Be our guest….

For several years now, we have hosted a monthly dinner party with friends from church.  At our old house, we often had to bring in a smaller table to join with our larger table to help accommodate the number of people we would invite. We knew we were going to continue to do this activity, so we wanted to make sure that we had a comfortable space for at least 16 people. Not an easy task when most tables seat a maximum of 10.

We found a company (James + James) in Arkansas that makes custom tables and visited their showroom last May. We ordered as large a table as we could, which with smaller chairs seats plenty of people, and waited for it to be made and delivered (in approximately 12 weeks).

This table has been our big “splurge” item for our new house.  We decided it was worth it because we knew we would use it for family events as well as our themed dinners.

The inaugural monthly dinner was last month with an apple theme (all dishes made with apples). October’s theme was Mediterranean. I decorate the table according to the theme, and Jeff cooks our monthly offering. Our friends all bring a dish (or dishes, if they’re overachievers), and we break bread together.

I have a lot of inexpensive Ikea chairs that we’ve been using for this purpose for several years. They aren’t the most comfortable chairs in the world, but they are small enough that we can all fit around the table. We plan to find better chairs someday in the future, but for now we’ve ordered blue cushions to make them more comfortable. 

The dining room is the one room where I did decide to leave the mirrors. They take up an entire wall and make the room look huge. They also allow for people on both sides of the table to see the view, which will be lovely someday when we get the overgrown backyard cleared out.

I did NOT decide to leave the chandelier. It was outdated and not to my taste. We found a fun chandelier that we ordered and installed ourselves. It adds a touch of bling without being blingy.

The floors were originally carpeted (who in the world decides carpet in a dining space is a good idea?).  We had Jason (of Sandmasters) finish our wood floors that TJ (Murray’s floors) had installed. They did a fantastic job. Jason and I discussed the best color for the floor, and we went with a medium brown with a matte finish (matte hides dust…). Jason also stained a few scrap pieces that we took with us to James + James when we were picking out the table so we could choose a complimentary color. I’m glad we did because they go together perfectly.

I’m pleased with how the dining room turned out. We’ve enjoyed hosting our friends and family in it for over a month now, and we think the “big splurge” on the table was totally worth it!