Some couples want a private master suite. Our bedroom almost always has a nursing baby and a few little visitors during the night.
We wanted our kitchen to be the center of our home. I'm not a gourmet chef, but I loving cooking for my family. When I walked though our new kitchen for the first time, I realized that our kitchen table is not going to match it at all. I found myself drooling over the Pottery Barn website. Hey, a girl can dream.
Our first kitchen table was a $5 yard sale find...small, dark, round and laminate-over-particle board. Then our neighbor gave us 3 chairs she had trash picked. They were light pine and half painted white. My parents gave us another random green chair. This was our first house and I tried to make it feel like home. I covered it with a table cloth and a seasonal centerpiece and most people didn't notice that the chairs didn't match the table or each other. Or maybe they were just being nice.
Then I had kids and now we can't get through a meal without a spill. Goodbye tablecloth, and the centerpieces were replaced with a basket of napkins. Then one Christmas we were given a new table from our in-laws. It is a light pine color with a white tile top. It even came with matching chairs! But, it seated four and our family was growing. We found a rustic, old bench at a thrift store. It needs to be refinished, but I think that adds to the charm. We hid it behind the table and can squeeze 4 kids on it.
Our kitchen table has served us well. It has hosted Thanksgiving dinners and PB&J lunches. It's held science experiments and art projects. It's where we've studied the Word of God and gathered in prayer.
It's not really my style, it's got a few cracks and scratches and stray crayon marks, but it's where we meet daily to be a family.
I have found a tablecloth quite useful since having kids. Especially with the spills. I found an old (really old) tablecloth that didn't matter if it got stained. When someone spills something, it mostly absorbs into the cloth before it has a chance to run off the table onto the chairs or floor or splatter. And I've noticed that crumbs stay on a tablecloth better than the table. More friction I guess. At the end of the meal, if it's not wet with spills, I'll just roll it up and take it to back porch (off the kitchen) and shake it out...fold it up and save it for the next meal. Now, if it gets too sticky or wet, then I just put it in the wash with that day's load of towels. Just a thought.
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