Glass.

Cut to size glass! I'm about to call around and find a place to get a glass top for a new to us vintage credenza with awesome wood grain pattern on top... I want to keep it awesome looking and not worry about it since it will get lots of use under our tv.

It should protect well and not detract from your pretty wood pieces!

Glass it is for the dresser top then. The front of the dresser is curved. Hopefully someone can cut to fit.

My husband will use the table with the leaves down on a daily basis but I think guests will use it with leaves up and I'd want protection for the extended size. I was thinking about something that I can take on and off for when guests come. I think glass might be too heavy or could break with all that movement. Thoughts?

You may need spacers between the glass and wood. They will serve as a cushion and prevent condensation. A glass shop should be able to advise and supply with the glass if needed.

What will the guests be using the table with the leaves up for?

We had these growing up, my niece still has them for my parents 65 year old dining table. And I had them for my Stickley dining table and leaves in my old place.

https://www.tablepadstore.com/

Or I would consider getting something more durable than the drop leaf table, because of the guests. If they are that hard on things I could picture their feet on the relatively delicate stretchers on that table. You don't want to be stressed about something happening to that table every time someone is staying there.

Perhaps table pads are the way to go. We had them growing up and they felt so ... ugly and fussy. But, I guess you throw a table cloth over them and they are fine. Or, I just looked at the site and saw you can get black top and black bottom. Perhaps that will look more modern and less faux-ish.

Yikes, I hadn't thought about feet on the stretchers. I think people will mostly be tossing stuff on the table, maybe working on a laptop. Even more reason to have comfy chairs with C tables next to them so the barbarians can just slouch around instead of at the table.

My parents will eat at the table, but they are not barbarians. My mom is quite lady like, and my Dad used to admonish me for putting too much pressure on cabinet doors.

I love glass tops for situations like this. I use brown felt ‘sliders’ stuck to the glass to keep the glass above the wood and prevent sweating . The Teflon circles can damage the varnish in certain situations.

I purchased glass tops for both my kitchen and bedside tables 20 + years ago. I never used the spacers and the wood top is fine,

FUNCTION if these items are too delicate for their use they need to be replaced. Find a room no one uses for them.

Glass. Any auto glass /mirror shop will cut and polish all edges. Cheap and lovely.

As to "tacky"? I think that applies to any so called "friend" who'd toss a wet towel on furniture, and not use a coaster for a beverage. I call it "raised by wolves", actually. Sorry. That's behavior more expected of a six year old child.

These are the same folks who return a rental car looking like it was lived and slept in. Treat a hotel room as a chance to challenge the housekeeping staff. Wonder what their own living conditions are? No.....you need not WONDER at all. Spell s.a.m.e and t.a.c.k.y. Add rude, btw.

I'd place a 5 x 7 framed sign on anything even WITH glass. "Thank you for using a beverage coaster, and the clothes tree for damp towels! "

Don’t put precious items in a guest space unless the guests can be counted on to respect their surroundings.

I also have barbarians in the family. I don’t know if they are still available, but I have a vinyl felt backed cover that I trimmed to fit my dining room table. you might be able to use one of these and put a runner or tablecloth that covers it on your lovely pieces. good luck.

@JAN MOYER Thanks for the i fo about polished edges. @Joanne I’ll look online for a felt and vinyl pad. Sounds good.

I purchased the table off of Craigslist and the Baker dresser at an estate sale recently, both specifically for this space. I knew I had the choice of beautiful furniture that would last and I’d try to protect though will ultimately have to live with dings and stains. Or buy cheap furniture that would fall apart and not be as beautiful.

”Find a room no one uses…” I live in Manhattan. Such rooms do not exist.

I wonder if it is a background or age issue. Many of my friends grew up pretty poor on farms, or in houses with particle board or plastic furniture. One friend never had a dining room table only ate off tv diner trays. As grown ups they have Ikea or Pottery Barn hand me downs. I grew up with real wood that had been handed down for generations and would have been in the dog house big time for leaving a water mark.

$20 and up

I run an inn. I have seen people move the coaster out of their way so they can put their wet, drippy water bottle, or soda can or HOT cup of coffee directly on the table. 🤦‍♀️

When it comes to vintage furniture that is also "brown furniture" a lot of people just look at this as "Used Furniture".

When my parents' house was sold, we divided up most of the furniture, and one of my nieces took my parents' bedroom furniture which was Henredon, very traditional from the 1960s, and in pristine condition.

She wanted it to put it in their master bedroom, but her husband didn't like it, "it's dated", so they put it in their 3 year old daughter's room. (There is a bunch of data to unpack about who always gets to make decisions in that family but that's a different topic)

So they have some inexpensive Rooms to Go stuff that's new, so it must be better, and a three year old gets semi-antique mahogany furniture that's she's allowed to do more or less whatever she wants to, because it's just old furniture.

I have seen the dresser listed on 1st dibs for as high as $9000 (It usually sells for between $5000-6000, what it sells for is more important.) But because they got it for free, it's just old furniture. It's now getting ready to pass into the hands of someone else in the family who destroys everything they touch in short order, because it's already old furniture that's been in a kid's room. I would rather have seen this get given away when the house was sold.

So I am not sure it was socioeconomic status entirely...I grew up in a house with beautiful things in it that were in pristine condition when the house was sold almost 50 years later, and I would say among my siblings the various responses have been "I appreciate it and will continue to take care of these pieces" and "I take it for granted, and I will take it because it's free" and "I think it's stupid to have things that you have to take care of, things like that aren't important". and we were all raised in the same house.

@auntthelma - That is painful moving a coaster out of the way. I’ve had friends put a wet glass down mext to a coaster. Maybe they make coasters that say ”Sit your glass down here!”

@Diana Bier Interiors, LLC What you described is certainly true of one half of my family who didnt have a lot but treasured and cared for what they had. I’ve been to the homes where my friends grew up and when you have plastic furniture I you learn to wipe it down with a wet cloth. My brother got my grandpare t’s tiger oak table and his wife cleaned itegarly with windex and a wet rag.

@palimpsest I was actually glad when my cousin sold the family silver to use the money for hos kids’ college find. Whoe Whoever buys it will tale better care of it.

My other cousin with is an interior designer wanted my grandparent’s bedroom set and was goi g to paint it purple. I convinced her to give it to me instead. It is beautiful wood with brass.

This is a little different, but there have been people doing work in our house for over nine years, and the first thing we finished is a basement bathroom, and this is the bathroom that people who work in the house use. (Actually it's the bathroom we use the most, too).

Anyway, they may have work shoes on and stuff and it's 2x2 porcelain with lightish grout so the floor was getting dirtier faster. And there was one painter's assistant who literally peed on the floor regularly. Not just overspray...on the floor.

So we started putting a cotton rug down and a cotton contour toilet rug down to protect the floor, and we got white so they could be bleached and washed in hot water.

We have told them. The Rugs Are There For You. It is Okay to Walk On them, because they are easier to clean than the Grout.

There is still the guy that carefully pushes the rugs aside and pees on the floor.

I use tung oil about 5 coats for the finish on my old furniture. It has to be touched up once every few years. I raised two boys with my great grandmother's drop leaf dining room table along with other pieces that have been passed down through the generations. I have zero water marks.

If something is spilled on glass top it will run underneath the glass and really ruin the top if not caught right away (first hand experience). I suggest have the top finished in polyurethane, it’s very durable and can later be restored.

I grew up relatively poor. We had a metal kitchen table (no formal DR), "naugahyde" sofa and chairs, but a wonderful two-level blonde coffee table that was perfect for my Barbie doll's house (even at 6 yrs old, I wanted to design houses and would pour over BH & G each month, mostly for the lovely, colorful double page floor plans that they had each month). However, my tastes, as I grew up, were always for fine, beautiful things. When my husband and I were first married, we bought the best furniture we could afford: at that time Ethan Allen had lovely wood pieces of good quality, and we bought a few, most of which we still have. People told me that when we had children, I would regret getting furniture that I'd need to polish and protect, but I never did. I taught them to respect property, and to care for what they have. I DID keep my cherry coffee table (since replaced) covered with a folded bedspread for years (except when I had company) so the kids could use it to play on.

My mother-in-law had beautiful things (at one time, she lived in a large home in Beverly Hills); we inherited a custom carved grand piano, and many very fine wood pieces. Yes, it is "old furniture," but the workmanship and design are exceptional, and she was very eclectic, mixing traditional with a contemporary white leather sofa, modern paintings, etc. I hope it all can go to someone who will appreciate and value this furniture as I do...

I can't even believe the thread. POLITE CONTRACTORS/subs included WITH EXTENDED WORK?

They get themselves a port o let. Is it ugly in your yard ? Yeah.......so is their pee on your floor. On a rug? WORSE.

Barbarians, who can be unrelated guests or even family, exist at every income level, asset level. In every culture and it's color blind /faith blind as well.

You do NOT make a door mat of your home or yourself. Unless you enjoy that and its results. The end.

It's been almost exclusively inside work. My "yard" is 19x8 and paved with bluestone, it's an urban environment. Most of the guys are very nice and tidy, some of them wear covers on their shoes, and that painter's assistant has only been here a couple times. I don't know if he floats in and out of employment or the painter fired him, he always seemed not quite all there.

But my painter paints for a number of the local billionaire or close to it set, penthouse stuff: FPE, hand done lacquer rooms that take weeks and such, and I wonder if the pee on the floor guy was even allowed in their apartments.

When we had extensive costruction, we specifically told the contractor NoT to get a porto potty. We would be the ones paying for it! We have several bathrooms and dedicated one to the workers. It is just dirt. The whole house is dusty and messy anyway. Let them use a real bathroom.

Although, I gotta admit, having one who specifically pees on the floor may be enough to push me to change my mind.

@palimpsest You need to watch Beef on Netflix. There is a good contractor peeing on the floor scene. Do you think your floor pee'er does that in his own home too or is it just a specialty in your home?

My brother got my grandparent's tiger oak dining table. His wife cleaned it regularly with windex and a wet rag.

My friends never felt comfortable in my house when I was growing up because it had such a formal and orderly vibe to it. My parents strectched their money and saved for nice living room furniture. They told us as kids that we were not allowed to sit on the living room sofa unless we were wearing tuxedos! I'd like to find a happy medium where my guests are comfortable and the place looks nice enough.

I think the contractor who had the bathroom problems was probably exactly like that at home, I don't think it was intentional at all. I worked in an office building with a bathroom in the central core rather than the office suites and the floor was populated by Drs.-, Lawyers-, and Financial Services offices, and the things that would happen to those Key-Accessed-Employee-Only restrooms was absolutely Incredible. I left I note in there once that someone who regularly used that bathroom needed to seek psychiatric help.

Anyway.

My dad took a Second part-time job in a different hospital which lasted for a number of years to pay for the interior design and furnishings of their new house. We were allowed to use the entire house, but we weren't supposed to eat, or use things like markers in the living room. My nieces and nephews called the LR sofa the napping sofa, because it was a quiet place to go read a book. I have it now.

I have a cover for the table like Joanne shows, except I cit it to fold three to four inches over each side. That protected the edges and I used a tablecloth on top.

@palimpsest You let that guy BACK in your house?????

Well...

The first time it happened, I thought it was some sort of accident, and I did not know who had done it for sure. The second time it happened I knew it had to be him, because other assistants had been in and out with the painter. He never came back after that but I think it may have been that the main painter was not happy how things were going himself because he is picky and I am very picky, (we are doing oil base and some other stuff that has to be just so) and there are probably other jobs he could be put on --or he was fired. It's been a couple years and I haven't seen him since. I don't know, like I said he did not seem like he was altogether there anyway.

glass tops

I don't know anything about this product or company, but for some reason this popped up on pinterest and I thought of this thread.