Kitchen tables- wood? Counter height?

[matrips]

I want a new kitchen table set and have questions about the durability of the current farmhouse style sets.  I love the look, but wondering the practicality of them. 
 

First- we use water pitchers and glasses and they do sweat.  Would this cause water damage on a farmhouse wood table?  One table at the store had a warning that made the table seem useless to actually be used in a dining setting!  So strange.
 

Second- so many of them have grooves (the plank look). I envision having to clean out those grooves and it not being practical.  But it is so hard to find a smooth top in a style I like.

Third- many chairs come with fabric seats instead of wood.  Is that a mistake?  Should I make sure to get a wood seat?
 

We have a tile table (think 1980’s style) left by the previous owners 9 years ago. Indestructible top as far as food or water or cleaners go. I grew up with a wood looking table but it had an indestructible plastic type top.

Also, the farmhouse tables that I see in the stores with smooth tops (not plank/groove) are counter height.  Anyone have that height and tell me pros and cons of that height?  Our kids are teens and we have no elderly visitors.

I know I want white.  Or some variation of that.  I’ve never bought a new dining set!  My first house in my 20s- I trash picked a glass/chrome set.  
 

A minor problem in the scheme of things, but would love some advice/experience.  Thanks!

 

Edited April 24, 2021 by matrips
Added info

[Katy]

I agree planks collect gross stuff. 

Every kitchen table I’ve ever had was antique. I got a large round tempered glass tabletop I placed right on top to protect my current one. I use it instead of a foam waterproof protector and tablecloth.  Every so often I need DH’s help to remove it from the table and clean both sides. Especially where the little ones sit. 

I think the only disadvantage of counter height is needing bar stools and it feeling much more casual. My sister ended up hating her counter top one & moving it to her sun room to use for puzzles. It just felt wrong. 

Fabric seats don’t last as long as wood. 

If the price of lumber hadn’t recently quadrupled I’d say to look at Ana White’s site. She has free plans for farmhouse tables that are easy to build. If they got ruined you could just make a new tabletop. But with pine 2x4’s running $8 instead of $1.50, you may as well ruin one from pottery barn.

[gardenmom5]

My dd has a counter height table.  The only advantage is the bar chairs fit.

I don't like it as a table.   Now that she has kids she's not as enamored of it.

[sweet2ndchance]

31 minutes ago, Katy said:

If the price of lumber hadn’t recently quadrupled I’d say to look at Ana White’s site. She has free plans for farmhouse tables that are easy to build. If they got ruined you could just make a new tabletop. But with pine 2x4’s running $8 instead of $1.50, you may as well ruin one from pottery barn.

I have so many projects I want to build but the price of lumber lately is just beyond absurd. Makes me so mad/sad when I think about it.

I've built several plank style dining tables. I like to make sure the planks are as tight together as I can get them and then pay extra close attention to those groves when I'm putting on the polyurethane. Still, yes, those groves need attention when cleaning the table if you have kids or any other type of mess maker at the table. If the table is not coated with polyurethane on top (danish oil finish or just stained wood) you will need to be careful with moisture on the table. Use coasters/placemats or a table cloth. Or just know that your table is going to have that used look to it rather quickly. Some people like that look. Especially with a farmhouse or industrial style table.

Me, personally, if I bought a table that was not poly'ed, I would poly at least the top surface myself. At the very least with a coat or two of hand rubbed poly. Hand rubbed poly is much easier to work with than regular poly in my opinion and will still produce a water resistant surface that still has a similar look of bare wood. Notice I said water resistant, not water proof. It will handle a spill or condensation from a glass as long as it is wiped up fairly quickly afterward but it will not last long as say, a finish on a patio table.

We have a counter height table now. Dh really likes it, I'm on the fence about it. One thing to keep in mind is that I'm only 5'2". That might be coloring my opinion lol. Since we have an eat-in kitchen and no formal dining area, the dining table gets used as extra counter space a lot. For that, it is amazing. When we are doing school work at the table though, I sometimes wish we had a regular height table. I don't know why but standing beside ds while he does work at the counter height table is awkward sometimes and I can't really explain why.

I don't like our all wood dining chairs. They are easy to clean and they are pretty and they are what I wanted at the time we got them but they hurt my legs and that could be just because they were part of a cheap set. We have been looking for a good replacement for them for a while now. My 8yo needs something to rest his feet on under the table when he is sitting at the table but you said you had all teenagers so that probably won't be a problem for you.

With lots of little kids at home, I hated cloth dining chairs. Now that most of my kids are grown and I am getting older, all wood chairs typically hurt in some way or another so now I'm looking for cloth dining chairs lol.

So, all that said, my next dining table plan includes making the table top from Formica 180FX in Smoky Planked Walnut. Similar look to planked style table with the same ease of cleaning as a countertop. I made our kitchen countertops out of Formica 180FX in Ferro Graphite and I love them.

[Carol in Cal.]

The thing that is nice about counter height is that you can stand at it to get things done, instead of needing to sit to, say, write a letter.  In my world, that kind of thing happens at the table a lot.

OTOH, when my lower back is acting up, dangling feet are incredibly painful to my back, and so I always want my eating table to be at a height at which I can sit with my feet squarely on the floor.  That actually militates against upholstered chairs, as most of them land me a bit higher than wooden ones do, and that difference means I have to wear clogs to raise my feet to avoid hurting my back.

[Forget-Me-Not]

I hate counter-height dining sets, because my legs dangle, which means the edge of the chair cuts into the backs of my legs and my feet go numb. 

[matrips]

40 minutes ago, sweet2ndchance said:

So, all that said, my next dining table plan includes making the table top from Formica 180FX in Smoky Planked Walnut. Similar look to planked style table with the same ease of cleaning as a countertop. I made our kitchen countertops out of Formica 180FX in Ferro Graphite and I love them.

Formica!  That’s probably what the table top was that I grew up with.  So easy to clean, and nothing to worry about.  Maybe I’ll have to wait until the grooved plank look is over.  I see tables from a year or two ago that are much closer to what I’m looking for.

Thanks for the input on counter height.  I might try to put our current table up on blocks and use our stools to see what we think.  I think we could deal with the height factor; our meals don’t last long and we have a regular height table outside and in our dining room. I’ll see how it looks. All the chairs we saw had rungs, so I’m not sure that feet would need to dangle.  Something to try out though.

[KungFuPanda]

I need at least one table-height surface in my kitchen because I am short and some things, like kneading bread or rolling out pastry, are easier to do on a lower surface.  If your table has planks, you want them to be tightly joined, sanded, and finished so that the surface is flat and even. If it's not, you'll either have food on the floor or be vacuuming the grooves.  If you like the look/comfort of the fabric chairs, but you have kids, you can always cover them with clear plastic.  It can be as simple as unscrewing the seat, stapling the plastic, and screwing the seat back in.  When I got cloth seats, I recovered them with a marine vinyl like they use to upholster boats.  I need to do it again, but it's lasted me 20 years so I can't complain.  I do think the padding is more comfortable than solid wood chairs.

[Tap]

The few people I know who bought counter height tables, got rid of them within a couple of years. I am sure there are people who love them, but they just aren't that comfortable unless your legs happen to be the right length for the rungs on the chairs. 

[carriede]

You can put a layer of polyurethane on a wood table top to seal it from water.

[ktgrok]

11 hours ago, Carol in Cal. said:

The thing that is nice about counter height is that you can stand at it to get things done, instead of needing to sit to, say, write a letter.  In my world, that kind of thing happens at the table a lot.

OTOH, when my lower back is acting up, dangling feet are incredibly painful to my back, and so I always want my eating table to be at a height at which I can sit with my feet squarely on the floor.  That actually militates against upholstered chairs, as most of them land me a bit higher than wooden ones do, and that difference means I have to wear clogs to raise my feet to avoid hurting my back.

LOL, at 5'1 I've never in my life had a table where my feet are squarely on the floor 😞

[Pam in CT]

I grew up with a (zillion year old) round oak pedestal table with leaves; and when I grew up another (zillion year old) very enormous round oak table with leaves for the dining room and another painted round wood (dunno what kind because it was painted when I got it) pedestal table with leaves for the kitchen.

We do use trivets for pitchers, and in the dining room we use tablecloths or placemats. But the painted kitchen table has gotten all kinds of abuse well beyond mere water damage -- my kids did all sorts of projects with paint and glue and carving tools and tack hammers and whatever.  Every five years or so I lightly sand and repaint the tabletop (which is also what my mother did with the one we had when I was growing up).  Kids here are now grown and mostly-gone now and the table (repainted in quarantine) still looks good. 

If you otherwise like the look, I wouldn't be deterred by a ~2 hour project every 5 years.  It's really NBD.

 

[Carol in Cal.]

2 hours ago, ktgrok said:

LOL, at 5'1 I've never in my life had a table where my feet are squarely on the floor 😞

Right, I didn’t experience feeling like things fit me until I visited Japan.  It was remarkable to have the train seats be exactly my size and height.

Let me just suggest, since IIRC you have mentioned lower back issues, that you try using a nursing stool under the table to put your feet on, and see whether it helps your back.

[ktgrok]

2 minutes ago, Carol in Cal. said:

Right, I didn’t experience feeling like things fit me until I visited Japan.  It was remarkable to have the train seats be exactly my size and height.

Let me just suggest, since IIRC you have mentioned lower back issues, that you try using a nursing stool under the table to put your feet on, and see whether it helps your back.

I actually recently purchased a foot rest! It really does help...when I use it, lol. I also tend to sit "criss cross applesauce" for the most part. 

Sitting with feet on the rungs of the dining room chairs is the worst - that gives me plantar fasciitis!

And now I want to find out how to order Asian furniture, lol. 

Edited April 25, 2021 by ktgrok