You Are Where You Eat

I have been trolling Craigslist to keep an eye out for dining room furniture, and I’ve come to the conclusion that many, many people have bad taste. Or maybe I do, that’s entirely possible. But it’s clear, at the very least, that my taste and the taste of those that post furniture for sale on Craigslist do not match in any way. I’d grab some pictures to show you, but that probably infringes on some kind of copyright law. Anyway, go to your local Craigslist site. Search for “dining room.” Behold lots of crazy-ornate or oh-so-French-Country or lots-of-high-grain-oak dining room sets. The curves and finials and wrought iron and glass tops and brassy hardware. I’m pretty sure I won’t find what I am looking for there. And I apologize immensely if your dining room set is ornate or French Country or oaky-grainy. I don’t mean YOUR set, of course. I love your set.

So where to buy a new set, then? Since the kids are still pretty young and thus messy and destructive, and we don’t have an eat-in kitchen so our dining room sees lots of whole-family usage, we are clearly not in the market for high end furniture. Just something a leetle bit nicer than the rickety (and oaky, curved/country-ish) IKEA set of table and chairs that we currently have. Pottery Barn is out, as it’s too expensive. Crate and Barrel is out, because it’s too expensive and a little bit more modern than the rest of our furniture. I’d like to stick to something online, as I absolutely hate going to actual furniture stores, where I don’t like 96% of what I see and feel like I’m being oversold/cheated even if I’m not.

And here is where I confess that I am actually thinking about buying new dining room furniture from Target. Is this crazy? Does anyone do that? I mean, SOME people do, I guess, as the products I’ve been eyeing have a few customer reviews (all positive, I might add). But still. Target? For furniture? Am I nuts? For reference, the furniture we are considering (like how I just threw the "we" in there, like this is actually something M. is thinking about and not just my own plans and obsessions and machinations?) is this:

The Espresso Dining Table and Peat Chairs (has a leaf that expands the table to seat six, and we would probably pick up a couple of non-fabric chairs to round out the chair set and force the kids to sit on those):


And the coordinating Espresso Server:


The furniture is a little more expensive than I'd like - with shipping, it will run almost $1300, and that's without considering two extra chairs if we decide to buy them. But that's the equivalent of just a table at Pottery Barn, so definitely an improvement. I'm not pulling the trigger yet (since I'm cautious and cheap and whatnot), so I'm keeping my eye out for a sale. Wish me luck!

Also, I have to mention that Target apparently just revamped it's website, and suddenly it is slow, slow, slow. Not that it was fast before, but oh. my. god. If I do decide to buy this furniture, I may grow old waiting to place the order!