Dining table and chairs - are they for eating or meeting?

Who doesn’t love a good meal? Eating fine food, drinking superbly complementary drinks, relaxed ambience, stimulating conversation, friendships forged, family memories secured. It all adds up to a good time.

But there’s a real easy way to spoil such a setting – go cheap and nasty on the dining table and chairs. Whilst the meal might be outstanding if you can only handle 30 minutes on the dining room chairs then the occasion will be memorable for all the wrong reasons.

Now you don’t have to spend a small fortune on a dining table set but you should endeavor to avoid one of those cheap dining sets that will give you nightmares rather than sweet memories. Sometimes you just have to be creative to achieve your ends.

Once when we were strapped for cash we bought a cheaper but solid table and splashed out on high quality oak dining chairs. We always kept a nice looking table cloth on the table but those oak chairs were the winner. Classy and stylish but more importantly very comfortable. So when we had meals with our family and friends we could enjoy a leisurely meal together.

I think this is really important because your dining table set should serve you, not the other way around. I think a dining table set is for far more than just eating meals. I mean a plank of wood with a old log would serve that singular minded purpose. No, I think meals are designed for meeting not just eating. The meeting of minds, the meetings of family, the meeting of friends. Comfortable dining room chairs combined with a decent table provided that meeting place where memories are forged and friendships are created.

I can’t begin to recall the huge number of meals we’ve had around our various dining tables and chairs where we have strengthened our family’s bond with laughter, tales tall and true, problem solving, holiday planning and so much more. Some people like to eat all their meals in front of what my dad used to call the ‘idiot box’! Nothing wrong with that for a change but what a shame when every family meal is passed without interaction and questions and care.

I firmly believe that dining tables are not just for eating but for meeting.