Tables for big families

[mommyoffive]

If you have a big family, what kind of kitchen table do you have?

 

We have a family of 7 and only a kitchen, which serves as our home school space too.  Our current table is so tight and doesn't even fit us all.  

So I am on the hunt.  Honestly we need to move to a bigger house so that we all fit together in a better way, but that is further off.

 

 

[Meadowlark]

We have 7 here too. We have a table (adjustable with 2 leaves) but normally holds 6 chairs, 2 on the long sides and my husband and I at the ends. Then at dinner, we pull the desk chair over for my little guy to make 3 on a side, rather than trying to cram 7 chairs unequally around the table all day long.  It needs to look symmetrical to me if I'm going to be looking at it all day. 

[Entropymama]

There are 8 in our family, and we have a giant rectangular table with benches on either side. It's great. However, we ate lunch at Ikea a few weeks ago at a round table that was significantly smaller than what we have and we all fit, albeit rather cozily. All that to say, look for a round table. 

[cjzimmer1]

We bought a table from the local Amish group but it was actually made by the Amish in Indiana.  The base size (72 inches long) we can fit 8 although it's a little tight.  We have two leaves that we can add to extend it to 96 inches that seats 8 with lots of room or 10 a bit more cozy.  The track actually adjusts long enough that we could buy 2 more leaves and make a table that is 120 inches.  I figure this table can grow with the family when the kids start bringing SO home for dinner.

[mommyoffive]

There are 8 in our family, and we have a giant rectangular table with benches on either side. It's great. However, we ate lunch at Ikea a few weeks ago at a round table that was significantly smaller than what we have and we all fit, albeit rather cozily. All that to say, look for a round table. 

 

I have always wondered that.  If a round table is better than a square or rectangle table.

 

Do you know what table it was?  I am not seeing a round table that seats 8 at ikea.

[J-rap]

We have a long rectangular table that seats 8 easily, and we have often squeezed in 10.  It's actually more of a dining room table but it's our only table, so I think that counts.  :)  The trick we learned though was to buy the chairs separately.  It seems like dining room chairs nowadays are so big, that you just can't fit as many around a table.  We bought skinnier chairs from an online site that save so much room and were far cheaper, but they still match our table in color.

 

[BlsdMama]

Currently?  Taco Bell seating, no kidding.

 

*However* DH is going to build us a big table or two.

The current layout works awesome for schooling, but it's not so great for eating (we don't have four separate salt/pepper shakers, etc) and only two little kids can sit at our table - that is NOT conducive to teaching good table manners, kwim? 

 

But the biggest problem is that we have to pull out our old 6' table and set it up everytime we want to play a big boardgame.  So these are going and DH is building us a big table or two from Ana White's site:

 

http://www.ana-white.com/2014/05/farmhouse-table-0

 

We are thinking two because eventually we won't want a 12' table at all times in our front room, kwim?  So we were thinking like (1) 8' and (1) 4' and push them together for NOW but later only have the 8'.

 

I think we're at the tipping point that children will now be going OUT faster than they are coming IN our house. ;)  Granted, they'll be back with spouses and grandkids, but we'll never be able to seat that quantity anyway - folding tables in the garage will work better for Thanksgiving, lol.

 

I do NOT love benches - HOWEVER, they are SO much easier than pushing in chairs all the time and moving all of them for vacuuming, so give that some thought.  When we do this - there will be benches at the big table and chairs at the small.  No, it won't LOOK at cohesive.

 

However, you'll find members of your family that are rounder or older will really have a hard time with benches, so keep guests in mind.  Maybe just put chairs at the head and foot if that suits you better.  Benches are so much easier to clean as well, but guest issues can't be ignored.

[busymama7]

In the dining room we have two matching tables pushed together to form a six foot square. My dad built them and they are farmhouse style. We can separate them to fit more people for holiday and such but can quite easily fit 12-14 in the square. We have long benches on 2 sides and 3 chairs on the other two sides.

 

In the kitchen I have a folding school lunchroom table. I got this idea from another big family and I love love love it. Easy to clean and a breeze to clean the floor. Fold it and roll it away. We eat most meals at this table and do messier crafts, playdough etc at this table. The dining room is a better fit for school and we eat 3-4 dinners a week in there. It was a long time coming but I now feel my set up is perfect. I wanted a 12 ft farmhouse table but it wouldn't fit in our new house so this was our compromise.

[StephanieZ]

I have a 48x48" square dining room table that has FOUR 12" leaves, so expands to 4x8 feet. We keep it at 4x6 for daily use, and expand as needed. The trick to finding a really big table is to look for old tables. This one is maybe 100 years old. They used to make tables bigger. So many modern tables are tiny!

[AFwife Claire]

We bought a table from the local Amish group but it was actually made by the Amish in Indiana.  The base size (72 inches long) we can fit 8 although it's a little tight.  We have two leaves that we can add to extend it to 96 inches that seats 8 with lots of room or 10 a bit more cozy.  The track actually adjusts long enough that we could buy 2 more leaves and make a table that is 120 inches.  I figure this table can grow with the family when the kids start bringing SO home for dinner.

We also bought a table from the Amish, over 13 years ago now. It has 4 leaves and extends to 120 inches.  We leave it all the time with 3 leaves in (96 inches), and we can fit all 12 of us around it.  We got the wide table that is 48 inches, so we can fit 2 chairs on each end.  We also bought one bench when we bought the table, and the youngest kids not in high chairs sit there.  It fits 3-4 little kids.  We then have 8 regular chairs around the rest of the table (and a high chair beside it!).  

 

Our table and chairs are *so* well-made.  I love them and can see us with this table for years and years to come!

[prairiewindmomma]

We have this one, which seats 8 comfortably with both leaves in. http://www.ikea.com/au/en/catalog/products/70161730/  We have a second table as well. It would be very easy to set them end to end and seat 16.  They will go on sale for $250 each.

[KatieJ]

We have an Amish Oak table that is oval, 10 matching chairs  We can fit 10 adults nicely for a formal dinner.  We can 14 or more of us around it if some of the kids are in highschairs, stools, etc. I wish we had known about the benches years ago when we bought this.  I probably would have gone that route.  However, if I do it now, where do I go with all the chairs!

Who knew when we bought it 15 years ago our family would grow so much!