Sunday, January 8, 2012

Dining room daydreams

As you may have noted in my New Year's post, our dining room situation right now is a little bit lame. We've been on the hunt for a big, chunky farmhouse style table (in fact I've been pinning images of them on my Pinterest page... well, ever since I joined Pinterest), but we haven't found the exact right thing just yet. Or maybe we have, but we just haven't met it in person - behold this beauty:


This image is from a company called Woodland Creek Furniture, which is located up in northern Michigan. This particular table is made from reclaimed barn wood from right here in the state - and you know we have a little bit of a thing for reclaimed barn wood. OK, more than a little bit of a thing - more like a full-blown obsession with its eco-fabulousness and charmingly perfect imperfection.

So I'm sitting here in the living room, staring into the mostly empty dining room, and occasionally holding my computer up and squinting to try to imagine this table in there. Of course this turned into a full-blown chair search, because I have lots of work to do and this is what I do instead. I'd like to get a long bench that matches the table for the side closer to the kitchen, to keep everything feeling open and tied together (instead of having the backs of chairs facing the rest of the main living area). We currently have a couple of ladder back chairs, but I am thinking of ditching them in favor of upholstered parsons chairs instead.


I like the soft tonal stripes on these chairs, and I think they'd play well with the wall color in the dining room (Silver Fox), but Brandon said they reminded him of a circus tent (most boring circus ever?!). We kept looking and turned up these:

(both chair images from www.overstock.com)

I love the bold pattern on these, and the dark brown would match a lot of elements in the house (ceiling beams, counter) - but I wonder if they would be too crazy? The more I stare at them the more I love them, actually. What do you think, oh wise internet friends?

9 comments:

  1. Love the bold patterned chairs. The stripes scream formal dining to me but the rest, reclaimed barn wood awesomeness and bench, does not.

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  2. i agree. and it is important that brandon likes the pattern of the chairs, since he will probably be staring at them a lot...FROM THE BENCH.
    :)
    how many chairs would you get? any at the head/foot of the table?

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  3. I like the look of the striped ones the best. The tone on tone stripes are really nice and not wide like a circus tent at all. Honestly though I would just go with a brown leather. The solid color would work well with the barn wood table and be much easier to clean than fabric.

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  4. I like the bold pattern better and I also think it's going to hide dog associated stains better than the very light striped pattern. :-)
    Famke

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  5. AND we're so going to have to do a road-trip up to Traverse City to check these out in person. Gorgeous table!

    Also, I really like the fabric on your second option of chairs. I think the dark and white fabric is the way to go with all of the other color you have in the house.

    Have you see this pin? http://pinterest.com/pin/46513808621157872/

    I love the mixed painted chairs (and metal). Could totally see that working for you too, but with different colors.

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  6. Diana - we'll want five, which is an odd number in both ways. :-) One at either end of the table, and three along the wall side.

    Kit - I loooove that pin! I've pinned another mismatched-chairs one: http://pinterest.com/pin/71846556524878257/ but yours is way more fun... Now I am back to undecided (as well as between the barn wood table and the slab table). Hrmmmmm.... Oh, and totally irrelevant, but this made me think of your cool drawer unit: http://pinterest.com/pin/71846556524907326/ You should just build this instead!!

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  7. What about nice upholstered chairs at each end with wood or painted along the side and for the bench? Ana White has some basic build your own chunky farmstyle tables you might want to check out (anawhite.com) if that's an option! Maybe find a couple of used upholstered chairs and then take a visit to a fabric store to customize to your home. You've done a great job and I love stopping by to see your progress!

    Ciao!

    Guerrina in CT

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  8. I actually love the bold print of those chairs! I say go for it!

    First time visiting! And I love your blog! :)

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  9. Guerrina - I looove Ana White's farmhouse table plan. That is definitely something we're considering! Thanks so much for your kind words and for stopping by to read. :-)

    Ashley - thanks for the encouragement! Seems like there is a lot of support for the "go bold" route, haha! Just checked out your blog too - good luck with the house hunt, so exciting!

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