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details >Your dining table or kitchen table should be big enough to accommodate both your everyday and special occasion seating needs. We also suggest leaving about 3 feet of space between your dining room table, the wall, and nearby furniture, so you can scoot dining chairs in and out and move easily around the room.
If you’re not confident about whether your table will fit, we have some visualization tools to help you out:
Square dining tables generally seat 4.
For rectangular dining tables:
For round dining tables:
If you will need a smaller table for most of the year and a bigger one just for parties or at holiday time, consider getting an extension table, so you can add and take out a leaf as needed.
We don’t label any of our tables “kitchen tables,” but any of them could be! Generally, kitchen tables are smaller because they have to fit into more snug spaces, and they’re understood to be less formal, with a casual family vibe.
Rather than getting caught up on labels, think about both the table’s size and its design aesthetic. A big, formal rectangular dining table would feel out of place in a kitchen, but a small round dining table or square dining table would feel just right in a cozy corner.
Most of our dining tables are crafted from both solid wood and veneers, and we use a variety of woods including maple, birch, poplar, cherry, and oak. We make most of our dining tables in our own workshops, often from logs we mill ourselves, and we kiln-dry our own lumber, so it doesn’t split or crack when we work with it. We also offer tables made by artisans who work with sustainably harvested Indonesian mahogany.
Because we take so much care in the preparation of our wood, we can stand behind the quality of any dining table, no matter what it’s made from. Rather than shopping by type of wood, look at your finish options and choose one that matches the way you want your table to look. If you want to see a finish up close, visit our furniture finish library to order swatches or stop by a Design Center.
When you think of veneer, don’t think of printed laminates glued over particle board—at least, not at Ethan Allen! Our veneers are thin strips of real wood, which we apply like a mosaic over hardwoods to give any dining table surface a particular look.
We may apply veneers in marquetry and parquetry patterns, for example, or we may create a V-shaped pattern called “cathedral veneers.” Bonus: Real wood veneers add to a dining table’s structural strength by stabilizing it as the wood expands and contracts in your dining room or kitchen’s natural environment.
Not at all! We do have a few recommendations:
If you’re worried about scratching and marks, choose a dining table that comes in a distressed finish. A mark or scratch won’t mar a finish like that; it simply adds to its character.
Do you have more questions? Click the Designer Chat icon, or contact your local Design Center—we’re happy to help!