Help solve our dining room problem. Please!

11 years ago

Oh the madness! We knew we were moving to a smaller home, but we did NOT realize we'd be crawling over each other's laps to get to our seats around the table. Wow! We need some solutions here!

This room is 8' wide and the distance from the back wall to the door leading down to the basement is 4'5" If a table & chairs come out about 6.5' it's fine because there's still room to flow through the galley kitchen to that basement door, but really we can't push much past that. We'd build in a bunch of benches, but the problem is those big long windows! We LOVE the windows, but they are so impractical for solving our space problem. What would you do with this space? No, we can't move walls because then we'd be basically be adding another room to the house as this is an addition already. Sure do wish the origional owners would've added just two or three more feet to this addition. It would've made all the difference for us!

*Edited. Trying to figure out how to post those pictures! Hope it works!

This post was edited by IBsmilin on Sun, Apr 7, 13 at 17:53

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Comments (7)

renovator8
11 years ago
A square table is pretty inefficient; could you use a round one?
maryinthefalls
11 years ago
A narrower table with a bench or two?
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IBsmilin
Original Author
11 years ago
Did you ever notice a significant difference when changing from a small square table to a small round table? I agree, round might be better, but I don't know that it would solve the problem. If there's nothing else we could do, I guess we could get a more narrow table & some benches. We need to seat five regularly, though & I dont see us going much smaller on the table.
weedyacres
11 years ago
Try turning the table 90 degrees so it's diamond shaped in the square alcove. That will make the 2 back sides more accessible.
graywings123
11 years ago
How about a narrow table with a short end butting into the window area and two chairs on each long side? You can get tables as narrow as 28 inches.

Here is a link that might be useful: Narrow dining tables
IBsmilin
Original Author
11 years ago
Thanks for all the suggestions! I immediately tried the diagonal table suggestion & it made a HUGE difference! Next up is getting three sets of benches made. Wish I would've thought to turn the table! Thanks!
live_wire_oak
11 years ago
You might also consider a built in banquette with storage underneath. A table and banquette takes up less space than a table and chairs or a table and benches. It is more difficult to get in and out, so it's best if the banquette is for the kids and the chairs pulled up to it house the adults.