How old is your dining set?

[Kartoush]

How old is your dining chair and table?

We bought ours 13 years ago. Not cheap but not extortionate. Solid wood. But it’s not very modern.

I still love the table, luckily we picked just plain furniture but we have the money to replace but dh is refusing as they are still in very good knick so he sees no point. God knows what varnish they used but beyond wiping down with a wet microfibre we do nothing else to maintain.

Chairs look similar to first image but I reupholstered myself 7 or so years ago. Material in 2nd image is basically what we have.

Just got watching an interior design instagramer who was just mentioned swapping in and out “pieces” on a regular basis. And I realised beyond cushions, flowers, small decorative items I don’t really do that despite having an interest in interiors and having the money to buy things. Seems a bit wasteful though.

Just wondering if others are a bit more playful with changing interiors.

I might paint but scared to mess up

My dining table, chairs and dresser were bought by my parents in 1974. I think they might have been second hand then, but they were a good brand. I got them when my parents upgraded. I can't see myself getting rid of them as they fit perfectly in my kitchen.

14 years old. No plan to replace although could easily afford. They are fine, it would be really wasteful to get new. We try to choose classic/neutral things and avoid trends as zero desire to end up having to swap out perfectly good stuff because it looks dated

DIning table is Regency so about 210 years old. Chairs are a mixture of George IV and William IV - still going strong all this time later - things were built to last in those days. I had them reupholstered about 8 years ago.

Ours has a couple of fork marks in it from Ds1 "demanding" his dinner, he is now 21, they were made when he was 2. No way am I giving into someone else's opinion of swapping things out unless I or Dh want to swap things out. We have swapped out the chairs though as they were faux leather and have cracked over the years but easy to wipe down when the children were little.

I wish I had a stylish old table but this one extends and fits the dining room perfectly. It is incredibly well built and the legs slide out when extended so no one ends up with a table leg between their legs.

I love the fact that so many people have really old sets and some are family heirlooms.

We recently replaced our 20 year old solid wood table and chairs which was a bit sad as you could see bits on the table where the DCs had drawn/written etc without a mat so quite sentimental. But it was too big for our newly designed kitchen-diner so had to go. We donated it to a local pub though so can go and visit 😁. We had our new one custom made so think we will keep it for a very long time. Although the chairs were bought and are 100% times more comfortable.

I've got one just like this, I got it second hand from a bootsale 19 years ago.
I still really like it but was thinking of painting it or changing the tiles.. Any ideas of what would look good welcome.

Bought ours in 1989 when we moved from my little terrace to the house we bought together. We did reupholster the chairs a few years ago. Table is solid oak, it will see us out.

We got ours when we bought our first house in 1986 - solid ash, very solid hardwood. The chairs were reupholstered after some water damage in 2000.

It wouldn't cross my mind to replace them, so I'm definitely with your DH and your own common sense, and not with some random instagrammer.

Mine was a wedding gift to my great grandparents... In 1914 🤣.

After they died, it belonged to my grandparents.

And after they both died, I took it.

It's nothing fancy - just very solid. I've had the chairs reupholstered. The table top is very marked and needs to be redone... But I just cover it with a cloth.

Before this, I had a 1960s GPlan set that I bought from a flea market for £30 (before it was very trendy) and revarnished.

That's a very long winded way of saying: hang onto quality stuff for a while and it becomes desirable again!

Depends on the instagrammer. I know some are all about sustainability so although they are continually swapping stuff in and and out it's all second hand and is sold on when they are done with it which is OK considering being an influencer is their job, they can't be like the rest of us and decorate once and be done with it. I've less time for the influencers who constantly have new furniture in their house clearly donated by the brands they are working with that then disappears 6 months later.

Instagram is not real life and you shouldn't compare your house to theirs. Normal people buy furniture once and live with it forever. Lots of us buy antiques and vintage furniture or have beloved inherited pieces. Just remember Patsy's maxim: you should never be the oldest thing in your house. If you still love the table don't replace it. If you're bored with the chairs reupholster. If you're really bored repaint and/or rewallpaper the room and 'shop your home' and restyle with artworks and ornaments you already have. But over 22 million pieces of furniture end up in landfill every year, don't add to that.

Kitchen table is about 200 years old. Curly elm. Very pretty, but slightly battered with age. From my grandmother. I keep an oil cloth on it most of the time. I don’t have a dining room as such, but I generally prefer solid wood antique furniture.

Mine was second hand in the 1980s.

@TreeOfLives mine have 5 spindles, modern ones have 6 spindles. The labels are different as well, mine are blue labels, then they changed to gold. The blonde coloured chairs are the most expensive. To buy new they are at least £400. We paid £100 per chair.

1995, one of those replica old style things (not my first choice)

It's sturdy though and a small oval shape that extends, so suits the room

Still got the set we bought from Habitat in 1978. Table is solid wood, chairs have woven string seats. Still as good as new.

@sueelleker Ours is habitat from the 70’s too.

approaching 50 years old- still going strong. Regularly used for dancing on by the kids!

Could do with a light sand and re varnish but otherwise lovely.

Chairs were bought at the same time and have been painted a couple of times I think.

We got a new table last year to replace our second hand GPlan table that had a terrible habit of collapsing. It’s unlike us to buy brand new furniture so when we do we aim for stuff that will see us out. It’s from Funky Chunky furniture, solid oak and I love that you can see the rings of the trees in it. We got two benches with it and it came to gulps about 1k.

Had mine about 30 years and will easily last another 30. I don't think of dining sets as something you change just to change the look of a room.

We bought our table and chairs 24 years ago. It still looks great and I have never considered replacing them….

Ours is about 25/30 years old I imagine. I spotted it in a charity shop. It's solid wood and beautifully made. Total bargain, Although the varnish is distinctively 90's in style so it would benefit from being redone.

I got chairs from some chain and they are absolutely wrecked. So I'm watching out for a better find now.

Second hand, very heavy oak extending table and chairs, from ebay - I'd looked at it new from the maker and well out of our budget, but when I goggled it one popped up on ebay, as she was renewing her kitchen! It was 3 years old when we bought it and here and still great 10 years later!

At least 110 years. Belonged to DH's grandma. I don't love it as it's a huge slab of, and many solid sticks of, mahogany but I have to lump it. SIGH.

About 55-60 years old. It's Ercol.

Our Dining Table is 53 years old - a wedding present from Heals for my parents.
6 Multicoloured Jacobsen chairs (the Christine Keeler ones) bought by my mum in 1972.
2 'Louis Ghost' chairs - from the Old Vic Ben Whishaw Hamlet set (2003?)

We 'swap out' only when things break!

Table is 8 years old. Still going strong albeit destroyed by the kids ascetically (lots of lines in the wood now!) Chairs are 4 years old, replaced as I realised benches are not kind to your lower back after 30 😂

All fairly cheap and also small, which is what we needed at the time as lived in a fairly small flat and no kids. Now in a house and planning an extension next year, when they will be replaced with a quality set that I hope will last forever!