberry in the picture above and changing with lighting to a truer deep red. I love every color it presents! It is linked below to a BM page that looks even more raspberry on my ipad.

The walls.....they are something of a thorn in my side :-) I don't really like faux anything, and when we bought the house 9 years ago this room had irregularly textured walls achieved with some sort of crumpled tissue paper layer under the paint. I don't know what it is faux of--- if they'd been looking for plaster it would have been smoother and if they were looking for a Mediterranean flavor it certainly would not have been painted an insipid blue! The buyers of our previous house needed it within thirty days of their one viewing (it was on the market for a single day) so we had only about four days for painters to get in this place before our household goods arrived. Sanding and repairing the walls was going to take too long, and we were hosting thanksgiving for 40 people exactly 7 days after our move, so our interior decorator said just to paint the walls and go back and do them later. And as you can see, we haven't!

The paint is half satin and half flat, which we were told would minimize the effect of the crumply ridges, and for the most part it does. We use the DR so much that I can't stand the thought of all the mess that would be created if we had the walls sanded and skimmed, so I am simply Ignoring It.

Here is a link that might be useful: Chili Pepper Red

"I think with island stools I would prefer them tucked in as far as possible. "

I have mine out as far as possible, without setting them out in the traffic lane between the breakfast/kitchen and FR.

"I keep the chairs pulled out far enough from the table that they don't touch the tablecloths or interfere with their drape."

That may be the reason behind setting chairs about 6" to 8" from the table. Back in the olden days, my grandmothers used table linens with gorgeous borders. Who would want to squish the chair up against those pretty table clothes.

My dining room chairs - without a tablecloth - in post below.

Bar Stools

I agree about Cote de Texas style in that dining room. Just odd! I'd prefer to see them turned sideways! haha

kswl - Love, love your chairs. I wish I could come up with something for my chairs.

My dining room

You've got lovely colors and furniture, NHB! Love the shade of green on your walls!

I know how difficult it is to find just the right fabric......the one I bought was in a local shop and I had walked by it at least 25 or 30 times in the past two years. Don't give up hope, it is out there somewhere.

I enjoyed reading everyone's comments, thanks all for chiming in. annie, linelle, blfenton, tomatofreak - any kitten/cat war pictures are welcomed:)

KSWL - that room is such fun to look at, I hope you are entertaining lots so that many get to see it! The link to your color looks so different than the color on your walls, love it on your walls. newhomebuilder - your dining room is lovely, I especially like the carpet.

The rug is why I am having trouble finding any fabric to put on my wooden chair seats. Currently, there is needlepoint that I would cover...not remove. Any suggestions would be appreciated.

Here is one more photo of the room.

NHB - This room gets prettier and prettier! I love the mix of chairs. I will be glad to photoshop some fabrics onto the chair in the right hand picture. Green and white (or cream) stripe or chevron? Black and white...gold.. what color(s) do you want to pull in?

NHB, I really like the needlepoint! Are you covering it to protect it? If the designs are different I have seen people take precious handwork like that and have it framed, like botanical prints. Have you considered having white slipcovers made for all the chairs just for summer?

Are you planning to re-cover the red host and hostess chairs as well? Needless to say, I think your color scheme is nothing short of brilliant ð and I love the paintings.

Re the Cote DeTexas dining room......what am I missing here, I mean, what is the purpose of her having her dining chairs placed that way? It looks totally ridiculous to me!

Please explain the purpose of the backwards chairs.

Re Texas; That's how cowboys set down at th' table, all backwardy-lahk, restin' thur chins own the chur back.
I'd rather see the chairs upside-down with the cushions resting on the tablecloth.

What chispa said. It seems more welcoming when the chairs are just a tad away from the table, a less uptight feel and that you are invited to sit if you want to, we are open, not closed. A few inches out to me makes the table and chairs seem graceful, more separate and the better to admire them by. I love my dining room table and wish I could just not even have chairs at it. Bring your own chair : ) We always eat in the kitchen anyway. It's the best piece of furniture in my house, if only the rest of it were as nice..

Re: Coty de Texas dining, sort of hard to converse that way. Probably should have done that when I brought my future husband home to meet my parents.

âÂÂ¥ som mong. I briefly scanned the blog to see if there were an explanation for the chairs being turned that way. There was none. However, she did mention in one place that the fabric was a very expensive Bennison. Wonder if she did it to protect the fabric? To allow the fabric to drape better? Whatever the reason, it looks ridiculous.

@newhomebuilder, I was shown these fabrics recently. They might look nice in your dining room. It's so HARD finding things that go well together. Especially these days when things are all gray or other combos that I would have to start all over with in my own house. I can't do that so it's been a struggle finding the more yellow neutrals in lieu of the gray/tan neutrals. Your dining room is very pretty. I really like the first one. It's a linen from Sherrill
fabrics, both were much prettier in person. I could see a linen for drapes in your dining room even if it were a solid. I like the texture of linen. It always adds something without demanding complete attention.

NHB/gr8day - here's the first Sherrill fabric, on the chair in the right picture:

Oh my, this is much harder than I thought! I begin to see your dilemma, NHB. Here is Crypton Thatcher Mystic:

This has gotten ridiculous! As I was vacuuming the back of the LR where I have a small table and two chairs, I scooted the chairs back to the table, stopped, then pulled them out a few inches. LOL!!!

Now that I think about it, I do think the wood on the table (mine is painted) will be protected by not having chairs rub up against them.

Carry on. :)

Hahaha!

gr8day - Thank you for the fabric suggestions. I do like them both, although they may be too much like the rug.

The problem that I am having is two fold.

1st - Before I switched out my gold dining chairs for the red, that were in my breakfast room, I had two Host/Hostess chairs in a stripe that nowhere near match the new rug. I wanted to reupholster (and still do) the H/H chairs and keep the needlepoint (both my grandmothers made these.) I wanted a linen fabric, but my friends say that since the rug and needlepoint are wool, a linen on the H/H chairs would look funny. Plus, the needlepoint cushions have more of a gray background, where my rug is beige to yellow.

2nd - OK, lets say that I reupholster ALL the chairs. (Needlepoint would stay underneath new fabric.) According to the mock-ups that oldbat2b so graciously provided, the linen samples appear to be even more yellow than my rug. Finding a good blend with the rug is going to be hard, but I will look for those samples and try them in person.

Here is a close-up of chair and rug, though I should probably start a new thread. I started one on the subject a few months ago, but it didn't get responses.

This post was edited by newhomebuilder on Tue, Sep 30, 14 at 14:09

Nor do I care for Joanie's over-done look of the floor length tablecloth. I think the reason the chairs have made a 'u-turn ' is because pushing them in would be impossible with all that fabric, althought it does double duty as a lap cloth. lol

NHB, I love your beautiful dining room and the needlepoint is wonderful. IMO linen goes with everything so the H/H chairs would look fine in linen you just need to find the right one. BTW, your pupster is totally adorable!

One function of a tablecloths at one time was to be used as napkins. I think it was in the 18th century (not recently).

newhomebuilder, are those chairs comfortable to sit in (the shape of the back)? They are beautiful.

Believe it or not having the table in the middle of the room with the chairs underneath is called the "informal" arrangement while the "formal arrangement" in the historical sense is with the chairs away from the table and lined up along the perimeter of the room. Often with the table broken into its component parts (A gateleg table in the middle with end pieces that were either smaller gatelegs what were propped with half the top folded up onto the wall or demilunes--usually in some symmetrical arrangement around the fireplace)

You don't even see this is most house museums anymore:

I believe Joanie said she did it so that the skirt would hang unimpeded.

She has changed her look, though. Not sure how her dining room is arranged these days.

Mine are in various positions. We eat in there every evening and I'm the only one who pushes in the chairs. Sometimes I do it while cleaning up, but it's hit and miss.

Pal, you can see two of the chairs pushed under the table in that photo others along the wall. I keep 2 extra chairs in front to two floor to ceiling windows and two more in either side of the breakfront. My mother did the same. When the DR table is used as a buffet the chairs go around the perimeter of the room or in other rooms.

I would LOVE to have a dining room 20' long!

kswl - That statement got me thinking. I don't believe that I have ever measured my dining room, so I got the tape out. It's 21' x 14'! Hard to find a dining room that large these days. The room looks even larger because it is open to my foyer area.

We bought our house while under construction. By eyeballing the dining area, we knew that it would be large enough for our 10' table. The table was handed down to us by my grandmother. It has to ends and the middle folds down. Very rarely have we had a dining room large enough to have the entire thing extended.

I also have two chairs on either side of the buffet. The others stay where they are unless we have a cocktail party and serving food on table.

holly-kay - Thank you for the kind words about the needlepoint.

The puppy, Nola, is getting right in there with every photo, just like my sweet girl, Riley, did. Sometimes, I think that Riley has been reincarnated into Nola. She is very intelligent for a 12 week old puppy. After only being in our home for 2 weeks, she seems to know ever nook and cranny. She will also not let me out of her sight!

hoovb - Yes, the chairs are comfortable. I've been sitting in them ever since I was a little girl. ;) In fact, I use a Captains chair from the same set as my computer chair.

A small point to make: if you have a dining room that is also a passage from one room to another--to get to the kitchen/family room--in my case, from the living room and foyer--it is a matter of safety to keep the chairs neatly tucked in--and in the same place every day. More than once, I go charging through the dining room and end up stubbing a toe or worse if someone has neglected to put the chairs back in their usual place....

Ouch! Are you charging through the dining room with your eyes someplace else...like on a cell or Ipad? :) The only things I have ever stubbed my toes on was furniture that stays permanently in place. It's because I was not paying attention to where I was walking. Now, we are falling over the puppy constantly, because she never stays in place. LOL

Of course I'm not paying attention! and, although my sainted mother always told me not to ever enter a room without the lights on, there are times that I do that--and if the chairs are sticking out---there you go!