Dining room table - advice on material/finish

15 years ago

We're looking to buy a dining room table. DH really wants it to be square, which has limited our choices (there don't seem to be many out there, especially normal height rather than counter height). So we have pretty much settled on getting one custom made, which means we need to choose a wood and a finish/stain.

The problem is that we are design challenged, I have a hard time knowing what looks good together. Any help is much appreciated.

We're in the midst of a remodel, but I have a couple pictures of the surrounding area and furniture from before we started. Here's looking into the dining room, and then a closeup of the china cabinet area.

The piano is staying, almost certainly in that same location, so it will be near the table. And the china cabinet is staying. The paint color on the top half of the wall (red) will be the same, the bottom half (white now) will change slightly to a beige (SW Kilim Beige). Everything else in the room (table, chairs, chandelier, wall items) will change.

So any advice on the table? The china cabinet is oak; I know oak is very out right now but I don't mind it. We had thought of doing an oak table, but the furniture store we stopped at today suggested it would like nice to mix woods and finishes/stain, since we are unlikely to get an exact match anyway. They suggested birch, possibly slightly darker than the china cabinet. Would that look good? Would the 3 different colors (china cabinet, table, piano) be too much? That's sort of what we had, a medium dark table, but I was never sure whether it all looked good together.

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Comments (7)

graywings123
15 years ago
Are you planning to using the same dining room chairs? And if so, is there any exposed wood on them?
snowyshasta
Original Author
15 years ago
No, getting new chairs. The ones there have exposed wood on the legs but not elsewhere. They're old and the cloth is falling off of them (bought them cheap from the previous owner when we bought the house). I think for new chairs I probably want to get something that is mostly wood, although possibly with a cloth seat. But I figured I'd concentrate on the table first and then worry about chairs.
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2ajsmama
15 years ago
I'd say find chairs you like, then you can do the table to match (two-tone? Maybe dark (painted?) chairs and table legs, light table top? Your china cabinet looks country/casual, would you have a problem going paint/stain combo with the table & chairs? in the DR?)

like this (not that you'd want exactly this style or this color)

http://usedhitchcockfurniture.com/16381.html
parma42
15 years ago
What's with DH's and their strong desires about what shape a DR table should be? Mine's the same way.

With so many straight lines in your spaces, I think a round table would soften the area.
snowyshasta
Original Author
15 years ago
I don't know, he is set on square. I guess because then you don't get people sitting at the far end of the table? But round gets you something similar, so I'm not sure. I am okay with the square version, at least if we can find a material that works.

I think I'd prefer wood/stain rather than painted. The china cabinet is a little more on the casual side, but my style is probably more, I don't know, colonial? Traditional? I don't know that I have a real style, actually, that may be part of the problem.
parma42
15 years ago
You have some darker wood in your living room.

I'm not much for all wood matching anyway. Go a bit darker. It's hard for people to look for examples without a price range.
snowyshasta
Original Author
15 years ago
I think a darker is sounding good. Maybe fairly clean lines but with a little bit of detail on the legs - I don't know the name for it, but instead of just being straight they bend outwards a little bit? Maybe something like this leg, just to take an example from a quick search:
http://www.diningtables.com/dining-tables/formal-dining-tables/jessicamcclintockrectanglelegtable.cfm

Price range, we are pretty open. The ones I've seen online as I've browsed seem to run $2-$3000 for the table. Less would be fine :-) but I'm okay with paying that for something that's good quality that we can keep for a long time (unlike what we had before).

Dining room table - advice on material/finish

Comments (7)

graywings123

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Dining room table - advice on material/finish

Comments (7)

graywings123

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