Anyone else wish they had a dining table for special occasions

[Meetmeunderthemoonlight]

Happy Easter 🐣

Just going to make beef and red wine stew for dinner tonight, chucking everything in the slow cooker as trying to have a low effort relaxing day. It's made me realise again how much I would love to have a dining table for occasions like Easter, Christmas, Valentine's, Birthdays. My house is small with no room for one, but oh how I would love to set a table to sit at for nice occasions. Just having a slight moan really.

YANBU, I can't imagine not having one for our family set up, but realise we are lucky to have the space.

I’m single but have one for jigsaws 😁. And, in the words of Alan Partridge, it’s “an extender”.

I bought one a couple of years ago for Xmas expecting to use it loads. I used it that Christmas and then I don't think it was sat at again. I've just sold it on marketplace coz I'm moving.
For me the idea was definitely better than reality.

I can't imagine not having a dining table! I have one with drop down sides that I keep against the wall during the day cos I'm also in a small flat

We have one in dining room to sit 12 but avoid using it if we can! So much more relaxed to sit in kitchen even if only sits 6.

Tthe ikea norden folding gate leg table is amazing / masses of storage because the six drawers are really deep, and it folds to a tiny console. There are usually a few of them kicking around eBay or similar.

Do you have a kitchen table though?

I can very much relate.
Moving wasn't an option so i had an extension built, just so we could have a dining table.

Do you have anywhere you could stash a folding table maybe?

Nope, no kitchen table either. I have lovely serving dishes and napkins etc but no table to sit them on.

We are moving to a bigger house having not had a dining table for the last twelve years. I can’t wait! For the jigsaws and the entertaining. We have a small table in the kitchen that the two of us can eat at but a proper dining table is going to be amazing. We are paying an additional 250k to get to that point though, the leap in house price to go from ours to the next level has been pretty off putting.

I can imagine not having one. When we lived in a small flat we had a table which folded down. Like this one but smaller

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Same here, we live in a small flat and only have room in our kitchen for a table for 2 (we have 2 fold away chairs that we get out when all 4 of us want to squeeze onto the table for Sunday dinner)

I'd love a big dining table so I could have proper placemats and have the food in the middle so everyone could serve themselves, where we could play boardgames without worrying about knocking my many Monopoly properties onto the floor 😁

Don't think we will ever afford a big enough house before the kids leave for uni though, but my life goal is to have a cottage with a lovely big kitchen table that is the heart of the home and we could host family at Christmas and Easter.

How small can a house be that doesn't have room for a small table that say 4 people could sit around?

A friend use to have a nice folding one that when folded took up no more space that a small bookcase

I lived in small flats in my twenties and always had a dining table which was pushed into a corner most of the time and just seated two but could be pulled out and extended for six (or more, if you were okay being cosy.) It was pretty sturdy, as well.

We have the La Redoute Dileta AM PM table. It lives its life as a console table up against the wall most of the time then open it up to full size for occasions. We eat at the kitchen island the rest of the time.

Those folding ones with chairs that fit inside, do they still exist or a gate leg table

wish I still had mine even though I do have dining tables as they are useful for drinks etc

How many people are you feeding, @Meetmeunderthemoonlight?

I fully appreciate finances or genuine lack of floor space might prevent it, but if not, you do still have time to send someone out to a local charity shop or the cheapest furniture store nearby to get hold of one before your meal.

(I was brought up eating every meal around a family dining table, and the times in adult life when I haven’t had one did feel rather sad in comparison.)

But I’m sure the actual meal will be delicious either way.

DD has a tiny flat - one room that is a kitchen/living area, one bedroom, small shower room/loo. She has a folding IKEA table that has a narrow surface and 2 sides that fold so it can be completely folded and placed against the wall, half folded and seat 3 people, or opened and seat 6. The chairs are folding and hang on the wall. It works well and wasn't expensive.

🙄

We have always had a dining table. We don't use it every day, but I wouldn't be without it as it's great when people visit. I really love having a separate dining room too.

In our old house we had a dining table but for some reason (probably because it was in a separate room) we rarely used it for eating apart from Sunday lunch, when we had guests over etc, the rest of the time it was mainly used for jigsaws and the like. We had slipped into a habit of taking meals either in the kitchen or on trays.

When we moved, we made it a rule that there were no-longer to be trays and instead, all meals were to be eaten at the dining table (which was now located in a large kitchen diner). Four years on and if is hard to remember how we used to be and it would seem odd to eat off a tray now.

A dining table, of any size is definitely desirable.

Your privilege is showing.
Utterly delusional.

We eat every meal at the dining table, I couldn't imagine not having one. Where do you eat?

Even when we lived in a tiny flat it was a priority- we had a fold out one that we got out in the kitchen- used to block the bedroom room but still did it for every dinner! Tiny stools that stacked.

Where do you eat your food?