Dining Table and Chairs for family

[Deleted User]

For those of you who don't know me, there is me, OH and our children 3 & 2. The youngest is in a booster seat as she isn't comfortably tall enough without, but can manage for the occasional meal.

We are in the process of planning an extension and realised we may have some spare cash as its coming in under budget (makes a change we know). We could really do with a new dining table/chairs as ours is looking tatty and i'm fed up of wiping blue paint off walls and surrounding areas that comes off the chairs when they rub against. Plus it doesns't really fit with out current decor, we've just made do.

What sparked this sudden desire to look was OH was in homebase researching showers and I spied this lovely dining table and just commented on it. All of a sudden its now become a possibility. We have looked through the argos and tesco catalogue this evening and we both like similar things, however we are unsure for our family of young children whether there is any benefit to be had on the style of chair.

Currently we have plain hard wooden chairs, but now the choices seem to lend themselves to something like

http://direct.tesco.com/q/R.209-8419.aspx

or

http://direct.tesco.com/product/images/?R=901-6856

Examples only and we would go cheaper, but we are unsure of which style to go for and what would suit our growing family.

Does anyone have any preferences and reasons why, thanks.

BallandChain

I would go for the first option and this is because I have something similar (wooden table and chairs). lol, sounds biased but if you have young children you don't want leather that can get ripped. If your chairs are fabric then you can always recover them if they get torn, put cushions on the seats with ties round the back of chairs. Plus the leather seats are leather all over so one rip means you replace the whole seat cover. I must admit I have already managed to scratch my chairs because I haven't put cushion pads on them, but it's no biggie as they can be sanded down.

ETA: Leather can be very uncomfortable to sit on in hot weather. You end up sticking to it!

[Deleted User]

Thank you, that is exactly the type of practical opinion we were looking for, pointing out the pro's and con's. We like both styles but its hard to imagine the pitfalls of either unless you've actually got them.

Mupette

the York on is considerably cheaper than the leather ones.

and easier to look after which small ones

Becles

I used to have a table and chair set with light green seat pads and they ended up a right mess with gravy handprints, ketchup splats and all sorts of weird and wonderful stains on them.

When we bought a new set, I got faux leather seat pads on the dining chairs. They're fantastic as any spills and dribbles wipe straight off and they look good as new!

I also bought an oil cloth from ebay rather than use a table cloth for every day meals. It's not as nice as a fabric cloth but again any spills just wipe off and it saves time repeatidly washing and ironing tableclothes Still have fabric tablecloths for when visitors come round to eat.

[Deleted User]

It is considerably cheaper, but those aren't the actual sets we will buy just using them to illustrate the type of chairs. We don't actually have a list of possibles yet.

kittendothroar

No children yet so can't comment on that side of things but agree with the op about leather (and that style of fabric) our friends have a big dining table with heavy covered chairs and they are a pain to tuck under you or get comfortable on so would personally avoid!

We have a 'butterfly' beech wooden set that folds down, and the chairs tuck in, which is perfect as we don't use very often, wouldn't think practical for little ones though as folding charis.. however the bonus is as not covered we just change the seat cushions as we want, as they do get marked/ dirty etc. We have a heatproof mat on it, and a wipedown cover that was bought cheaply locally.

Ebay is worth a look as tends to have a lot on there, am looking to replace our set since we moved into a bigger property and lots of bargains on there!

LilacPixie

A dining table isn't something you replace often so I would go for quality and sturdyness over looks. We don't have a dining room so just have a pine butterfly thing to teh rear of our livingroom. My parents do and the table is older than me. Its solid oak and they just aquire new chairs every 10 years or so. Currently the chairs are similar to the york set, all wood with a rennie mackintosh type design on the back. They are alot more comfortable than the fabric and leather seats of the past. Sticking to leather in hot weather with bare legs is very true and it stings when a child.

Look in some local antique type shops or even an auction room. A nice solid table is an investment and really no more expensive than the usual ikea/argos flat pack stuff.

Alikay

Ours is very much like the first one, but a 6-seater set from Homebase

http://www.homebase.co.uk/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ProductDisplay?langId=-1&storeId=20001&partNumber=5942242&c_3=3|cat_14418090|6+seat+dining+suites|21174280&c_2=2|cat_16849245|Dining+furniture|14418090&c_1=1|category_root|Furniture+and+Homewares|16849245

We've had it 4 years now and it still looks good. Because we've got a 3 and 4 year old I keep it covered with one of those PVC'd cotton tablecloths because it's just a thin foil-type veneer and would probably mark easily....hardly a hassle though! Our chairs are covered in black leather-look vinyl which just wipes clean - good job considering how much gunge I harvest from under the booster seats every couple of days!

VK-2008

argos do great tables we just got a 4 seater for 120 quid and got a ten quid gift voucher due to a promotion they were doing
if you are going to be having more kids/entertaining then a good idea is the extendable tables so you make them larger when more people come. great idea. and for storage buy stackable chairs! brilliant

other place to try is ikea best to go a nosey and very reasonablly priced

Lynn11

We have a extended table bought from Ikea and 4 chairs which are similar to version 1 of your pictures but we can take off the covers and wash these - needed for out toddlers. I would love a new table and chairs as we have recently moved house but do not see the point at the moment until daughter is grown up and we no disasters - its fine for mealtimes and painting/drawing times etc.