Friday, May 21, 2010

Decisions, Decisions

The Ikea dropleaf table. Hmmmm...

Details of the farmhouse table that Pottery Barn sells. If I had a billion dollars, this is the way I would go.

Much like G over at Dandelion Garden, I need some help making a decision. I'm an incredibly indecisive person on a good day, and this particular decorating decision has been going back and forth in my head for far too long!


Here's the issue: my spare bedroom is very small, and it has to serve two main purposes - an office/crafting room, and a guest room. Therefore I need both a bed and a table or worksurface in the room. One twin bed would fit easily in the space and leave enough room for a fairly good-sized table, but I would really like to put in a twin-sized trundle bed, so that I can sleep two people in there comfortably. Two twin beds will only fit in the room, if whatever table I have can be moved out entirely or folded up in some manner. Hence the dilemma.


What I've always dreamed of is a big old heavy farm table with turned legs - it would look great in the room and would give me the huge expanse of work surface that I've never had before. However, such a table would not be something I could move easily, nor does it fold up. Another option would be an old drop leaf table, which as it happens my parents have in their basement (currently holding a pile of dropcloths and paint cans). This particular table has the vintage charm, and it could fold up fairly small when I have guests, but it would not be as big as my dream farmhouse table. Also, by design, drop leaf tables have their legs in the center, which makes the ADORABLE rolling office chair that I bought at a flea market last weekend somewhat hard to use with the table (I would constantly be banging my knees against the legs, and I know this would eventually drive me up a wall). There are 2 other options that I have conceived of - one super-easy, but not satisfactory in the style department, and one super-complicated but possibly a solution to all my problems. Super-easy would be to buy the white drop leaf table that Ikea sells, which is the same surface size as any farmhouse table I could fit in there, and has the added bonus of having drawer storage. This table however, is very sleek and modern, and does not fit the style of the room very well at all. The super-complicated option is to buy either a vintage farm table or a new one and come up with a clever way of mounting it to the wall on hinges, so that it could be lowered when necessary. My dad has some thoughts on how to do this - none of which I really understood.


So, what should I do? Go for the big, old table of my dreams and put possibly days of my life into figuring out how to make it collapsible OR purchase a cheap but functional Ikea table OR go with my parents' FREE drop leaf table that has some drawbacks?

2 comments:

Gretchen said...

I vote for the cheap IKEA or free parental. The IKEA one is pretty basic - doesn't scream super-modern to me; almost more like a blank slate that will blend in.

L. said...

I agree with Gretchen, especially after seeing the IKEA table in person; this way, you won't be out a lot of money if by some chance you come across the perfect solution in the future!