When I said earlier that my search for the perfect dining room set has gone on for three and a half years, I wasn't kidding. I know, I know... You're wondering how it could possibly take someone three and a half years to find a dining room set. Well, uhh, I don't really know. Does it make it any better to know I've really only averaged finding and nixing one set a year? No? Well fine! I've totally found pretty ones but they're just not "the one." There's one thing I really obsess over and it's my house. I grew up in an old Victorian home that my mom decorated to look like everything was original and that's probably where my obsession comes from. I don't have a cookie cutter house, I absolutely did not want a cookie cutter house and so this vintage Craftsman bungalow of mine will look like a Craftsman bungalow! I feel like that should have damn it at the end of it. ;)
Anywho. I thought I'd tell the story of my search. It started with this dining room set:
It was perfect! Until I realized it was the exact same color as our hardwood floors. That might not be a big deal to some... But, it was also the same color as the baseboards. And the crown molding. And all of the woodwork/trim around the windows. Guess what? Our dining room is open to the kitchen except for an island with open-face cabinets above it. The other three walls? ALL windows. Yeah, it was a little overwhelming.
And then there was this one:
I loved it. A lot. The backs of the chairs were beautiful. It definitely had a vintage look. It was on sale. It had a matching buffet. The top of the table was a pretty, dark mahogany color. Well, it was until you set anything on it. The pretty mahogany stain scratched away just from having things placed on the table. Yeaaah, no.
Andy was kinda-sorta obsessed with pub height tables which I still, to this day, don't get because he HATES sitting at them if we go out to eat. I mean, really hates it... Like, "wait an extra 30 minutes for a regular table at Lucky's" hates it. He was all "why not?" and I was all "WHY?!" and I thought I had successfully dodged the pub-height bullet. But, alas, one day we were browsing furniture websistes and we saw this one:
Andy was all "woo hoo!" and I was all "WHY?!" and he was all "wah, wah, I like it and I never get a say in how our house is decorated, wah." So I caved. I will admit that the Craftsman undertones of this table helped to sell it a little. All of the slats on the chairs are pretty, I still think that. I just couldn't get over the fact that I don't see counter height tables as formal. One thing I really wanted in a house was a separate dining room and to me, a separate dining room calls for a table that's a little more formal than simulating sitting at a countertop.
So there we were... Still stuck with the little four seater table that we got when we moved in. Every so often, when we're out and about, I make Andy stop in to furniture stores just to browse. He loves it! (Just kidding) We came across a dining room set and I fell in loooove. It was heavy and had trestles just like the first table. It was a little lighter than the floors and trim in our dining room, it was distressed and it had pretty metal details on the corners. It was big enough without a leaf to seat six people comfortably and with the leaf could easily accomodate 8-10. PERFECTION. I sat on my hands about this one, though.
Me sitting on my hands might be different than the normal person, though. Me sitting on my hands means that I spend every waking minute thinking about how bad I want the table and just knowing that when the time comes that we actually suck it up and go to get it, it will be gone and I'll be devastated. Did I say "might be" up there? I meant "is totally." It also entails me dragging Andy to the furniture store as often as I can just to look at it. It took the better part of a year of me doing this and still wanting the table to bite the bullet. That picture up there is a peek of the set and much better quality than the picture I took with my camera phone, LOL. Come this time next month, it'll be sitting pretty in my dining room and I'll never think about dining room tables again.
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