It's been about a year since renovating our house and moving in, and while we got most of the major projects out of the way before we moved in (like moving our stairs, building a master suite in the basement, completely reconfiguring the kitchen, gutting the bathroom, and putting new flooring throughout), we are just now getting around to tying up the little interior details that will make our house function more efficiently for us. I'm not necessarily talking about decorating... that's a whole 'nother conversation. I mean stuff like putting a handrail on the stairs and rods and shelving inside our closets (right now, we just pile our shoes on the floor in our master closets and hang our clothes in the upstairs closets).
Another efficiency issue we've had is upstairs, in the dining nook. We don't have a true dining room, just a little corner that's open to the kitchen and the living room. For the past year, we've been functioning - but simply that - with a rickety little antique store table, falling apart Ikea chairs that we've had since before kids, and a little Windsor bench I found on Craigslist and fell in love with.
Here's my list of things that a newly designed dining nook must accomplish:
1. Storage
Right now, we just use chairs, but it's the perfect corner for a banquette. We could add drawers and store kitchen stuff, coloring books, and board games. I love the low profile drawers in this picture.
2. Easy to clean
Our little antique table has lost its finish over the years, so wiping oatmeal off from breakfast is a terrible chore that involves vinegar spray and a bench scraper. Gross. It also has leaves on the ends that we keep elevated at all times, and food gets stuck in the little cracks.
A tulip table would be the perfect easy-to-clean option, whether we go with a marble top or not. I love the idea of an oval-shaped one like this!
Found here. Original source unknown.
3. More room to walk
Currently, there's just enough space for a body between the island and the dining chairs. We have to shuffle around the table and squeeze in and out of our seats. It's just not practical. The table also has four legs, so even if we didn't have chairs on all four sides, the legs still impede the walking path.
I'd love to find a pedestal table that has a smaller footprint. We wouldn't have to keep chairs on the two open sides at all times -- just add them in when company comes over.
4. More seating
Currently, the table seats 4, maybe 5 if we make both kids sit on the bench. If we found a rectangular table that could fit 3 people on each of the long sides, we could easily seat 8. This is probably the most important issue to fix, since we love to host dinners so much. Now, we all stand around the island and pile on the couch while we make the kids sit at the table. It works fine for less formal situations, but I'd love to actually be able to set the table and have a sit down dinner with our friends.
5. Not wood
We have a lot of wood going on in our kitchen. While I'm not opposed to multiple wood tones, if we're getting a new table anyway, I think I'd rather have either something black to play off our doors and some of the other accents we have in here, or white to lighten the look of all the furniture in this space.
I LOVE this black pedestal table situation. It looks easy to clean and the base is super low profile.
Source unknown
This one reads as super classic but the chairs and pillows give it such a fun, modern twist.
This bright white situation is so airy looking, which would be a complete 180 from what we've got going on now. A little visual breathing room would be nice!
Comments