Kevin and I also had different visions for the room -- he leaned towards a game table in the center, and four chairs. I wanted comfy seating, a place to plop down with a book and read. We ended up deciding on a hybrid, that I think will work reasonably well -- fingers crossed. On one side of the room, a drop-leaf table flanked by two chairs; it's not big enough for Agricola or the other fancy board games, but it can accommodate Scrabble, chess, etc. no problem. For the big games and poker, we'll go down to the dining table. On the other side of the room, we're putting in a small sofa (of the size they call an apartment sofa). That's on order now; will post pics when it comes in. It looks very library-ish -- dark brown tufted leather.
But Thursday we took Kevin's parents and went antiquing, and after wandering all over the city, finding all sorts of tables that didn't work (too big, too small, too expensive, too battered and falling apart, too fancy, too basic), we finally came back to Oak Park, stopped at Divine Consign because we had twenty minutes to kill before picking up Kavya from summer camp up the street, and found this beauty for a very reasonable $160. SCORE!
Yes, it has a little water ring, which I will see if I can figure out a way to remove; Ann suggested toothpaste. Must research. But if it doesn't go away, I'm okay with that -- I will try to be wabi sabi about it, and take it as evidence that this table has been loved. And it's got a bit of a wobble, but Kevin thinks that can be fixed with some glue. But look at those adorable claw feet!
Mostly, it's the perfect size for the space -- that was more important than anything, and something I had started to despair of finding. We can leave it as it is most of the time, and open it up to its full-size for bigger games. One more piece of furniture, done. Now I just need to find some chairs for it. (I've borrowed my desk chair for the moment, but eventually, I will need to sit at my desk again.)
