Dining Furniture For People Who Like To Eat (Part I)

So what dining furniture do you need? A table big enough for all the members of your household and the food. Chairs. One per bottom. Any questions? If only it were that easy. The simple truth is, very few people eat at home on a regular basis. The dining room has become the ‘dining area’ either in the kitchen or the family room. The dining room as a separate room in which to eat, has become an anachronism. So, how do you furnish the ‘dining area’? The simple answer is: with what you need, in a style you like and can afford. Since not everyone sits down at the same time, you may not need a large table set up all the time. But, since everyone does sit down at the same time once in a while, the table has to be big enough to accommodate everybody at once. One solution is an expandable table. Traditional dining tables have leaves to insert, but they tend to be a project for two people. Far easier are drop-leaf or gateleg tables, or insertable leaves that can be managed by one person. Another option is folding tables that can live at the back of a closet when they’re not being used.

Chairs, now. Traditional dining chairs tend to be large and fairly clunky. Even only six of them tend to take over a room. Diana Phipps, in her classic decorating book ‘Affordable Splendor’, suggests you keep your chairs all over the house, scattered in various bedrooms and studies and simply gather together as many as you will need. Her chairs are small bentwood ones, lightweight and portable. Besides, the point of people sitting together and eating is to concentrate on the food and the bonhomie, not the furniture.

Beyond table and chairs, everything is optional. A sideboard, a china cabinet, or a welsh hutch will all take up space and have limited functions. The only reason to have any of them is if you actually use them. A service (tea) cart that is sturdily built and rolls well is one of the handiest tools you can have. It can be anything from a piece of fine furniture to a plastic utility cart, as long as it is strong, stable, and easy to push. Also keep a number of trays on hand. They are so handy for carrying a meal elsewhere than the kitchen. But they can be very, very expensive, and you have to find someplace to store them. Also, don’t be tempted to buy a big, heavy tray no matter how gorgeous it is, unless you have both the muscle and the wingspan to carry the thing when it’s loaded. And don’t even bother with those folding ‘tray tables’ unless you really like cleaning up broken crockery. Put your tray down on something that isn’t going to tip over if it’s bumped. You don’t want to clean spaghetti sauce out of the carpet.

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