Once again, the old adage about living with a space for a while is proving itself true. After yet another dinner gathering that never left the table (we just get happy, with tea or wine and dessert...and no one wants to relocate) I realize that I really don't need more than my loveseat for myself in the living room - but the table set-up needs to be as comfortable as possible.

It is such a tiny place that I currently have it set up so the living room takes 2/3 of the common space, and the dining area the remaining 1/3. But I am in school, and I end up at the table to do homework most nights; and then, to accommodate more than one other person for a meal, I shift things around to share the space more equitably. It works okay, but the living room just isn't getting used.

With a budget even smaller than my cabin, I would love to use as much of what I have as possible. Any ideas about the viability of using living room chairs (my oft-covered slipper chairs are very comfortable and much loved) in lieu of dining chairs? I could put the sofa/loveseat against the wall and let the chairs and a pedestal table use the whole space. And if we wanted to use it as a living room, we could still use the slipper chairs to face the loveseat on rare occasion.

Has anyone used living room furniture this way? I have found replacement legs that could make the chairs tall enough for a regular table. And they are so easy to cover, changing the appearance is not a problem.

Or, if anyone has other ideas about how to make a mulitpurpose dining set up that might work in this situation, I would love to hear it! The more offbeat ideas, the better. This is a funky house, so funky solutions can work in here more than might be possible in more "normal" homes.

(including a couple pictures of the chairs - no spot in the house has a reasonable line of sight that allows me to really show the space properly, unfortunately!)