Our kitchen is quite small. Three people fit into it nicely, but if there are more people, then we start to bump into each other. When we have five or six people, we need to start decking covers in the living room and have a few eat there.
Most of our furniture comes from Mark’s parents. When they moved to Wiltshire, and gave us the keys to the house to live in it, they left quite a few items. The bed upstairs, the stuff in the bathroom, the things downstairs. And the kitchen table.
We only brought in a few things. A hideous sofa that we’ve thankfully sent to the place where ugly sofas go when they die. It was a brown monstrosity with a tartan pattern. We also put in a couple of desks in the ‘office’ upstairs. I say ‘office’, but it’s actually Mark’s old bedroom.
There’s a wardrobe in there that’s full of old things and mementos from that time. Board games, abandoned chemistry sets, old books, and a drawer full of old drawings and notes and school assignments.
There’s also a poster glued to the inside of the door. It’s cute that it’s a footballer, Darren Ambrose, from the 2010s. Ambrose played for Mark’s team Crystal Palace that year. It’s something I can tease him with. “When you put that up, you didn’t know you’d end up with someone without any muscles, did you?” I can just imagine the 14-year old Mark putting it up.
Anyway, our kitchen table is one of those that you can fold down. The surface is a circle, and by folding in a leg into the structure, about half of the table can be folded down. The half-table is enough to seat two people in the mornings. If we need more, we just extend it again. However, the table is worse for wear now. It’s nearly as old as Mark is, and we’ve long thought it was time to replace it.
That’s easier said than done, with the quite different sense of style that Mark and I have. Yesterday, I leafed through in Ikea catalog, and showed him pictures of tables that I want. My favourite is the one I’ve set as a featured image for this post. Mark’s favourite is the one I’ve included here in the text. His taste is much more Edwardian than mine is.
So, if we do make the actual decision to get another kitchen table for when we move back with Auntie, I can see us getting into another sofa-fight. Who shall win this time?
Who should win?
I definitely think you should win this one! Not only because I follow and read your blog but because that glass table is beautiful! Sorry Mark…
It IS beautiful. ❤
No offence but glass, whilst beautiful, shows every fingerprint and crumb. Keeping that pretty glass table looking pretty will become a chore very quickly. Worse, looking at it when it’s less than its sparkly best will drive you crazy. That said, the matt black table will show every speck of dirt as well so on that score you both lose. 😦 The easiest table to live with is something made out of wood because the grain looks good even if the surface isn’t polished to a high shine. Just my two cents worth. Oh and good luck. 😀
True! I have a glass table and what you have described is exactly what happens…and I get annoyed when it’s dusty! Mind you I’m probably going to check on it right now
That is what hid in our living room for years. I will take only beautiful things after that ordeal. Well, unless Mark complains. Sigh, why can’t he just do what I tell him? 😀
ROFL – okay, that /thing/ is hideous in anyone’s language. 😀 As for Mark…that’s love for ya. 🙂
You can’t beat wood. Good quality stuff though.
Ikea should be burned to the ground….
Why don’t you consider a weekend in the salerooms?
You can likely find something that’s sympathetic to your lifestyle and comfortable to use.
Paint it, Oil it, stain it… do what you want with it…
Modernistic? Contemporary? Utilitarian? … That’s all crap of the worst sort.
Sorry mister… stainless steel and glass makes me shudder.
You’re a human Colin. Not one of your infinite space clones.
Stainless steel and glass is where they dissect zombies I think….
My sofa / 3 piece suite is 51 years old. My Mum bought it when I was ten. Her pride and joy – now mine. Sanderson fabric covers… brilliant and much remarked on when I have visitors.
I have a rosewood dining table. It was the very first thing I bought my Mum after I started earning. It’s 40 years old now and just starting it’s working life.
I have a pile of Ercol all about 35 years old.
The thing is about furniture – and it’s how stately homes survive. Buy the very best you can get your hands on. Then you never buy the same article again in your lifetime. Items of obvious excellent design and quality are passed down the generations. Surely that’s a ‘no brainer’ in organising your life? Obvious financial efficiency that gives you a superior lifestyle.