A Mid-Century Dining Room Update

It's been at least 4 years that we've had this Bjursta table from Ikea, and it has served out family well, but it's time for an upgrade. Nothing crazy, we still have 4 kids under 8, so spills and sticky messes area  twice-daily occurrence.

Here's my master plan:

The main changes are switching to 2 tables and swapping out the chairs for something wipeable. Here's the rundown of our dining room before. We are keeping the striped rug (Flor tiles) for now, and the linen and paper artwork.

Now that we think our family is complete with 4 kids, I'd like to have a table where we fit perfectly as a family of 6. We don't have a breakfast room (or a table in the kitchen at all), so the dining room is where we eat breakfast together everyday at 7am, and dinner together each night at 5pm (small children eat early). Lunch for the baby and preschooler is eaten at the kitchen counter, or out at a park or with grandparents.

So, with the idea of a smaller table, but not wanting to lose the functionality of the large table, I started thinking about having a pair of tables. These West Elm Expandable Mid-century tables fit the bill. We can push them together into an almost-square when we entertain, which easily seats 12 (3 per side), or extend each table and push them together to seat 14-18 (big square versus end-to-end).

The chairs, Becca linen stripe from Overstock, were very comfortable, but got super dirty over the last 3 years of constant use. Even though I stain-treated them, after 2 years they started to look a tiny bit dingy, and by this summer I couldn't take it anymore. It might also have something to do with our tastes shifting to a more modern, or mid-century modern aesthetic. In "fantasy life" we adore this table and formal chairs, but real life and little kids prevent us from spending over $10,000 on a table alone!

We went for the knockoff chairs from EModernDecor, since again, almost $400 per chair for the real version seemed excessive, and the $75 versions work well for us. Each time we buy things that need assembly, my husband and I look at each other and ask, "when will be be grown-up enough to stop buying furniture that needs to be put together"? But then we just do it all over again, since for 8 chairs, the cost saving was over $2500!

Since I'm getting back into the blogging swing of things, I'll have to snap a picture and post the results soon!

Jessica

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