Well, let me just say 2014 is already shaping up to be an awesome year! And that’s because last week, on January 1st, Josh and I purchased our very first real dining table!
I say “real” because, our previous table was a folding card table that my mom purchased for us when we moved into our very first apartment… in 2009. Yes, we’ve eaten dinner at a table with collapsible legs for basically five years! Don’t get me wrong, back then we were psyched just to have something to eat off besides the floor or TV trays, but still, that table’s days have been numbered for a loooooong time.
So anyways, let me introduce our newest family member furniture purchase.
Ahh! Isn’t it friggin’ gorgeous! Seriously, I can’t walk by it without swooning. We ended up going with the Parker Mid-Century Round Table from West Elm and I am so in love! I had seen it online beforehand and knew it would be wonderful, but Josh is much more of a “gotta see it in person” type of guy so we traveled to our local West Elm on New Year’s day to check it out.
We probably spent a solid two hours in-store looking at different options before deciding for sure on this one. That’s definitely something about us. It takes us forever to make big purchase decisions. Especially in stores. Being broke college students for so long has taken it’s toll and we have a hard time actually letting go of the money and making the purchase. But, the long decision-making time always pays off in the end. We really think through all the options and when we decide on a purchase, we’re left with nothing but certainty! 
You probably also want to know about the chairs, right? Because they are new too! I really really wanted something upholstered; something softer I could sit on first thing in the morning. BUT, we also kind of loved how our old chairs (these from Target) paired up with our mid-century table. Well, I was on the look out for chairs when I went to Target for a few essentials and stumbled upon these babies. They were both modern and upholstered!!! Win win! At $35.00 a pop, they’re pretty cheap for dining chairs and the metal frame is actually sturdier than our previous ones. I decided on two blue and two gray to keep it funky-fresh (or just fresh) and the whole thing just makes me giddy. In case you were wondering, they are from the Room Essentials line, but I couldn’t find them on the Target website. (They were sort of with the ‘rotating home decor’ stuff. If you’re a Target groupie, you totally know what I’m talking about!)
So, while I have my focus on something other than the sexiest table in existence, let’s run the numbers, shall we?
- Our table rang in at about $540.00 with tax and everything. We took it home from the store and assembled it on our own: no delivery charge.
- Four new upholstered chairs from Target came out to about $150. Again, we took them straight from the store to our apartment, so no additional charges.
- Total was about $690.00
Yes, I mean $690.00 is definitely not a small chunk of change, but we’ve been planning on upgrading our dining table FOR YEARS so it we knew it was coming. Plus, we intentionally bought everything with the intention of keeping them for a long time. As full-blown adults, it’s time to stop buying stuff that’s not made to last.
And, with the new table and everything, I’ve also been planning a little dining room revamp to make the rest of the space live up to the awesome-ness of the new furniture. Here is what’s currently floating around in my head for potential projects:
- Take down brown floating shelves and repair wall
- Get rid of most stemware (We never use it!)
- Buy longer shelves to store plates, glasses, liquor, bar ware, etc? Floating or not?
- Get watercolor art framed
- Create a small collection of frames on long wall
- Sew some new custom napkins
- Get 2 more place mats
- Get rid of counter extension bar cart?
I’m still totally in love with our embroidery hoop mobiles, so those are staying, but I do really want to add some color variety in here. We tend to naturally gravitate to that pool blue (see the two new chairs, napkins, art, mobiles). I want to create more of that “mis-matched but totally cohesive” vibe.
I know it’s only the 9th, but how’s your 2014 shaping up so far? Any new furniture purchases or room revamps on the horizon? Share below!