Hi, I'm looking for creative (even out of the box) ideas for a dining room table for our large family. Years ago (and a few kids) we purchased a nice oval dining room set with 6 chairs. We have out grown it completely. Adding an extra chair looks bad and we now have chairs all over the place. I was thinking "stacking chairs" may be good. I have no ideas about a table but ours is too short and wide................. Any links, sites, or ideas welcome.
You could build one out of a door - either an old one (with hardware removed) by adding a glass top, or a new one with no holes cut yet for hardware. You'd have to measure, but I think there might be room for 4 on each side and one on each end.
Hi we had six people in our family growing up. Dad made a trestle table with barn boards and then two benchs for the long sides. It was six feet long and three wide. It was great. I still have the table and all the wonderful memories of us using it
Benches tend to be "cleaner" looking than chairs, imo. It's great if you can make the table wide enough that the benches can be pushed completely under when not in use. Then it's less of a space-hog.
with 6 kids our table is too small too, but we have a dining/kitchen area that has our table and we have a breakfast bar with 4 stools, so we do all fit in the same room. I keep telling my dh that we need benches instead of chairs so we can fit everyone around the table (our table has a hidden leaf in it that when put in the table it makes the table nearly 8 feet long). He agrees, but we can't find any long enough for what we need and he doesn't have time to build them. My friend has a barn door table with benches like northernmomma and I LOVE the look! It is big and fits her whole family around it.
Reading this thread brings back memories of the year we had a sibling group in foster care living with us. There were actually two large sib. groups, but not at the same time. The one I was thinking about had two girls and four boys. We had two other foster children and three of our own living here at the time. Freddy set up two folding tables like you use in church fellowship halls and we covered them with a huge tablecloth that I made. It was so funny trying to get chairs to fit that huge table. We didn't care how it looked as long as we all fit and those kids got to stay together. I still see some of that group of kids once in a while and they are doing well. Just having a walk down memory lane. Sorry to ramble.
I like beth's idea.... you could always get the folding chairs that go with card tables and buy some "shabby chik" (a target brand) seat covers..... they can be found about $6 on e-bay for the covers and come 2 to a pack....... but that was a few years ago.
At my bead store we needed a big table for working. My business partner's husband took a 4x8 sheet of mdf, added a support frame and legs, and then tiled the top of the table. It's awesome! He added some wood trim around the edges to finish it off. It's huge and really heavy, but fits 8-10 people around it easily! We bought stacking chairs at Sam's for a bit less than $20 each. All in all it was pretty cost effective and looks great! Edie
Thanks everyone. I found 13 stacking chairs on craigslist for 40 bucks. And then we totally thought outside the box and found a conference table from a company who was moving for 20 dollars. It isn't great decor but it is functional. I like the idea of benches a lot. I'll have to keep looking. And we will keep looking for a more "country style" table to go in our house. I did look for barn doors but I guess the rain in our area kills anything that has been outside.
See if you have a Habitat for Humanity ReStore near you. We've found amazing pieces (like doors) for dirt cheap there.
Put a table cloth on the conference table, and no one will be able to tell the difference! I think it sounds like a great idea!
We have a long farm-style table my FIL made for us. One side has chairs and the other has a bench. The bench is nice because it fits more people- especially little people. The problem comes when someone needs to get up or sit down- several people have to get off the bench for the one in the middle. It is also hard to get the bench pushed up to the table when people are sitting in it- you have to have it out to sit down but when it is time to eat you are to far away and it is difficult to scoot it up with 3+people on it!
Hi...,Nice post and nice sharing by the community here.I want to share this site that i am giving below.Where from me and my wife bought dining table and coffee table for home kitchen cabinet.They have really great stuff and deliver nice ideas to make your home more beautiful.Just click on it and see...
The conference table totally works! In fact my best friend has 8 kids and when they outgrew their tiny table her dh found a perfectly good conference table in the dumpster and he brought it home! It has a rectangle section in the middle that was cut out, but it is only 2"x6"....it was meant for all the computer cords to go down through it. Even though it isn't the prettiest thing it works for them and she keeps talking about putting some tile in the hole but she is so busy she never gets around to it. Maybe i should just show up with some tile and help her do it.
Why not just make one? Make a sturdy like picnic indoor table set up with benches or small benches for individual chairs. Buying some nice wood, good stain or clear coat would be a great family project and you would love the end result more because everyone built it together. My grandmother has one like this but in a dark wood. I love it! This one is a bit different but still neat.
Now this one you could make the table and find all kinds of neat chairs for. http://www.google.com/imgres?q=indo...rt=0&ndsp=32&ved=1t:429,r:2,s:0&tx=102&ty=101
Well i have keen of the dinning table and i like to this manner very much. so i personally like to the simple and straight forward.
