Buying A Nice, Big Dining Room Table

[Welder]

Let me set this up by saying that I am not, as you may be able to guess by my screen name, a furniture connoiseur.

Now that that's out of the way, I think it's time to start buying decent furniture, and we need to start with the dining room table. We recently knocked out a wall and have a big dining room now. In the middle of it sits an ex-Goodwill 6' long trestle table with 2 mismatched benches, and when we have company (typically totaling 10-20 people, we pull out the folding tables and mismatched folding chairs.

This has been fine, but we've got room for a 10' long table with 12 matching chairs, and dang it, I want one. Solid wood, maybe of Amish make. We went and looked at some stores a couple hours away, and really liked the 'boat table' design with a trestle frame, and those wooden chairs with their deeply carved seats and curved backs were actually super comfortable....I didn't realize I'd never sat in a comfortable wooden chair until then. Dang things probably weighed 40 lbs each and Lord knows what the table weighed.

So we could get this table in a collapsed length of 6' with a total of 4 leaves that could be added to get it out to 10'. If you buy the leaves without the skirting, they'll self-store in the collapsed table. Not sure if I like the look of that, though.

Anywayz, I got a mild heart attack when we got the price. NINE THOUSAND DOLLARS for a table and 10 chairs, notice that's two chairs less than what I was aiming for. This was in Hickory.....the same set in Oak is about $1500 less. The chairs are about $600 EACH, with the table making up the rest. I *can* afford this, BTW. I somehow muddled into not being poor, but I still have the poor person's habit of saying, "THAT THING COSTS HOW MUCH?"

I do appreciate some good craftsmanship, and I'm stuck on the boat table style, so I'm not interested in buying a cut-rate rectangle table on CL.....but I do need a reality check here. Is this what good-quality furniture costs nowadays? I've already lived the hand-me-down and Ikea life, and I'm tired of junk.

I've always bought used stuff, I know how to find used stuff, I know how to buy used stuff, I know where to buy used stuff, my question is about new stuff. Just to hopefully keep the discussion from going off the rails immediately.....

[oregon45]

When we bought our Amish-built, 4' by 12' (4'x6' collapsed) white oak dining room table in 2015 I nearly choked at the $3500 price (which included six chairs) with another $750 for an expanding bench. But it's been worth it--mainly because furniture built from real wood using real carpentry techniques (as opposed to furniture built from composite materials using mass production techniques) actually can be repaired. I haven't had to fix anything yet, but from looking at the joinery and hardware I don't see anything on the table that couldn't be fixed by someone with either a working knowledge of furniture making or a few days to watch Youtube videos Can't say that about big-box store furniture.

[TGS]

Any chance you can trade your labor/product with another tradesman, a carpenter that makes tables, perhaps?

[rd62]

From what you have described about the tables design, size, materials, construction, etc I'm surprised it's only $9k, especially it today's market conditions.

I think you could easily spend more and get less.

[RoyGBiv]

When we were buying that sort of furniture, we were living in NC and the factory stores in Hickory were an easy drive. I don't know if the prices on the Hickory Mart website are any better than you can find locally to wherever you are, but, once you find a set you like, could be worth checking the Mart to compare price. I believe they still deliver to many places using consolidated trucks.... so... you may have to wait a few weeks extra for them to fill the truck to (Fort Worth)...

https://www.hickoryfurniture.com/

We've also shopped Nebraska Furniture outlet with some success.... Mostly for LR seating...

Also.... A timing tip.... Furniture designs are seasonal.... You can get big discounts buying at times when retailers are trying to move stock to get ready for the new seasons.... IIRC (please check me on this).... January (clearing for spring) and August (clearing for Fall) are the best times for closeouts..

[Dr_Thanatos]

We lived in NC and bought almost all of our furniture from various makers in both High Point and Hickory, but we couldn't find what we wanted for tables/chairs. Solid wood, sturdy construction, no veneers.

Ended up at Antique Tables Made Daily in Sperryville VA. Bought two tables from them (Dining and Kitchen) Both tables still look like new, and it's been 13 years and 4 moves.

It wasn't cheap, but it was less expensive than NC made furniture at that time. Can't speak to current pricing and the website is throwing an error of some type. It might be worth a look. Sperryville is a lovely little town also.

Sent from my Pixel 6 using Tapatalk

[flyrodr]

Adding on to what the others have said, NC is probably not the center of the furniture universe any more, but it still has lots to offer, including, sometimes, bargains. Places like Furnitureland South (https://www.furniturelandsouth.com/) claims to be the world's largest furniture store (it is big), and gets a lot of the display items from the furniture shows, most of it in "as new" condition, and at pretty decent prices.

Bulluck's in Rocky Mount has a big annual sale of similar display items (https://www.bulluckfurniture.com/giganticwarehousesale). It's pot luck, but they have a bit of everything, including some really nice pieces (and some junk).

Others too, but there are plenty of people shopping for bargains.

[Welder]

Nice, appreciate the info! I'll check into some of these additional places.

[Toonces]

My wife and I just did the same thing, after many years of not having nice dining room furniture. The showroom is in central Wisconsin (probably not helpful to you), and the items are Amish made in Northern Indiana. All the items in the showroom just ooze quality. We figured this is the last dining room furniture we're ever going to buy, so we got exactly what we wanted.

42" x 72" Boulder Creek trestle table
2 skirted leaves that store in the table
80" Boulder Creek (4 door) China cabinet
72" Boulder Creek bench
6 Concord chairs

All 1/4 sawn rustic White Oak. Including delivery and setup: $15k. They are bringing two farm boys to carry this stuff into the house, as we were warned it's going to be HEAVY, especially the China cabinet parts. Lead time was 3-4 months, and we ordered a month ago.

The price you were quoted for the table + 10 chairs is right in line with what we paid, as our table was about $3.5k. Our chairs were less, somewhere in the $350-$400 range, but they had some that were $600. I'm working off memory, and my wife put the receipt away. PM if you want real numbers.

https://www.amishfurniturewarehouse....=boulder+creek

[UNK]

Ive been looking at tables also. Id recommend looking at counter height tables. I think the are a much more comfortable height. Theres already chairs available for that height. If you have an Amish store within driving distance it may be worth your time to stop in and see if any Amish in your area are building tables/furniture.