Our DD is home for a week or so between semesters at grad school. I've been trying to decorate our dining room table a bit more, to make our dinners even more special.

My DD's book club just finished our final meeting with this cute craft, bookends. Here is my kitchen table right now as they dry and the group swims...

August or not, the table is pretty much the same. I mean when nobody eats at the moment. Flowers change, obviously..

Rather than show our big dining room table again, I chose this favorite little iron and slate side table, which sits next to one of my favorite reading chairs.

I've been meaning to replace a small side table which sits between 2 chairs in the corner of my living room. It's my favorite place to sit in the afternoon to read if the weather isn't cooperating outside. I finally found this small round marble table, which is the perfect size and goes nicely with my other pieces.

It came on Saturday. This is what I got.

The marble top is in about 10 pieces. They are sending me a replacement.

Pretty table, and so sad you have to wait for another.

How about tables we don't like? This is DH's coffee table in his den. I try to tell him "less is more" but obviously he doesn't understand that concept....lol/sigh.

This is an old walnut table that I bought 9 years ago via Craigslist. The finish was black and bubbly - legs shown as purchased - when I bought it, but I knew with some elbow grease that I could make it look good.

I worked on it outside for days and this is the end result. That is a hidden drawer in front, and the last pic shows why I liked it - the little 'acorns' hanging from each corner. It's been an end table in my living room since I cleaned it up!

A drop leaf table given to me by a friend. It's in the kitchen and has antique Chinese porcelain, a 19th century German pug and a Limoges plate on the bottom tier.

Wonderful tables!

czarinalex - What a disappointment it must've been to open that box! I hope the replacement arrives soon and is in perfect condition.

Wow, love the unique tables! Also, roarah, I would love to see those bookends up close--amazing craft!

I have a bunch of different tables... a couple small eBay finds from European pickers and I also have a round oak one that was a Craigslist find. But I guess I will share this one. I was looking for a large trestle or refectory table, but everything was too expensive. Finally, I found this one on eBay(this is the seller's listing photo.)

It was delivered in pieces and the condition was even worse than I thought.

But our carpenter was able to refinish it and also make a matching bench so that I could seat 8. (It only came with 6 original chairs.) Finally, we had the chairs reupholstered. Our total cost was approximately half to even a quarter of what we had been pricing for new. Here is the final product. It's a little more Jacobean than I originally wanted but we are enjoying it.

We eat in the sunroom during the summer months here:

In the winter we like to pull a table up to the FP in the LR:

We have 4 dining tables and dining is a big event in this house! We like to cook and to have friends and family over for dinner. This table serves as a library table at the back of the LR, with leaves out and legs down. It's versatile because it can seat a crowd by adding leaves to the middle and flipping the drop leaves up. Love my CL find! It took a lot of time and patience to find one that was sturdy.

My table is not so thrilling in the house:

But I love the outside table:

Sulu, that is a gorgeous table. Your carpenter did a wonderful job. I think the style lends a lot of interest to your space. Not knowing what the rest looks like of course.

This is A Tale of Two Tables. After my grandparents passed away, my mom gave me a little of the inheritance money and told me to buy something special to remember my grandparents by. My DH and I drove to Shipshewana, IN (Amish country) and found this table. It's a little hard to see here but right now the sun won't cooperate and I can't get a decent picture.

We already had the maple China cabinet, so we took along a drawer and they used maple wood & matched the stain. The edge of the table in their showroom had the top edge thicker on top and gradually thinner on the bottom and we had them flip it so the top edge is thinner to give it a lighter look. We wanted it to seat many people so it has 13 leaves and seats 20. We've never pulled it all the way out: it was bigger than our old dining room. We can pull it out in our new house but just haven't yet.

Table #2: when we ordered the table, we saw a sofa table in the same design. We needed one for that same room but we needed a custom size because most are too long for our space. Again, we made a few modifications and here it is, living in a different location in the new house. Please excuse the trashed lamp. I will be shopping for all new lamps in the coming months.

The before and after DD#2's new end table, I refinished for her. She comes Labor day to pick it up.

Wow - I love them all! This one isn't an antique, but one of the first pieces of furniture my husband and I purchased in the early years of our marriage. I wanted a very traditional Americana/Williamsburg look in the house. 25 years later, I wasn't so into that "look" so the table went to live with our college-aged son for a while. I guess it's come full circle and is now in the guest bedroom and is just perfect.

Mom2sulu, your Jacobean stain is the perfect contrast to your stunning white kitchen!

The bookends were dollar store items turned to fun. I bought two clear stand up dollar store picture frames, one plastic safari animal, one clip blue bird, and stickers per girl. Than I fringe cut grass out of green paper, yellow Suns, blue lakes and white clouds. We sawed the animals in half and used a hot glue gun to attach a front and back to two picture frames, Elmer glued the paper jungle pieces , stuck safari stickers and clip parrot birds on. Here is a blown up picture.

Those are so cute roarah! I'm going to pass your idea along to some of my teacher friends.

This was my very first coffee table as a child of the 1950's. I think it will also be my last coffee table.

Here's mine........

It's where I write - well, try to, lol - and do other creative stuff ;)

Roarah, I just love the finish on your table. Did it come that way or did you refinish it?

This is the coffee table my parents bought circa 1949. I'm the original non-fan of MCM. Maybe it's because I grew up with it, except it wasn't called that then. It was just "modern." My parents bought something newer and hauled this one over to our house in 1981. It had some awful dark brown stain that had turned opaque and looked like paint. I refinished it and didn't stain the wood. It was much lighter in 1981 but it's gotten this color over the years. It serves as a dining table, crafts table, and foot stool. It has some scratches and a few dents but the 36 year old top coat has done its job. While it is technically not my style, I love this table and will probably never part with it.

I swear, I did not pose Zephyr to be in this shot.

raphaella that light is mind blowing

i love this thread , i think wood is my favorite material ever (followed by ceramics). it's just alive..all these tables they are so alive and different and full of character..no wonder tables and chairs dance so much in different children's poems and fairy tales:)

like iron and glass and marble too. marble and limestone. ah, and onyx

ok was supposed to be a really short list lol

Love the table, Linelle. I'll continue the MCM theme. I bought this Heywood Wakefield set off eBay.

Typical Christmas table set up.

Linelle, it is ironically one of the only pieces I never refinished :) it came with that stain. I live your finish!

Such beautiful tables!

Linelle, I think I'm the 2nd non fan of MCM. I think it has a lot to do with age. It just reminds me of my uncle and his roommate who thought they were so cool during my childhood. LOL. When I first started looking at Houzz I was so amazed that it was popular.

Roarah, I might just steal that idea as well. Just curious, how old were the kids involved? I'm wondering how young I could go with these.

Use away, I saw similar ones on Pinterest years ago. The kids were ages 13 to 8. Older kids helped cut the plastic animals in half and used the glue guns the 10 and under decorated and helped cut extra grass, clouds, Suns and moons out. If you pre cut and glued the animals kids as young as three can glue the paper grasses, sticker, etc or the could paint the frames too. I used a small jigsaw to cut the animals.

I love my little table in my screen porch at this time of year:

The vase, I painted on a family trip to Mexico when I was about 10.

This little doggy table is my favorite table of all the tables I have (this is the picture from Etsy)

Here it is in my FL house- it is hard to get a good picture of it because of its location and the room size)

My dining room table set for a luncheon last week

It's a 40s mahogany Duncan Phyfe table, sideboard and mahogany chairs. We bought it "used" when we moved to this house 30 years ago.

Anniecat, we have similar side tables:

My brother had two of these, and we use them in our living room as side tables. The pull is not shown in the photo, as we were having them replated at the time of this photo. Each table as the same "X" in each corner as your table!

Here's our outdoor dining table:

Since this photo we have replaced the iron chairs with teak ones, to match the table. For me, the teak chairs are comfortable without cushions, which is a bit plus.

Quarter sawn oak corner table. Survived kitten demolition derby.

Love all the tables. These are Pottery Barn - one from the outlet ant the other from eBay. It was a white knuckle few months trying to find the second one. The frog is another one of my collection.

This fold-over game table travels the house. My mom bought it at an auction and years later the bottom section split in half (and still is). After the wood split, an old friend of my parents made them another one using a different species, which she still has. It came home with me when she was trying to de-clutter.

Mine. Very simple, seats four. From Overstock and I put it together myself! The chairs are from Ashely. All are pub height.

Lars, yes! I have the end table, too, but the pull is not original, which is sad. They are the tables my parents used their whole lives; certainly a different mindset compared to today.

anniecat and Lars, I have the other end table. Also from my parents' house, with the original pull. I use it as a bedside table in the guest room.

Thanks, roarah, for the kind words(Outside Playing-you too! ;) and also the detailed pics on those bookends! Those are amazing! I will have to pass along your idea.

Additionally, I just have to just piggyback on what april said--loving the wood in these houses. There is a thread on the kitchen forum right now where someone wants a quartz kitchen table top and the comments are reflecting on the hardness/coldness of the idea. There is nothing better than wood, I think we all say! Look at the beautiful pieces here. Lovely!

Our coffee table, hand made with slate tile left over from the kitchen floor of our former home.

I haven't had time to ensure I'm clicking the "like" button on every photo, but am definitely enjoying them all! We have a variety of styles/tastes expressed in these threads, but one thing they all have in common is that they've been executed beautifully! It's fun to get a little taste of how people really live in their homes. It is quite clear that we are all proud of our homes and have done a good deal to make them our very own.

Oh my, I have a weakness for tables. Drooling just reading through everyone's post, lovely pictures. I have many I love in my house, each with its own story.

This one was the victim of a church fire. Took it home and worked on it for months, stripped and re stained. Decided to let the burn spot stay, they tell such a story. Its on my back porch and gets used daily.

This was a table that held voting machines in an old County Election station. It has seen multiple crab feasts, bookclub discussions, heated debates, homework hours, killer card games, sewing sessions and groaning family dinners....... served my family well.

And finally, I pulled this table out of the dumpster. Probably from someones work shop.

It took a ton of work but it's a great console table.

April, thanks for your appreciation of the light fitting!! It was obviously meant to be - about five years ago when living in our last house (Wiltshire, England) we saw three of these lights - varying sizes - in a flower shop in the nearest town. DH and I both fell in love even though it was a bit contemporary for our tastes, lol! The lights weren't for sale but were fixtures in the shop. We asked where they'd been sourced but no-one seemed to know. A few months later DH was trawling a car boot sale (weird English Sunday pastime, ha ha!) and spotted *our* light across a field full of cars. It was acquired for the princely sum of £15 :)

sistersunnie,

I LOVE your tables...such history to them and beautiful too!

I love little tables and antique tables...hubby's grandparents table

it serves as my nativity table at Cristmas.

Another family heirloom for my hubby's grandpatents

it also has a secret drawer.

this is a table we made for the living room corner...I wanted a little

light in the corner.

this is a close up of the little table.

This little accent table with a brass insert was my Dads table.

I also have a coffee table we made for our living room. I have to take a pic first.

coffee table in living room...

its big and its high. That's what I wanted. oops...sorry for the double post.

I am loving the pictures of your tables. If I were younger and computer savvy, I could show you photos of our handmade tables....but alas.....

It has been so much fun seeing everyone's favorite spaces....Cliff and Joann it was lovely to see your beautiful home once again!! IdaClaire...thank you for a GREAT post!! I love your table and chuckled to see that we have "matching" candleholders :^)

Blessings,

J

Thanks jay bird.

I love tables and love making them too...

...this is our bedroom end tables...we made two of them and the finish

matched our old bedroom set perfectly. The Chippendale pulls I got at a yard sale..

They were waiting for me so that we could make the end tables. :)

kitchen table...the wrought iron base was hubby's grandfathers

table...we made the walnut table top, and the two small lyre

back storage chairs... ( the seats pick up and there is storage space)

Not a fan of fancy or fussy centerpieces or linens (for me personally)...this is my dining table's every-day look.

Granite kitchen table