Growing up, my family had two tables in the dining room. Not pushed together, mind you, but two separate dining tables with two different sets of chairs as if set up in separate rooms. Except they weren't. It was one dining room with two dining tables. I always thought it strange until I got older:
You see, one table was small and cozy. The four of us ate home-cooked dinners there every single night. There were four chairs for four people: no extra seats or table space to make us feel spread out and separated. Instead, we felt close and intimate.
The second dining table was long and sat at least eight. It was only used on holidays or when company came over for dinner. For dining, that is. In the meantime, the larger table could be filled with school projects and wouldn't need to be cleared for every meal.
When entertaining a particularly large group, both tables could be pushed together to accommodate even more people. Or they could be kept separate for an "adult table" and "kids' table".
Have you ever spotted a dining room with two tables? Did it strike you as weird or do you think the setup could be useful?
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If you have a lot of space, like the look, or prefer glass-top tables, why not? However, for most people it seems like it would make more sense just to use one dining room table with a removable leaf, so that it could be adjusted to fit 4 or 6-8.
At my parents there's an eat-in kitchen (that fits the five of us) and a dining room. Eat-in kitchen table is always used and the dining room table is used.... well I don't even remember the last time it was used for dining. Must have been at least 10 years since it was last used to eat. There's always a ton of stuff on it though so they still use it.
Seems to me one table that can be extended makes much more sense.
Who has room for this? You could even just have one long table, leave the homework and art projects at one end, and eat on only half the table for intimacy.
We have 2 tables - one is immediately adjacent to the kitchen, seats 4, and is used most nights for dinner; the other is across the room in an open dining room/den area, it's bar-height, sometimes used for games and cocktails, and also seats 4. We also have 3 stools on one side of the kitchen island that are regularly used. When we have company we can also fit 1 or 2 long rectangular tables into the space. I like having options. ;-)
I like this idea a lot, too.
I need the shade... Anyone know where it came from. I'm about to resort to making my own.
We had a small table in a breakfast area open to the kitchen and a larger table in the dining room that we used the same way as your family, but I don't know that I've ever seen two different tables in one room before. There wouldn't have been space to do that in our dining room.
i get the 'eat-in' table & the separate 'dining room' table...but 2 tables next to each other?
if i knew anyone like that, i wouldn't be friends with them.
who has room for that?
i'm assuming the people that do are not using this site, as they have hired their own interior designers to do their dirty work.
I think for me, that would encourage clutter. I like that I have to clear everything off the table for meals.