Farmhouse Dining Table

This week thoughts turn to food and families around dining tables, perhaps more than most weeks. So I’ve been thinking about dining tables for our place in Chennai. To gather lots of people. Big dining tables.

The table and chairs in our Chicago dining room are a matched set we found at a sale open to the public at the Minneapolis design center. The dining set totally bores me now, but at the time we were caught up in an exciting event (want it? better grab it before someone else does, quick!) and it fits the spaces that we had then, and have now, perfectly. It has an elegant fine cherry finish, which is nice, but it’s a delicate finish and it’s now showing so many scratches from cats using nails to brake while sliding across it (I never see them do it but evidence is definitely there), plates being pushed across it, etc. It doesn’t stand up to the rigors of women wielding scrapbooking tools on it. And that’s tough stuff, believe it or not! So something much hardier is needed. And what’s hardier than a table built for a farmhouse? With a thick slab of rustic wood, already imperfect, so you don’t have to worry about imperfections ever again.

Such as this dining table from Arhaus:

Of course there’s no worries of scratches on anything from Restoration Hardware. Everything there looks indestructible, but scratches would only add to the look if they happened on this dining table:

It’s already clear I favor tables that mix wood and metal, as this one from Anthropologie also features:

This Mexican dining table has a lighter personality. Many laughs and jokes would be shared over meals at this table:

It’s best to have a table that’s comfortable enough for people to linger over for a long while. The kind of table where conversation gets going and eventually true confessions of secrets from long ago are cheerfully spilled and accepted. You know, like the time in high school when I fit 10 friends in … oops, let’s not go there now … what I’m about to say would run counter to my full-time profession now and that’s not a good example to set (because I work for the public’s good and safety), even if that was about 25 years ago! See why you need a good table and good food, with conversation running long enough to create atmosphere for these stories to be spoken, as that’s safer than written words! This is a friendly table for that kind of talk:

Here is a table with some Spanish style:

Trestle style tables are making the cut, clearly. I think they’re much more interesting than tables with four legs. The different styles have their pros and cons depending on how you use your table. I like to stretch out and take over everything when home alone and rest my feet on the chairs across from me and criss-cross bars are bothersome for that. Why I cannot sit like a normal person, I cannot explain. Just can’t! So, think about your body’s preferences which aren’t likely to change around your furniture’s limitations.

Now this table has a very interesting base with bar across the bottom which isn’t in the way. But is that a shiny finish on the top I see? Can’t tell, but would prefer a rustic finish, which probably could be done, as they offer this top in leather, metal, natural fiber, stone, etc.:

Huh. This dining table looks ready-made for the rigors of a well-lived house:

For a change of pace, here’s a contemporary take on a farmhouse table. Whoa, at 3.66 meters long, people better come over often to help use up this table!

I believe many of these table styles would mix well with the Tuscan kitchen we’re creating.