What kind of kitchen table do you have?

[ChristusG]

What type of kitchen table do you have?

 

My kids have destroyed our kitchen table. We use our dining room for other purposes so the kitchen is where we eat....all the time. And paint. And do crafts. We purchased a bar height set a few years ago. It is wood (well, we got it from Rooms To Go, so I guess it is not real wood), the seats are fabric covered, and it is a complete mess. There is paint that I cannot scrub off. There's some sort of sticky film that causes paper plates, papers, and such to stick to it. When you pull it up, it leave part of the paper stuck to the table....that I cannot scrub off. If I accidently leave a drip of applesauce on the table, it becomes stuck. I just want to be done with it, get a new one, and start fresh.

 

I'm purchasing a drop cloth to put over it when painting. The kids will use placemats when eating. And for play doh and crafts, another drop cloth will be placed on the table.

 

So what sort of kitchen table do you have? Wood finish? Glass? Marble? Is it easy to clean? Do you like it? Hate it? Are your chairs fabric? I think I'd actually prefer to have non-fabric chairs since our kids are still little. The fabric is stained horribly despite the fact that I cleaned it up as soon as I knew something was spilled. I'm not sure that I want to do bar height again. Both kids have taken a tumble, head first, and smacked their heads really hard on the kitchen floor. But I haven't ruled bar height out though.

 

Links would be awesome if you have one! Oh, and I'm not one to spend thousands of dollars on furniture. We usually take care of it pretty well....our couches, entertainment system, and chairs are from Rooms To Go and we've never had any issue with them.

Edited August 6, 2010 by ChristusG
added something

[AK_Mom4]

We spent about $1000 many years ago and bought a really solid oak table set that came with 8 chairs. It has leaves that store in it and can be added to it so you can seat 10 comfortably for holidays and such.

 

We spent more $$$ than I probably would have in order to get solid wood and better craftsmanship. DH actually stood on the chairs in the shop and jumped up and down on them to make sure they were really sturdy.

 

We;ve never regretted the $$$. The table has survived in great shape thru 4 kids and is still going strong. It's all held together with screws - no glue to dry out - and you can scrub it without damaging the finish. Though when my kids were little, I kept a $2 vinyl tablecloth that I put over it for when they were painting to save clean up.

[Dobela]

My main one is a table my mom bought 35 years ago. It is wood look, with wood legs and chairs but the top is formica. I can do almost anything to it. I would look for something similar. The maintainence is so simple.

[Julie in CA]

My table is a glass-topped patio table, with a heavy-duty aluminum(?) frame, so no sharp edge. It has chairs to match. It's attractive, and people seem surprised if I mention the fact that it's a patio table.

 

Yeah, I have to Windex it once in a while, but there are some really great things about it.

#1. If paint or glue doesn't Windex right off, I can use a razor blade to scrape it off and you can't tell it was ever there.

#2. Handwriting strips, maps, etc, can be taped to the underside of the glass, and then the kids can use markers for tracing/filling in. Again, a bit of Windex, and it all goes away!

#3. My table has the small hole in the middle where an umbrella could go through, and as the kids have moved up technologically, we have been able to charge laptops at the table easily without wires all over the table. They go through the hole from underneath.

#4. The chairs came with pads made of Sunbrella fabric, and are attached with Velcro, so I can just pick them right up, take them outside, and hose them off.

#5. My table has a sort of rack thing underneath, and it's a great place to set books we're not using, but we can still easily see what's there through the glass top.

#6. Most patio furniture is built for heavier conditions than wood furniture. My chairs will never be wobbly, for instance, because there are no wood joints to loosen up over time.

It's been about 9 years of hard use, but my table and chairs have held up really well. Eventually I will need to replace the chair pads, but only from real, heavy, daily wear. I expect that this table will last much longer than the 6 years I have left to homeschool.

 

Right now my table is covered with books, but I can post a picture later on today if you're interested in seeing how it actually looks. :)

[May]

Solid oak given to me by my grandma. It was the first table she had when she was married and made by one of her neighbors. When she gave it to me, it was painted green and yellow. My dh and I stripped the paint from it and that was when we realized it was oak. On the down side, it is small. It is a tight squeeze to fit six and that is with very little food on the table. But every time I look at it, I remember my grandma. When she was alive, I asked her why she painted it, to match her kitchen, of course.:001_smile:

[Belacqua]

Mine's a formica diner-type table that attaches to the wall with a big, metal pipe at the bottom. We have banquette seating around it, and it can be moved a few inches in any direction.

 

It's utterly dated and goofy-looking, but I actually love it.

[Tammy]

by my grandmother! It is oak....and has 8 chairs....oh and 3 leaves! I hope to pass it along to my children as well!

[gingersmom]

I have a wood table that I paid too much for from Ethan Allen and I hate it. Hate hate hate!

 

I would love a formica table but have yet to find one.

[wendybird]

We have a wood table from Ikea, with mismatched wood chairs and benches. It is huge, and is the hub of our house. We eat there, school there, play games there, and just sit and hang out there(way more than our couches). So far everything wipes off easily, and the pen that was gouged into the wood came clean, though it left a path to remind us.:001_huh:

It is not my dream table at all, but it is a very good functional table.

http://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/20182315

I had my dream table before we got this one. It was destroyed with paint and toddler distressing attempts. :glare: Good thing I value my kids more than said furniture!

[MaMa2005]

I got our kitchen table from an unfinished wood furniture store 22 years ago. I stained it myself and then used tung oil as the finish. It has lasted through 2 children, 2 grandchildren and now our third child and it is still going strong. I also bought the ladder back chairs and just use seat cushions that I replace every few years.

 

One of the things that has really helped this table last is eating on trays. I have placemats and then on top of the placemats are large, oval, plastic serving trays (thank you IKEA). They are large enough to hold the silverware, utensils, etc. Instead of food all over the table, it lands on the tray. Wash the tray and you are good as new.

[elegantlion]

Antique. It's a round pedestal and needs refinished, but it's great.

 

Our school table is our former dining table. It's veneer top, pine colored, and a little worse for wear after 5 years of using it for school and 5 years of eating use before that. I think it has character. :D

 

For a new table I would invest into solid wood, probably unfinished and stain or paint my own colors. For chairs I would skip padded seats and buy solid wood chairs and use washable slipcovers.

 

We use our old dining chairs with our antique table. They are heavy solid wood which is painted white. Virtually indestructible.

[Teachin'Mine]

Christus there's a really simple and inexpensive solution. Buy whatever table you like. Then buy the clear plastic film - it comes on rolls in the fabric department of Walmart and is available at fabric stores - just larger than the table. We buy the thickest available as it needs to withstand a lot of abuse. You'll never have to worry about paint or messes again. After about two or three years, it may get a little scratched on the surface and you can throw it away and get a new one. You can also put any kind of pretty table cloth or decoration underneath and it's protected. No solution for the chairs other than to avoid fabric.

[Rhea]

hahahaha We're still in the "most comfortable with a table we don't mind having destroyed" phase. It is a large, old, garage door made of wood. It's legs are tree branches, unfinished, unrefined, unpolished in any way, attached to the table in a not very attractive manner.

 

I love that we can all sit around it with lots of books and notebooks and have plenty of room. It's where we eat, study, and do arts and crafts. It has the 4 legs at the corners and nothing else to get in the way of leg room underneath.

 

But someday I'm going to have a nice table. :)

[MyLittleWonders]

We have a maple butcher-block table that my parents bought when I was three. It's seen more wear and tear in the last 3 years than it ever did when I was young :lol: because my mom, and then my dad, always kept it covered with a vinyl, foamy type under table cloth and then a fabric table cloth on top of that. I swear the wood never saw the light of day! That said, it's a bit beat up - but nothing that a light sanding, oiling, and waxing wouldn't take care of fixing. We dream of eventually having a bigger table or at least one with a leaf. Once baby bean is big enough to sit at the table with us, there'll be no more room for anyone else. But, the table has a lot of sentimental value to me and I don't want to part with it.

[Reesegirl]

We also have a round oak table with a center pedestal from the 1930's...we found it at an estate sale many years ago...LOVE it! You can always get another person around it without hitting a corner leg. We purchased oak chairs and for the most part they have stood up but we have had to reglue rungs from time to time. They are easy to clean up.

[cdrumm4448]

We have a cherry round table with 4 chairs from Walter E. Smithe. It was part of their build-your-own furniture. The top is treated with something that lets any liquid (except iodine) sit on it for 24 hours and not ruin the finish. The chairs are the window pane back and wood seat. Easy to clean up and east to maintain. I wipe it down after we eat and then polish it with lemon oil. The only thing that has happened to it is it now has a few little dents and unnoticable scratches from the kids, and there are a few spots where a hot plate discolored the surface. Using placemats would solve that problem. Other than that, I love it.

[jenL]

We have dh's grandparent's old table. It's an oak pedestal table, and it is in fantastic shape despite my boys having spilled nearly everything on it. I do use a vinyl tablecloth to cover it when we paint or do a lot of gluing. I really love our table and it's nice to think of dh's grandparents every time we sit at it. The chairs are solid wood and easy to wipe down as well.

[AFwife Claire]

Christus there's a really simple and inexpensive solution. Buy whatever table you like. Then buy the clear plastic film - it comes on rolls in the fabric department of Walmart and is available at fabric stores - just larger than the table. We buy the thickest available as it needs to withstand a lot of abuse. You'll never have to worry about paint or messes again. After about two or three years' date=' it may get a little scratched on the surface and you can throw it away and get a new one. You can also put any kind of pretty table cloth or decoration underneath and it's protected. No solution for the chairs other than to avoid fabric.[/quote']

 

I totally agree! This is exactly what we do, and our table looks wonderful, even after MUCH use and abuse! We put our big maps under the plastic so the kids can talk geography over meals.

 

We bought a huge oak table (goes out to 10 ft. with the 4 self-storing leaves) about 6 years ago from a place in Amish country in Ohio. Very sturdy craftmanship, and I absolutely love the table. We got 8 chairs and one bench which fits 4 kids. (It was about $1600 for all 10 pieces.) The chairs are solid wood, very sturdy. I would never do fabric cushions! I can't even imagine how quickly those would become filthy!

[Granny_Weatherwax]

We have an antique oak table. DH and I bought it when we were first married. It has lasted through everything. DH refinishedthe top early on and put on about 4 coats of lvarnish or laquer (whatever goes on a table). The only thing that has damaged it was nail polish remover, which I spilled. That ate right through the finish.

[emubird]

Table? We have a table? Oh, yeah, right, that must be what's holding up the piles of books, mail, and loads of ripening fruit.

 

We've been eating on the patio.

[elegantlion]

We did have an antique wooden table. We got rid of it when we moved. We love antiques, but this one was not well made and the top was too wobbly.

 

We just got a bar height table with fabric seats only, the table is a dark wooden, I'm assuming it's a laminate. We won't do school there, but I thinking of ways to protect the table. It has a lazy susan in the middle of the table and it is square with wings that come out to make it round. I'm kind of excited about the bar height, but yes with little kids I would have not made that choice.

 

My parents just got a table with a marble look top. I think it's actually a resin type top, it' not real marble. I wouldn't use chemical on the table top, but it looks pretty indestructible.

[Pippen]

Solid oak given to me by my grandma. It was the first table she had when she was married and made by one of her neighbors. When she gave it to me, it was painted green and yellow. My dh and I stripped the paint from it and that was when we realized it was oak. On the down side, it is small. It is a tight squeeze to fit six and that is with very little food on the table. But every time I look at it, I remember my grandma. When she was alive, I asked her why she painted it, to match her kitchen, of course.:001_smile:

 

We have that one too. :) It's heavy oak table that my MIL grew up with and it was from Montgomery Wards. My husband stripped it down, built two leaves to expand it to its greatest width, and refinished it--using thick polyurethane as the final finish. My MIL was an only child so it was plenty big for them but even with the leaves it's small for the five of us. When we were first married I planned on replacing it but here we are years later still using it because the money always seems to be needed for something else. The chairs that go with this set are in the attic because they're uncomfortable.

 

I bought a few cafeteria trays when my kids were little and had the kids use those for the messy jobs. They're great for paint, playdough, puzzles, etc. The small ones fit in the dishwasher.

http://www.amazon.com/Carlisle-CT1216-14-Blue-Standard-Category/dp/B00063831E/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1291109693&sr=8-1

[Pippen]

We have an antique oak table. DH and I bought it when we were first married. It has lasted through everything. DH refinishedthe top early on and put on about 4 coats of lvarnish or laquer (whatever goes on a table). The only thing that has damaged it was nail polish remover, which I spilled. That ate right through the finish.

 

Sharpie marker was what did in ours.

[MamaAkins]

I have a large square table that seats 8. There are 6 chairs (wooden-no fabric) and a wooden bench. It has a leaf in the center that can be removed to make the table smaller, but with our large family, we leave it in! It has a wooden lazy susan in the center, which helps since the table is square and it would be hard to reach all the way across. I got it on sale about 6 years ago at a furniture place that was going out of business. I think we paid about $700 for it, but it was original listed at about $1500.

[bettyandbob]

I have a butcher block rectangle that seats 6 comfortably. I have no problem getting most stuff off. I'm sure it would not respond to sharpie very well though. I'd like to make a recommendation on chairs. Get solid seats. You said you didn't want fabric. Don't get woven either. It's expensive to get seats rewoven and if you are at a stage where food and liquids will be spilled on the seats the thrush used for the weaving will break apart and unravel over time. I know.

[Jan in SC]

I can't remember what brand we have in the kitchen, but we used to have a situation like yours. The kitchen table an fabric covered chairs we bought were ruined by the boys. The table had grooves that had become disgusting!

 

I had a person sand it a little and paint it black. Then she distressed it slightly. I went to the fabric store and found new fabric and with a staple gun recovered the chairs. It was cheap and looks like a pottery barn table. I had already bought a new kitchen table, so I put it in the dining room and I love it!

[Mejane]

I have a round oak hand-me-down table. Oak is so hard, you can do almost anything to it. My chairs are from Pottery Barn:

 

http://www.potterybarn.com/products/napoleon-chair/?pkey=cdining-chairs-values

 

 

I have the black ones, and use loose washable chair pads on them. I was worried they wouldn't hold up under kids and severely overweight relatives, but they are made in Italy as opposed to... well, you know ;), and they're very sturdy. They're one of the ten things I'm taking with us when we move. :001_smile:

[Pretty in Pink]

We have a solid wood set. The table is round and the whole set is white. The chairs are all wood (no fabric seats) and there are no intricate details on any of the pieces. It's easy to wipe off several times per day. I have a stash of table cloths and old bed sheets that I put over it when painting.

[KidsHappen]

We have a bistro table with four bar stools in our dinette and then another four stools at the bar that seperates the kitchen from the dinette. This works well because everyone can sit at the same heigth as well as being able to sit and socialize without being in the kitchen under foot. This is where the kids eat their breakfast and sometimes we even eat dinner there. We rarely use the formal dining room for meals. It is more of a library/reading room/game room that we also use for holiday dinners.

[Krista in LA]

We have a glass table top and I hate it, hate it, hate it, but will be forever stuck with it since it was dh's grandparent's. The thing is never clean even after just using glass cleaner on it - fingerprints, dust, etc are all worse on it. If your concern is being able to get paint, etc off, though, no problem there. I'm just counting down the days when I can get a wood table for the kitchen and send this one out to the patio as it would be very happy there....

[JoyfulMama]

We have an antique porcelain top table - INDESTRUCTIBLE!!!!

 

This is actually my second one. The first one we bought was yellow and green, and matched our first kitchen, but it has now been used as a school table for the last few years, as we salvaged a black and white one from a neighbor's trash. :D

 

Here's an idea: http://www.bing.com/images/search?q=antique+porcelain+top+table&qpvt=antique+porcelain+top+table&FORM=Z7FD1#focal=d37b65e93c9513a388042de94021a113&furl=http%3A%2F%2Fimages.goantiques.com%2Fdbimages%2FQBO9195%2FQBO9195109.jpg

[OnTheBrink]

I have a solid oak pedestal table with windsor chairs. No upholstery. No crafts get done on it; I make dd do her crafts on her glass-top desk.

[mcconnellboys]

I have an antique maple table but we got a piece of heavy glass cut to fit the top so that it's easy to wipe down. I use place mats on it. I got the seats of the chairs recovered a few years ago with a fabric that I had laminated. It makes the fabric wipable, but not as sticky as a plastic/leather type of seat....

[gardening momma]

Wood table that we stained and finished ourselves (bought it unfinished). Wood chairs with seat cushions that tie on. We're on our second set of seat cushions in 9 years.

[Baseball mom]

What type of kitchen table do you have?

 

 

One I would like to get rid of :lol: I really would like a new table but it is at the bottom of a long list of things that need to be replaced.

[Amy loves Bud]

I have some random thoughts for you:

 

One, I think the drop cloth is a great idea for doing projects. I just use a flannel back plastic tablecloth that I got in a dollar bin somewhere.

 

Two, do you like your table - if it were in good shape would you keep it? If you'd like to keep it you could sand it down. I've thought of glueing a map to our table and then coating it with polyurethane.

 

Three, my dream kitchen table would have a shelf under the table top that we could store commonly used books, like the dictionary and atlas. I plan on assigning that project to Bud once he finishes my mudroom - which will be very soon!

 

Four, I have hard wood chairs and use removable/washable cushions on them. That way they can get filthy and then washed. Eventually they can be replaced for much less than chairs can.

 

Have fun!

[Amy loves Bud]

I have an antique maple table but we got a piece of heavy glass cut to fit the top so that it's easy to wipe down. I use place mats on it. I got the seats of the chairs recovered a few years ago with a fabric that I had laminated. It makes the fabric wipable, but not as sticky as a plastic/leather type of seat....

 

If you Google laminated fabric, there are some really gorgeous selections from fabric designers like Anna Maria Horner and Denise Schmydt.

[lynn]

Solid oak table and chairs dh had made for me when we purchased our first home 18years ago. I need to find a new set but I am waiting until one of the boys moves out and can take this table with them.

[holdoll]

My table is a glass-topped patio table, with a heavy-duty aluminum(?) frame, so no sharp edge. It has chairs to match. It's attractive, and people seem surprised if I mention the fact that it's a patio table.

 

Yeah, I have to Windex it once in a while, but there are some really great things about it.

#1. If paint or glue doesn't Windex right off, I can use a razor blade to scrape it off and you can't tell it was ever there.

#2. Handwriting strips, maps, etc, can be taped to the underside of the glass, and then the kids can use markers for tracing/filling in. Again, a bit of Windex, and it all goes away!

#3. My table has the small hole in the middle where an umbrella could go through, and as the kids have moved up technologically, we have been able to charge laptops at the table easily without wires all over the table. They go through the hole from underneath.

#4. The chairs came with pads made of Sunbrella fabric, and are attached with Velcro, so I can just pick them right up, take them outside, and hose them off.

#5. My table has a sort of rack thing underneath, and it's a great place to set books we're not using, but we can still easily see what's there through the glass top.

#6. Most patio furniture is built for heavier conditions than wood furniture. My chairs will never be wobbly, for instance, because there are no wood joints to loosen up over time.

It's been about 9 years of hard use, but my table and chairs have held up really well. Eventually I will need to replace the chair pads, but only from real, heavy, daily wear. I expect that this table will last much longer than the 6 years I have left to homeschool.

 

Right now my table is covered with books, but I can post a picture later on today if you're interested in seeing how it actually looks. :)

 

I love this! Wish we had one!

[tricia]

A huge oak table. I love it and it has held up so nicely through so many kids. There are a few spots that I'm not proud of but all in all still going strong. Which is a good thing considering there are still many children it has to go through.