How can I find a new home for a large oak dining table

[Papyrophile]

We're downsizing for our retirement, or planning it. We inherited the family dining table, seats 16 or, leaves removed it becomes square, and seats eight, plus 12 chairs. It's solid oak, but brown furniture and much too big for most houses. How do I find it a new home?

It's very Victorian in style.

Picture?

Will go to take one!

Gumtree eBay (for a pound if you want to give it away) , fb marketplace
put chairs on separately, maybe in smaller batches
Some people want bigger tables, some people are happy to uocycle
Hope you find new homes for it all

If you're happy to donate, BHF will collect @Papyrophile

Well, do you want to sell it or donate it? Some charities will pick up from your house, for instance.

Depending on its age and style, local auction house?
Brown furniture, even good quality Georgian, isn't worth very much though, so the suggestion of BHF might be easiest.

Here's the table

DH would like to sell it! When his DM (deceased) removed it to us, it was "worth" thousands.

Even BHF won't want to collect it. It takes four men to lift it.

Then see if your local auction house will value it?

Sadly, nobody wants tables like this because nobody has a dining room anymore.

Your best bet is to contact a local auction house or house clearance company and persuade them to take it off your hands for nothing or a small fee.

My local auction house is no more enthusiastic about brown furniture than your local auction house. It's just very very unfashionable right now, and huge too! White elephants!

Sadly, no one wants to buy brown furniture so your best bet is to find it a good home:
Post on FB via all your local area - I need a whisk, Craigslist, Gumtree, etc. - post on Ebay - free if collected.
Is there Emmaus in your area? They'll take good quality furniture as a donation and perhaps you could deduct from taxes?
Ask around if a centre needs a big table (e.g. for jigsaws or crafts?)

I'd suggest DH sells it then....

ETA, I suspect you're going to have to pay someone to take it away.

Trendy or not trendy - I love that.

I think you/DH needs to accept that it is not going to be worth a lot now though. You and your family have more than realised it's value already, new value will come from the things that serve you well in this new stage of your life.

I would polish it to within an inch of its life, take some fabulous pictures, and put it on eBay/FB marketplace for a small amount to gauge interest first. I'd be prepared to let the table and chairs go separately too.

Put it in ebay and post the link here :-)

The table is lovely. The chairs not so much. My daughter needs a table that big - lives in a Victorian vicarage. Literally nobody else does. Except hotels etc. I’d try and see if anybody local in hospitality is interested in it as a statement piece.

That’s lovely. I’d try Facebook marketplace and see if anyone is interested. If no interest then an auction maybe. I can’t tell for sure but it looks solid oak. I’d love to do it up as it would come up beautifully with not too much work.
There is value in the oak in itself. Especially when it’s got such nice grain.

In fact, I think our best option is to leave it with the house. As is visible from the picture, there's loads of space where it is, and there's another 10 feet behind me that you can't see. The room is about 30 feet in length and 17 ft wide. You could put a table tennis top on it and still have space to play.

Yes! There will be people who’d love it !

I’d advertise it on Facebook and potentially eBay -
buyer to arrange collection
someone would love it you just need to find an owner.
we have a dining room (older house) and we use it every evening and when we have people over - I think it’s anything, some people have a dining room and some don’t

Or offer it for free to the buyers of your house then no issue it just stays where it is!

Agree

If You lived somewhere like North London you could slap some pastel Annie Sloan on the base then strip the top. It would look awful but it would probably sell better than brown.