Sometimes, Size Does Matter!

Have I piqued your interest?
Yes, sometimes size does matter, but I'm not telling you why until the end of the post,
when I am also going to ask for your opinion.

But in the meantime. . . .

Yesterday, Susan at Between Naps On The Porch, who hosts Tablescape Thursday, showed her own table setting on her porch, and also in her dining room, and asked her readers which we liked better. No contest for me; I'm a sucker for dining rooms.

Also yesterday, Kim of Savvy Southern Style left a comment on my Thursday post, mentioning the hutch in the pictures, and that she'd like to see more of it. So, while I was scratching my head, wondering what to write about today, I decided to feature my dining room.

Fridays are not my most creative days!

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This is a picture-heavy post, mostly just pictures of the dining room from its original condition when we bought That Old House in March '08, through its paint crew makeover, and the Craigslist and Ebay bargains we furnished it with.

I really wanted to paint this room yellow, as I love yellow dining rooms
and think yellow walls look wonderful with antique wood, but I could not find the right yellow.

The room itself kept whispering, "Paint me red!"

Tinted oil primer, plaster repair, then top coats of Benjamin Moore Tucson Red.

Decisions on fabric for the draperies: gold or red?

Gold won out. Were you among the readers who voted?

A Craigslist find -- a big old mirror with a cast brass frame. 60 dollars.

It took us months to work up the nerve to hang it.

We hung it over a marble-topped sideboard we bought for $100 on Craigslist.
Don't get envious; it needed restoration, and we had it done professionally.
Amazingly, the marble was intact and undamaged.

The hutch Kim mentioned? Furniture people call this a breakfront, because the middle section sticks out past the sides; in other words, it's as if the front is not a straight line, but is broken. That middle section also hides a butler's fold-down desk, behind the middle drawers.

I found it on Ebay for $800. Ended up getting it for $200, as successive auctions kept ending without bidders. I just waited. It was in an apartment on Manhattan's Central Park West.
It's by Saginaw Furniture; I've seen its twin in mahogany online, but have never seen another in pine.

When I was a little girl, I would stand in front of my grandmother's china cabinet and look at the treasures she stashed inside.
I have that cabinet now, below, and it is very old. It holds my own treasures:

We replaced the existing modern rusty-finished chandelier with a crystal fellow that still surprises me when I turn on the light switch. I do enjoy the contrasts of the plain old pine board floors, bargain furniture, and snazzy light fixture.

The neighborhood kids think it is made of diamonds,
and love to climb up on a chair and touch the crystals, to watch them sway and cast rainbows.

Just some pictures of the room, now.
It is hard to capture the whole room in one shot; I can't get it all in at once.

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Now, about that size issue?

The table we have in this room was the perfect fit in our last house, which had a 12 x 12 foot dining room. The dining room at That Old House is more than 18 feet long, and about 16 feet wide. A table that only measures 6 feet long with its leaf installed is just not big enough.

As I've tried to shoe-horn 8 people around this oval table,
I have come to realize, reluctantly, that size does matter.

I do love this table. It is from The Bombay Company, and I got it secondhand, on Ebay, about 5 years ago. It's beautifully made; the edge is banded, and even the leaf has both the banding and an apron. But I think we'll be selling it soon.

Even things we love sometimes outlive their usefulness. On Saturday,
Howard and I are going to look at two other dining tables, both found through Craigslist.
Both are double pedestal, mahagony, and both extend to more than 8-1/2 feet.

One of them is for sale right here in our own town. Here's a picture:

We used to have a smaller version of this table; our dining room floor in our old house was so crooked that the double pedestals eventually rocked apart from the swell of the floor. This table is a classic, probably from the '40s; we've all seen dozens of them, with the reeded legs and the brass capped toes.

The other table we are looking at is newer, with Queen Anne style double pedestals.

It is by Henkel-Harris, the Virginia Galleries line:

Well, what do you think?

We won't decide until we see them both. I know the second one is a good quality table, based on its origins, but I'm not sold on its legs; I have a soft spot for those old fashioned brass capped toes!

Now that I have overwhelmed you with more pictures of my dining room then you ever wanted to see,
I encourage you to buzz over to My Romantic Home, where Cindy is hosting Show and Tell Friday!

Shoo! Shoo! Go!!! --- Cass