Out With the Old, In With the New... Dining Table!
When we went shopping for a new mattress three weeks ago, the store we bought from also had other furniture we liked. We considered buying a new dining room set (table and chairs) and bedroom set (frame, night stands, and chest of drawers) as well. Hawk was willing to buy all of the above, but I declined the dining set and bedroom set as they didn't solve a problem. The mattress I was ready to buy that day as we needed a new mattress. The old one was getting saggy and was difficult for Hawk to sleep on. Indeed, once our new mattress arrived Hawk started getting much better sleep. Problem solved.
While the new dining set and bedroom set we looked at were nice, they didn't solve a problem. They didn't fix anything that was broken. We have pretty decent furniture we bought 19 years ago.
Our dining room table is in pretty decent shape for being 19 years old. There are a few nicks in the lovely finish on the top, though most of what you see in the photo above is crud I simply didn't clean off well enough before snapping the picture. There are stains on the cream colored upholstery but not too bad... and it's only a cosmetic issue, and one you don't see once you're seated anyway. But... some of the chair legs are getting a bit wobbly (though I can tighten them up with a screwdriver occasionally as they're screwed in to the bases) and- main thing, actual problem- Hawk finds the chairs uncomfortable. She can't sit in them for more than brief periods.
Would a different table and be more comfortable? In theory, yes. In practice, almost none are. But as we looked around a few stores we found one- one table and chair set- that was actually comfortable to sit at. For both of us! So we bought it.
We bought the table last Sunday with delivery this past Thursday. Wednesday afternoon we cleared the old table and chairs out to make room for the new. Wow, our dining area looks so much bigger without a table in it!
Thursday the table arrived. The movers showed up early, which kind of threw a wrench in my schedule, but ultimately it wasn't too bad. The whole set arrived in flat boxes. The delivery workers assembled it for us.
The table being packed flat, I totally expected. You unbox it, bolt on the legs, and set it on its feet. But the chairs came in flat boxes, too! The back and rear legs were one piece, the set another piece, and the front legs two more pieces. That surprised me. But at the same time it's kind of nifty because it gives me confidence that if/when the chairs start to become wobbly I can tighten all the bolts with simple tools.
Here's a pic of the new table in our dining room. Ultimately there were several things that sold us on it:
While the new dining set and bedroom set we looked at were nice, they didn't solve a problem. They didn't fix anything that was broken. We have pretty decent furniture we bought 19 years ago.
Our dining room table is in pretty decent shape for being 19 years old. There are a few nicks in the lovely finish on the top, though most of what you see in the photo above is crud I simply didn't clean off well enough before snapping the picture. There are stains on the cream colored upholstery but not too bad... and it's only a cosmetic issue, and one you don't see once you're seated anyway. But... some of the chair legs are getting a bit wobbly (though I can tighten them up with a screwdriver occasionally as they're screwed in to the bases) and- main thing, actual problem- Hawk finds the chairs uncomfortable. She can't sit in them for more than brief periods.
Would a different table and be more comfortable? In theory, yes. In practice, almost none are. But as we looked around a few stores we found one- one table and chair set- that was actually comfortable to sit at. For both of us! So we bought it.
We bought the table last Sunday with delivery this past Thursday. Wednesday afternoon we cleared the old table and chairs out to make room for the new. Wow, our dining area looks so much bigger without a table in it!
Thursday the table arrived. The movers showed up early, which kind of threw a wrench in my schedule, but ultimately it wasn't too bad. The whole set arrived in flat boxes. The delivery workers assembled it for us.
The table being packed flat, I totally expected. You unbox it, bolt on the legs, and set it on its feet. But the chairs came in flat boxes, too! The back and rear legs were one piece, the set another piece, and the front legs two more pieces. That surprised me. But at the same time it's kind of nifty because it gives me confidence that if/when the chairs start to become wobbly I can tighten all the bolts with simple tools.
Here's a pic of the new table in our dining room. Ultimately there were several things that sold us on it:
- The chairs, as I already mentioned, are comfortable for both of us.
- The bench (on the right) is nice for flexibility, and Hawk finds it really comfortable.
- The table is slightly larger, by about 5" of length and 2" of width, than our old one...
- ...Which means that without the expansion leaf it's a good size for us. The old one was too tight without the leaf in.
- So with the leaf we have even more space than before.
- And this table's leaf is a "butterfly" design that packs away inside the table when it's not in use.