Dining chairs and small children

[BarbaraHoward]

Help! We need to replace our dining chairs for Christmas or someone will be standing for their dinner, but I can't find something I like.

We have a kitchen diner with a fairly traditional oak table (not fashionable I know but I love it), cream floor tiles, white walls and bright blue curtains.

We also have two small children and need to be able to hand them the ketchup bottle without worrying about stains. The chairs also need to be comfortable enough for elderly relatives to sit on for the day as that's where we tend to congregate when everyone's here.

I've ruled out fabric including velvet - is that the right call?

Can't go oak as it won't match the 10yo table.

So that leaves leather, right? But it seems leather is out of fashion and I like very little, plus they seem to be more grey when I need creams.

Help!

Hopeful bump!

Look at Officefurnitureonoine - their Curve Bistro chairs are on my wishlist.

I don't want fabric either as frail DH drops things and oak chairs can be very heavy.

My dc had a tripp trapp until they were eleven. Adults can sit on them and they aren't monstrous and they are adjustable. Then we had the chairs we wanted for the rest of the table.

Also, I've got chairs with fabric seats now and I just change the fabric.

Don't you have a spare chair anywhere else in the house?

Why not just borrow a chair from a neighbour not hosting?

replacing all your dining chairs & buying an extra one seems a bit extreme just for Christmas.

My mother in law just had her chairs (well, the seat part!) recovered in a sort of grey fabric that’s pretty invincible, scrub proof, stain resistant etc, so there must be options like that out there! Would that be an option with an added ‘stand in’ chair? Realistically if it’s only for Christmas, it seems a bit bonkers to replace all of the chairs unless you really wanted to anyway?

Will you get new chairs in time for Christmas? Why not buy one fold up chair and take your time finding something you like, maybe even in the sales.

We use our office chairs as extras and cover our oak chairs with sheepskin rugs (which we wash regularly), so they are comfortable. We never worried about a few extra odd chairs for Christmas and have even asked, on the odd occasion, that guests bring a chair.

The reason we need to replace them is that two out of our original set of six have broken and the remaining four don't exactly feel stable. Regardless of Christmas they need to go, it's just that Christmas focuses the mind. Obviously if we can't find something in time we'll borrow one but it does need to be sorted.

Have you tried IKEA?

Depending on how young your children are, we always found this brilliant: www.ikea.com/gb/en/p/urban-junior-chair-white-00165213/

Would these fit your kitchen style? www.ikea.com/gb/en/p/groensta-chair-in-outdoor-white-70519763/

They even have seat pads to tone in with your curtains. www.ikea.com/gb/en/p/aengsfraeken-chair-pad-blue-white-40575232/

Lots of dining sets are made with clever velvet which I think has a coating on it that essentially repels liquids and is wipe clean

Thank you all. Just back from shopping. Got sold on a velvet like this. We've decided to make our peace with the fact that it may not be entirely truthful. We've ordered some lovely chairs with oak legs and a mustard velvet fabric.

Might make the children eat in the garden. 😂

I'm sure it will be fine - my sofa is like this and has amazingly withstood an incredibly muddy dog jumping on it! A quick wipe and it's clean again

Thank you!

Sure stains are nothing new in this house. 😂