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?

I don’t think you’ll get any
money for the chairs and might find them hard to give away but on the upside you can transport them in batches
table is nicer, you could try an auction house they might be able to value from pictures.
it would cost someone to collect it, my best guess is that it will be much easier to give it away
see if you can find similar in auction catalogs or eBay, to see if it has any monetary value. Important to look at completed/sold listings on eBay and how often such things sell, don’t just look at what people are perhaps unrealistically trying to sell it for. It’s only worth what someone will pay for it, not some
vslue it once had.

But the easiest thing would be to include it in the house sale (not the chairs). Or offer it to the buyers, might be useful to them if they are upsizing and it fits the space. I did this twice with a dining table and a bed (no mattress). Buyers were happy for us to leave them with agreement, e couldn’t use them in the new place and were saved the hassle of doing anything with them

Colleges or galleries would maybe be interested in that.

like this. It’s not to my taste but it’s ok.

I'm not sentimental about furniture, but that would be an appalling thing to do. It's a huge table built for large gatherings in an era where that doesn't happen.

The chairs are horrible. Ugly and desperately uncomfortable to sit on. I do quite like the table, and I'd like to think of it having a life. My DMIL danced on it on her 60th birthday!

How did you do that transformation @GreatThingsAwait ? I'm old.

(BTW I still think the chairs are awful and I know they are uncomfortable.)

I am not sure it looks better with a cream undercarriage.

You could find a company to list it on Vinterior? Vinted for furniture. There are still people who need and want furniture for large properties.

If she likes it......... Sadly we have learned this week that two of the nicest gastro pubs locally will close in a few days. So I don't think they are going to be buying tables. Very sad.

I love it and would have it in a heartbeat.

But I would have to climb through the window as it would block the door and the chairs would have to live on top 😢

I love it and have the space too. But don’t hold dinner parties for so many !

I am not fond of it, and never have been, but it is part of DH's family heritage. And while we have dinner parties, we don't do dinner for 12 people (buffets at that size, lunchtime only) we have a kitchen table that squeezes in eight.

I think it’s lovely! It’s very surprising to me that it would be difficult to sell, but then I’m not at all fashionable.

It is redundant but much too beautifully crafted to be tossed away.

@RandomUsernameHere , it is a beautiful piece of furniture, but for most people it is also far too big to fit into a modern house. Hence the dilemma, and my request for ideas.

I love the chairs!

Sold to SwirlyGates! Honestly, you would not say that if you had sat on then for 20 minutes. They are very very uncomfortable.

Friends bought a big ol' house the owners left a magnificent mahogany table and chairs like this. They also left a matching sideboard.

”Literally nobody else”? This just isn’t true! My dining table seats 16 and yes, I use it. It took me a couple of years to find it though. It is getting harder and harder to buy furniture for large houses. Someone will buy it.

Funny, I have one of those to shed as well, plus a full quota of delicate glassware.

I love the chairs, not so much around the table but I’d scatter them through the house. I have ye olde farmhouse so have an eclectic mix of “brown furniture” I’ve bought for peanuts. I bought an oak dining table and ten chairs on gumtree for a hundred quid so I suspect OP’s DH is doomed to be disappointed.

@Getamoveon2024 thank you for finding this thread. Where do people sell big furniture for large houses?

He has accepted the reality.

I ended up with the “family” table - Chippendale Revival. Valued at £6000 in 1989, + 12 matching chairs, similar value. I advertised it on Facebook market place and eventually got £200 for the lot. When I asked the local auction house they said it would be lucky to get a bid. Appears no-one wants large brown bits of furniture. I think you just have to be glad to be rid rather than get anything much for it.

I’ve bought some at auction houses and some off Vinterior. I also have an AMAZING lady who upcycles large (but ugly) pieces she buys off places like FB market place into magical things.

Haha, shame they are not comfortable. Solves the problem of guests outstaying their welcome, I suppose.

@Molecule, I think our outcome is going to be like yours. Nobody wants it and no one has the space for it.