Looking for roughly…

Looking for roughly 30-36" x 48" dining table for eat-in bench area. Ideally rectangular with rounded corners. Tough wood or metal top (meant for kids primarily, so something you can put drinks down on, and that's easy to wipe clean). Ideally under $500, though we can be a bit flexible on that. Internet, help?

My hunt so far hasn't been so successful. For example, there's this one:

Nice solid construction from an Amish outlet store, and oak, which is good for us (our kitchen is dark oak / medium pine / zinc / stainless / dark grey soapstone). It's very pretty, but I think it'd be better to have pedestal or double pedestal base ideally, for ease of getting in and out in a tight bench-seating space? Or at least a trestle style. What do you think? It's also a little fancy/formal-looking for our kitchen, I think.

This one is the single pedestal style, making it easier to get in and out, and I quite like the cut off corners (sort of octagonal overall, which is a shape I really like), ditto ease of moving in and out.

It ought to be close to perfect in terms of functionality, but honestly, the overall look bothers me. It looks very heavy and traditional, in some sense, both because of the shape of the base piece and the finish, I think. I'd prefer something with either a more farmhouse or industrial look to it. I keep staring at it, trying to figure out if I can refinish it to something more like what we want, but a) that might be beyond my skills, and b) I'm a little hesitant to start messing with a brand new piece of furniture. It's one thing to find a yard sale piece and try to DIY it to your needs, but it seems a little odd to do that to something new. No?

They're also both more expensive that I'd like, a little over $500. It seems like we ought to be able to find this sort of thing for much less. For example, this table is just over $100! If it had a pedestal base and cut off corners, I would buy it and re-paint the base to one of our kitchen colors:

I kind of think the best way to find the particular style I want is to build a table -- buy an appropriate table top and base, screw it together? But I'm a little intimidated, and honestly, if it's already out there at a reasonable price, I'd rather just buy it.

2 thoughts on “Looking for roughly…”

  1. For that space you definitely need a trestle table. Ash wood is sturdy, and the styles I have seen it in are not heavy. I usually see it stained a honey-blond color. Have you found anything on craigslist that is close to what you want? If not, and you want to assemble your own table, have you looked at IKEA? Some of their stuff is actually nice, and made for tight spaces.

  2. Still hunting craiglist — no luck so far, but there’s new stuff all the time. I think we’ve decided on a 30×48 trestle table; it’s good to have that narrowed down. Will keep hunting! I’m going back to IKEA next week to return a wrong-size lampshade, so I’ll take a look there then.

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