We pull in our four kitchen chairs..

But, while I don’t have folding chairs, there are many high quality folding chairs. Hopefully someone will have a trued and true for you.

We have 6 dining room chairs. We have 2 kitchen chairs (only 2, because we have a built-in window seat). So my first add is the two kitchen chairs, which I put at the heads of the table for symmetry. If I need two more, I grab two chairs that are stored in the basement. These are dining chairs leftover from our old house, which my dad then used as kitchen chairs in his apt., and when he died last year I took them back. They are a different fabric but similar style to my regular chairs.

After that, it’s a free for all. Our table doesn’t have an extension, so I will add a folding table to the end of the dining table, and start adding folding chairs (I have several decent folding chairs made of wood, and I have no idea where I got them but they have lasted forever). Fortunately, I rarely have to feed that many people. We go elsewhere for Thanksgiving, and Christmas is mostly immediate family.

Too bad I don't have a kitchen table! Just the one dining table and then stools around the kitchen island.

I was looking at some folding chairs online, including some wood ones, but I'm not really sure what to look for. There are some metal ones that look compact, but seem like they'd be pretty uncomfortable.

My breakfast room chairs (barley twist) are very narrow, so I add them between the upholstered dining room chairs. My neighbor has a huge family. She borrows my barley twist chairs whenever she is having a big family meal because the chairs are so narrow. The seat is upholstered, so they aren’t uncomfortable IMHO.

I also have 4 of these bamboo folding chairs. DH absolutely hated those chairs. I’m not quite sure why. We had some strong words when he tried to put them on the back verandah. They are currently stored in the walk-in attic.

We use these. Solid and comfortable for folks that have to use them. Comfortable guests come before looks.

Costco usually has these marked down in between Halloween and Thanksgiving.

I have a couple in beige. Quite comfortable. (live link)

My dining room table is a hand me down. I acquired it when my SIL and her husband took out a wall and made a great room of the formal dining and kitchen. I love it, and I loved his mother who it had belonged to.

It will extend to seat 14. I have 8 of the original chairs, no one seems to know where the others went. I have 4 leather Parsons in my kitchen at the breakfast table and two tall backed wooden chairs in a corner in the living room. Other occasional chairs in my living room and office if needed, We have enough without bringing in any patio furniture but I could probably seat 10 more with that if it came to it 😊

We have 20+ of Ikea’s Frovsi folding chairs- or, version of this chair from 15 or 20 years ago? It’s a good chair that folds flat for storage. People borrow them all the time. I don’t think it’s the most comfortable chair, but it fits the bill for a large group.

We have a card table and four chairs much like the pic Spanish posted above. After that we start hunting every desk chair in the house. "Comfort" and "Looks good" at this point are really so secondary. We want everyone at the table is #1--once everyone is seated no one sees the chairs anyway.

Ohh I like Spanish’s chairs, they would look better in my room than my blonde-wood folding chairs.

I kept wondering to myself where I got my folding chairs, and remembered I bought them at Bed Bath & Beyond. Back in the olden days, when you could walk in a store and buy them! I think they were around $100 for four. I have definitely gotten my money’s worth! I have also used them outside when we need extra chairs on the patio.

I have 8 dining chairs and my mother has six, which I borrow as needed. The table seats 12, but more than once I’ve put a card table in the dining room and had four there and ten at the big table. I also have 4 French ladderback chairs at the table in our main living area and two easily moved Parson’s chairs and could use those as well. We also have four chairs that go with the card table (that are covered with white slips) that I can use.

In our old house we had two of the card tables and their eight chairs. I often had 24 for dinners by putting 10 in the dining room, 8 at the card tables in the living room and six in the kitchen. When we did that I called on my mother to sit with one group to hostess and DH and I split between the other two groups.

I have 10 dining room chairs and 6 kitchen chairs so I haven’t needed to use them at holiday meals, but I do have 8 wooden folding chairs. Theyre similar to these. I don”t remember where I got them. They’re easily 35 years old. If I needed to buy folding chairs today, I’d get the bamboo posted above. I think they”re more attractive.

https://www.lowes.com/pd/Winsome-Wood-Indoor-Beech-Wood-Slat-Standard-Folding-Chair/1000766680?user=shopping&feed=yes&srsltid=AfmBOoq9pBhps95ztMO4CNnnqr6XVx1H5LQxv3YkQcnXbpHsKf7RRfPYUwo

I like those chairs Spanish posted. Or the similar Costco chairs. We use card table folding chairs which have a padded seat and back. They are samsonite iirc. I think we have 6 because I bought a couple of extras at some point back when we had many people for TG. I like something on the more comfy side because we tend to sit at the table longer at meals, especially with family.

And I have done similar to kswl, having an actual card table or folding table in our adjoining foyer (it’s large) for the grandkids when they were smaller. Later the grands just liked to sit at the breakfast table together and I can fit 6 or so there.

I really appreciate all of these ideas. Initially I was looking at some of the wood with upholstered seats like Spanish has. But then I started wondering if I should consider something more compact from a storage perspective. I do like the bamboo, the beech, and the Ikea Frovsi from a storage perspective. They also seem more attractive than a metal or plastic folding chair. (Wirecutter recommended a plastic one.)

I have the wood ones like Spanish. They are very sturdy and take up very little room folded.

We have 6 chairs that came with the dining set. We also have a large attic, so there are wooden chairs that were used as dining chairs in the old house. We also have heavy-duty metal folding chairs that went with a card table from my in-laws so it probably dates back to the 60s. Keep in mind that size matters...I find the smaller chairs are easier to fit around the table than the full-size dining chairs that came with the set. So when I set up the table, I intersperse the folding/smaller chairs with the larger ones.

My dining room set has 8 chairs. We can pull in the four kitchen chairs. We also have six of these folding chairs from the ’60s that we used to borrow from my parents, then we asked if we could just keep the chairs at our house for them. Still here. They are really comfortable.

there are also two card tables that came with these, same wood and with black vinyl insert on the top. For a bigger crowd, we set those up together with these chairs in the living room, once we even had to set up in the foyer as well (yes, that was odd, but the families with small children gravitated there and it worked that year). With a table cloth and fully set, it looks nice. We also borrowed metal card table chairs from the parents’ basement, one set had arms which was nice. Always padded seats.

A couple of years I used plastic lawn chairs that were popular for several years, there were even covers available for them. Sturdy and lightweight, but just not as good as a card table chair, they felt just like what they were.

The key among our extended family was always ”sure, you can borrow the card table/chairs/hot plate/crockpot”. Lots of schlepping but fun.

We have a couple of upholstered parsons type chairs that sit on either side of a cabinet. i can add leaf to dining room table and use the upholstered chairs as end seats. They work well with the vintage cane seat chairs. You go through french doirs ftom dining room to sitting room where we have a drop leaf table. We can open the table out and seat 4 there. Since the 2 rooms are so close i prefer to do that rather than have a mishmash of chairs. We don’t often have large groups. If i were you, I would get a set of WOOD folding chairs to use with your table/chairs. I would not use metal. (Tina Marie)