Table upgrade

Next week, Hans' parents will join us for Thanksgiving dinner. Knowing that I'm cooking anyway and that we have several friends sticking around Austin for work and otherwise, I've been tossing out invites to dinner to anyone who needs them.

Then Hans pointed out that our dining room table seats six. Oops. Hadn't thought of that. A dining room table has been on our "house updates" list for a while, but kind of a low priority (behind dishwasher, oven, and bed frame). We decided we'd look around and if we could find one for a decent price, we'd go ahead and do that now. Otherwise, we'd just stick some cheap-o card tables on the end (and make Paul and Andrew sit on them :)).

So the search began. We hit the usual suspects and narrowed it down to a few for consideration:

The Cheap Option: Ikea's Stornas table. Seats 6 but can seat up to 10 with two extendable leaves. At $449, the price is alright, but the light color seems too light and the dark color seems too dark and it's kinda boring and basic looking.

The Dream Table: The Benchwright dining table from Pottery Barn. We love everything about it, except the  $1,699 price tag.

The Middle of the Road Option: Crate and Barrel's Basque table.  I wasn't impressed when I saw pics on the website, but in the store I really loved it. The color's darker than I expected, and very rich. The table is solid, but classic feeling. And for a 104" table that seats 12 comfortably (it's really wide!), $999 isn't too shabby. Our only concern was that how often would we need to seat 10-12? And would we want this hulking thing in our dining room at all times? An extending table seemed like the better fit.

As we tried to make our decision, something kinda crazy happened. We walked into Pottery Barn to drool over the Benchwright, and found a table styled called Montego that has been discontinued and was heavily discounted - more than 50% off. It was a little darker than we had planned on, and maybe a little more formal, but it felt solid and sturdy and had a gorgeous shine to it. And the price was great. It seats six normally, but with two leaves can easily fit 10.

We took a couple days to think about it, even trekking down to the PB outlet to see if they had it and cheaper. They had it, but it cost more than at the actual store - go figure. And it was all scratched and dented and chipped and stuff. Doesn't make sense, but there ya go.

When we finally went back to Pottery Barn, determined to buy the table, we discovered they only had three left - two espresso finishes (too dark!) and only one of the mahogany that we fell in love with.... but they had just put it out as a floor model. So they offered to sell us the floor model... for an additional 20% off. Um, deal.

We packed it up and carted it home in my little Rav4 (It's amazing how much that thing can hold, really). And here she is!

Old table

New table!

We haven't figured out what we want to do about chairs yet. I wasn't thrilled with the Montego style chairs. I suspect we'll find some at the PB outlet we like eventually. Maybe sooner than later, because the old chairs definitely clash with the new table. But we ended up getting this almost-perfect (except for one tiny scratch) Pottery Barn table for about $200 more than the cheap-y Ikea one. Done, and done.

Now time to cook.