Designing our kitchen table. I know the kitchen table reveal is yesterday’s news but I felt like I really didn’t get to share my favorite part of the whole process with you: the design. I started working on this table a few months before I started my Hayden Interiors blog & instagram so I will try and fill you in. Since we moved in almost FIVE years ago, Will and I have always felt that our breakfast nook was tight on space (9.5 ft wide x 6 ft deep). Once a table and chairs are in, there is essentially very little space for anything else. After years of living with it, we started figuring out what we wanted and slowly started making it our own.

We first decided to move Skye’s kennel into the laundry room and center the table again. That helped a lot, but we still felt like getting in and out of the chairs near the window was a pain. We either had to scoot the table really far over towards the island blocking the walkway or scoot it back towards the window and not use those chairs. Both less than ideal. After studying our layout and stalking pinterest left and right, we decided to consider adding a bench under the window. It would give us more storage, and eliminate the need for chairs that would be hard to get in and out of. I don’t know about you but it’s much more comfortable for me to slide into a bench than to pull out a chair and bang it on the wall and feel cramped sitting down.

We also changed the light. I can’t tell you how many people have come over and hit their head on the sharp corner of our old light. We hung it too low when we moved in and never realized it would be a problem until we started getting hurt.

For the bench, we decided that four evenly spaced drawers would look best and still give us access to the outside ones even once the table was in place.

Once the bench was in, it really did maximize the look of the space and made it feel bigger. But something was still off. We were having a really hard time sliding into the bench. The legs of the table were basically touching the bench which made sliding in difficult. The corners were sharp and we were always hitting our hip getting in. And cleaning around 4 table legs, plus two chairs (8 legs) was annoying. I felt like having less legs in the space would open up the room more and give me less things to clean around. A win – win in my book. And that’s how the idea of an oval, pedestal table was formed. It was really that simple! Convincing Will of this plan was the much harder part! He felt that since the space was essentially a rectangle, that we should mimic that shape with our table, which I totally understand! I also think he wanted to maximize the most amount of table space possible and getting an oval table would greatly reduce our table surface area. I think after a few weeks of hounding him, he caved in haha!

The Design

So now the fun part, the design. With our small breakfast area, I had trouble finding a table that fit the dimensions we needed. They were all either too wide or too long. Or a circle. I needed it to be 63 inches wide by 36 inches deep so we decided to go the custom route. I studied pedestal tables for awhile on the internet trying to figure out what style I liked. I realized I was drawn to the tables with lots of curves. I love simplicity and straight lines and I love curves and ornateness and I think the key is combining the two for a very unique look. For me I liked one bigger curve for the base with some smaller detailed curves as accents. It’s really hard to describe what I was after in words. Let me just share my drawings with you.

Believe it or not, my inspiration came from a ginger jar. I have always loved the shape of them and feel like they are so classic and timeless. I tried to carry that same unique look into the base of the table. I really didn’t know what I was doing but landed on this.

I found a very similar table on pottery barn that I loved certain aspects of and used those details in my design. I tweaked the bottom of the base and tried to make it look a little more traditional, but not sure that it worked and I’m okay with that because I loved that I was putting my own spin on it.

I ended up finding a seller on etsy who was WONDERFUL. Most sellers I reached out to couldn’t make it fully custom. You pretty much had to choose between Option A or Option B. I think that is great and helpful especially when I don’t want to be in control over all the tiny little details. But in this case, I wanted to have full creative freedom! See how basically anything is possible? He even gave me a quote that was over half CHEAPER than every other seller I messaged. Only downside would be 3 month wait. But I didn’t mind because that would mean I would get it right around Christmas and what better present could that be?

FINDING THE STAIN

Naturally, I’ve always been drawn to lighter stained wood but when it came to our table, I wanted it to feel very traditional. I wanted it to look like it had been there for years and would be there for years and years to come. Wood tones go in and out of style and I felt like keeping it medium toned would stand the best chance of it lasting. Oh, and have I mentioned that Will is drawn to dark, heavy toned woods? I can’t forget that it’s his table too so we kind of compromised on this inspiration from Arhaus. He likes a tad darker and I like a tad lighter so we landed on this.

THE ENDING

I think you know the rest that happened from here, but if not I’ll still cover it. We waited the promised 3 months and the table still wasn’t ready by December. At the end of January I reached out and asked the status of the table. He tells me it’ll be another 1-2 months. After waiting the 1-2 months, they reach out to me in March and tell me our table is ready. Only one problem. It is the wrong stain color and the base is wrong.

We debated keeping it anyway at this point, but ultimately I felt like we’ve waited this long, what’s another couple months to get it exactly right. This time, they sent me architectural drawings of the table so we were all on the same page as to what was happening.

I was able to tweak some dimensions and adjust the base so that it would look proportional to the table top this time. At the end of May, they reached out to us and said our table was finished! The dimensions, base, and table top looked perfect this time! The only thing not correct was the stain. We discussed the options and ultimately decided to take the table and have it professionally refinished here.

They were so apologetic and great to work with despite all of this. They paid for shipping ($500) and we called it even. I know on the outside you might think this was not at all worth the hassle and the stress but let me just say this, it was.

I love it so much more knowing we got exactly what we want. I love it so much more knowing we waited for what we want. And I love it so much more knowing we DIY’ed it into what we want. Turned solid wood pedestal tables aren’t easy to find, especially with a base that you can draw up yourself. I think the one thing I learned out of all this is that patience is on your side when it comes to loving something long term. There is no way I would ever think about replacing this table now. After living with a table that meant nothing to me for 4.5 years, I realize now that there is something special about having pieces in your home that bring you joy every time you look at it. And this table does that for me. (We won’t talk about the lousy finish I put on it though…that’s a blog post for another day haha). If you stuck around this long, thank you. I truly hope this inspires you to invest in pieces and things that last. Even if it’s more time and money on the front end, it’ll be worth it in the long run.

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT

WHAT MAKES YOU HOLD ON TO STUFF

DIY TABLE MAKEOVER