A place to dine (Part 1).

That's right, today is just the beginning of a two part post. I sold our dining set back in July, and since then we've been eating a lot of meals on the couch or around a little card table. I've had several friends and family members ask me why I sold a perfectly good dining set. When I originally purchased it, the set was whitewashed with gingham seat covers. I refinished it to go in our rental home, where it fit our needs at the time. These are the reasons I changed my mind when we bought our very fine house.
a) The moment we finished sanding, staining, priming, painting, sealing, and reupholstering that set I hated it. The hubby claims all of the sawdust took years off his life.
b) It looked so gigantic in our new kitchen. The actual dimensions were fine, but the black solid wood table and chairs took up too much visual space.
c) It did nothing for me aesthetically. I designed it after a Pottery Barn catalog, and I don't even really like their furniture.
d) The dining area of our kitchen is visible from the living room, and I wanted to tie the two rooms together.
And finally, e) Once we tiled the kitchen in the checkerboard pattern all the black was too matchy-matchy for my taste.
Not long after selling the set I ordered these chairs. (Which are awesome, by the way.) My idea was to piece together a dining area that looked collected rather than purchased as a set. Something like these:

(decorpad)
(the brick house)

Then came the search for a table that would meet our criteria (and budget). Which brings me to part two of this post, to be continued tomorrow...