My parents started their marriage buying an entire house full of Early American-style furniture in furniture market. The centerpiece of our home was a round dining table. We had years when its drop leaves were rarely propped up, except for Thanksgiving or Easter dinner. Other times, we ate weeknight dinners, worked on school projects, and finished Halloween costumes on its 70-inch surface.
Although my mother loved her round dining table, she was frustrated by how few tablecloths she was able to find with a 90-inch diameter. When she found a tablecloth that fit, she used it for every event, year after year.
Many years after I was out on my own, I was traveling for business. I entered a restaurant by myself, ready to take a small table in the corner and enjoy dinner on my own. But when I told the hostess, "party of one," she asked me if I wanted to join the group table. I had never heard of such a concept, but there it was in the middle of the restaurant-a round dining table, bigger than Mom's-where solo diners could join a group and enjoy some companionship over dinner. I loved the idea! Why didn't more restaurants do this?
My time came to buy a dining table, and I chose a contemporary rectangular table (no tablecloth issues for me, I actually thought) in solid cherry. But when it came to furnish my breakfast nook, I didn't hesitate to select a glass-topped round dining table. It was smaller than my mom's, and looked nothing like hers, so I was confident that I was making choices that were my own.
I immediately saw the virtues of my new round dining table. The round dining table changed the dynamics of the dinner table-everyone sitting there was easily engaging with everyone else. I could look each person sitting at the table in the eye. And it was easy to slip a spare chair and a high chair to a round dining table.
My mother decided on a dinette set similar to mine in her retirement condo; she didn't really need seating for eight any more. Our family's round dining table was handed down my youngest brother who was just starting out on his own.
I moved into a new home, and my new square dining room accommodated my existing furniture well. But a few years later, I bought a vacation home, and used that as an opportunity to move out some of my well-loved and well-used furniture, and refurnish my everyday home. I didn't hesitate when it came to the dining room-a found a round dining table, resting on a pedestal, in a rich espresso finish. Its contemporary lines updated a traditional style.
My round dining table has a unique feature. While my mother's table had leaves that turned its familiar round top to oval (it seated 12 easily when she did that), my round dining table came with four leaves-each in the shape of a quarter circle. I pull recessed support rods out from the apron of the tabletop, rest an arc-shaped leaf on top of the supports, and clamp it securely into place. When I do that for each of the four quarter-circle leaves, and I expand the tabletop from 60 inches to 72 inches, and I can seat eight persons rather than six.
It's funny that I actively avoided choosing a piece of furniture that resembled that my mother made a center of her home. I wanted to establish a household that was uniquely mine. But I ended up being happiest with a choice first made by my Mom.
