How old is your dining set?

My house is about 600 years old, so even 18th century furniture looks rakish and modern! Seriously though, tables don't change that fast and don't need swapping out every few years, unless you have a strong desire for something very particular like Ercol
It doesn't do it for me, I'm wedded to my 'brown' furniture, but the aesthetic is strong and it works beautifully in the right setting. Don't allow yourself to be bullied by influencers!

Everyone who hasn't shared pictures is being very unreasonable, I'm dying to see them, especially the one circa 1600.
The very idea of bringing in new pieces and changing them around is so incredibly what is wrong with consumerism, massively fuelled by MC instagrammers.
My table is a large extendable Ikea one, bought for £10 in the bargain corner as it was very scratched. I just threw a table cloth on it and it's perfectly functionable. It's in storage now as we are moving soon and will not be replaced until it is on it's last legs.

Old! Ours belonged to my husbands grandparents and he remembers sitting at it his whole life at their house. We inherited them about 10 years ago. They really need sanding down and refinishing as the the poor table is looking worse for wear but we’re still in the arts and crafts phase with our children so do see a whole lot of point in doing much with them at the moment.
I can’t really imagine getting rid of them. Even if we did I’m sure they would just go to another family member as they have become very much a keepsake/nostalgic piece of furniture.

Why - one of mine is about 250 year old - was reupholstered about 8 years ago so only the frame is actually that old but why would you scrap a decent sofa when you can renovate it?

21 years old, from Ikea. Needs replacing but I won't until we redo the kitchen next year. It was a pretty cheap set and I'm impressed with how well it has lasted us to be honest!

@Putmeinsummer

You are funny

Find a lovely secondhand one you really love

To be fair one of my kitchen chair seats has split in half and I can't be bothered to fix it let alone replace it. We just don't use that one so I totally get where you're coming from

We just make do don't we

But it's broken. I could probably give it away for free I suppose. But then I have to face buying a new one and likelihood is I'll get something easier for the family from IKEA and that'll be all melamine and chipboard which is worse for the environment. So the guilt will be there and ruin the new table. I'll have nightmares of the old table turning up beauty and the beast style looking forlorn in the front garden about why I abandoned it. It's just not worth it. I'd rather live with the old table but hate it. At least I know where I am then.

Yes but you'd sell it on to someone who'll love it so hardly a carbon footprint issue

I don't see anything wrong with them. Stuff doesn't need to be modern, I just swapped my ikea furniture for old fashioned stuff before it's much lovelier :-)

20 years, it's solid wood, chunky legs and I hate it, it's also broken a bit but I feel I can't get rid of it as the carbon footprint of it probably being made in Argentina and shipped here to then be replaced by another table in under a lifetime seems like a bad thing to do.

In the kitchen we have a smaller wooden table from JL that I bought around 17 years ago

I copied my parents who have the same one in their kitchen but a different colour wood

My kitchen chairs are solid wood and were given to me by a friend who was updating her kitchen

I have a lovely large chunky oak table

My friend owned it and I told her I loved it and I'd buy it off her if she ever sold it.

Luckily her DH wanted something very modern so they sold it to me about 15 years ago along with the dining chairs

Just over a year old. I got a bonus from work and we'd been using my brother's old set that we'd taken 5+ years ago 'temporarily' so I wanted to buy a new set, especially as one end of the table was about to collapse. Ended up spending almost twice what we planned on an extending Bo Concept beech table but it was the only one we liked that was at all in budget and I'm very glad we got it.

It was surprisingly hard to find beech chairs in a style we liked and we ended up with some wackily patterned retro chairs from La Redoute which everyone loves. They're probably not going to last half as long as the table but we'll get fancier chairs later.

Now I just need another bonus so we can buy a new sofa!

It's quite old.

It's rather like this one...

Sorry I can't get past 25 year old sofas 🤢

Table is 1800s, sort of oak farmhouse, very small and circular. I don't have proper chairs for it as yet as it's in storage.

@TreeOfLives Not carved in and they can fall off.

Loving all the posts about Ercol sets.

They are so stylish.

Vintage g plan Wilkins dining set here from the late 50s or early 60s
I bought it 20 years ago and love it
Still in great condition although I have reupholstered the seat cushions to match my decor

Baumann Gondole chairs

https://pucesdoc.fr/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/2023-05-18-16.23.04.jpeg

I think ours is from around 2006. My husband’s uncle bought it when he got divorced, and then we got it when he died a few years later.

My table was made by a friend approx 1977. I say "my" table, technically I'm only looking after it, when said friend moved into a flat too small for the table, but we've long since lost touch. My ex, who was a carpenter, did some restoration approx 2000.

My chairs are vintage Ercol Quaker chairs, so could be 60s or 70s.

We overhauled our formal dining room two years ago with high gloss Italian furniture. After 35 years of mismatched wooden furniture it was a treat to have something really nice. We don’t use the room more than a couple of times a year, but it looks lovely. We eat in the kitchen usually on an ash table.

I'm smiling at so many people enjoying their grandparents' pieces.

I bought an oak table 3 years ago and I know it'll outlive me, so have promised it to my teenager ☺️.

I agree with your husband, OP. My friend's sofa is more than 30 years old and her insurance paid for it to be reupholstered a few years ago amd it's the most beautiful and robust piece of furniture I've seen and she has no plans to get rid.

One set is Ercol Quaker from the 1950’s. The other is a farmhouse table, about 15 years old (made by a carpenter friend when he was training) and solid as a rock.

DMIL has Hepplewhite chairs from 17-something and a South African yellowwood table which belonged to DH’s great, great grandmother. Still going strong and beautiful!