These pieces are often high quality, well-constructed items, made from solid wood, and are as inescapably beautiful as they are expensive. ;)
It has taken us many years, but we've come fairly close to eliminating all traces of particle board and veneer finishes from our home. When you're young you don't know any better, but I feel like these places that mass-produce cheap crap (Ikea, to be sure, but I've noticed awful stuff from places like Home Depot, and even Future Shop/Best Buy) should have to pay a disposal fee for single-handedly clogging up our landfills.
In fact, when I say we 'eliminate' our old cheap furniture, I mean of course that we re-sell them. Someone somewhere is always younger or on a tighter budget, and it saves me from contributing to our massive environmental waste problems.
Anyway, when you put the quality into manufacturing a great piece of furniture, sure it costs more, but if you treat it right, it should (theoretically) NEVER need to end up in a landfill.
OK, sorry for that rant... I promise this DOES have some little bit to do with culinary spatterings; one of the last pieces we've upgraded, is our dining table.
One of the main reasons we waited until last to upgrade this piece, was because it was still tolerable. It was still made from solid wood, and not terribly cheap, it's just that it didn't really match our aesthetic anymore.
For example, look at these pictures juxtaposing the old, 'espresso' table with our buffet/hutch in the antiqued, raw wood look.
I guess we've just gotten tired of the 'modern' aesthetic, and have chosen to adopt the much warmer, and more inviting, rustic style.
So, here's our new table:
It's made from reclaimed barn wood.
It's delightfully warped, dented, and just haphazardly blemished. But it is seriously solid, and definitely gorgeous.
We opted for benches instead of chairs, for three reasons. Firstly, they're a little more unique, and look stylish. Secondly, and perhaps more importantly, they occupy less room than the equivalent amount of seating in chairs (six) would, and can be neatly slid under the table when not in use. This is handy, seeing as our dining room is not overly large.
Anyway, in the configuration pictured above, the table can comfortably seat six, three on each bench. However, the table does come with one leaf, which expands to eight. It says 8-10 place settings, but I wouldn't want to seat more than 8. But it does 8 quite comfortably, provided you put an extra chair at the head and foot of the table.
In fact, we're already planning on picking up a couple of nice dining chairs to place there, and to offer our "less-than-sprightly" guests something a little more comfy than a hard wooden bench.
That said, I'm also thinking of getting a couple of nice cushions for the benches, but seeing as how they'd need to be custom-made, it is proving a tad difficult convincing the wife of their utility.
Anyway... we love our new table. All it needs now is some gorgeous linens. I've never really liked the idea of a table runner, but I think it would look great on this table. After all, with a finish like this, you don't want to obscure the whole table, so I am starting to see the merit behind a runner and some place-mats, in lieu of an entire tablecloth.
