What size table? | Imamother

amother

OP ↓

Sun, May 19 2024, 12:44 pm

Been in the market for a new dining room table for years.
In the name of doing more practical research - how do you decide what size you need?
Our immediate family is 6 people and we often have guests. Sometimes we have 4 guests and sometimes we have 8 guests. Yom tov or if we host a shuir it's more like 15+.
My room is not massive and we do not have a kitchen table. Having a huge table on a regular basis seems ridiculous.
Of course we'll do a table with leaves but I'm unsure about how big our base should be and how much should it extend to. It seems that there are limits to how many leaves you can add.
I don't want to do custom, that's way beyond my budget.

amother

IndianRed

Sun, May 19 2024, 1:00 pm

Do you own your home or are you in a rental?

From what I'm seeing, people who are buying homes and furnishing them are getting the longest table their space can accommodate. It's more practical this way -- leaves are a pain and so is getting multiple tablecloths.

My personal preference is more like yours though. We're a family of four and got a 10 foot table that seats 10-12 without the leaves and it feels massive when it's just us. We end up eating in the dinette a lot which is a shame

amother

↑ OP ↓

Sun, May 19 2024, 1:07 pm

amother IndianRed wrote:

We own our home BH. I also noticed these huge tables recently. It would just feel too big on a regular basis. Weeks that we don't have guests or at supper time. I also don't have that kind of room unless I want my whole room to be table. When necessary we use folding tables and extend into the living room area (it's really one room but ya). Having leaves would enable us to extend when necessary. That was my thought.
I just don't know what sizes make sense.

zaq

Sun, May 19 2024, 2:02 pm

Buy a table that extends to fit your most usual number of diners, unless you can find one of those amazing tables that fold up small and extend very big. I don't believe such tables are made anymore but you may find one in a good used furniture shop. ("Antiques store" is so pretentious.) For larger crowds, add a folding table.

amother

↑ OP

Sun, May 19 2024, 3:04 pm

zaq wrote:

Our family is 6.
If we invite another family we'd be 12-15.
Some families are bigger but you're saying buy for the 12-15 size.
What size is that ?

My current table is in excellent condition it's just annoying to use folding tables all the time. I want to avoid that.