The kitchen is among one of the most used rooms in any house and the focus of the kitchen is the kitchen table. Careful selection of your kitchen table can go a long way toward enhancing your kitchen experience. If you take an inventory of all the uses a kitchen table is likely to face during its life, you will end up with a very long list indeed. For example, you will almost definitely eat at the kitchen table, and you will probably read the morning paper, drink coffee with friends and family, and your children will color, paint, and do their homework at the table. You will want a versatile, comfortable table considering the breadth of all of the activities that take place in this single location.
Tables come in a huge array of shapes, styles, construction materials, and levels of quality. The selection process should begin with the size and shape. Most people have to work within the confines of their current kitchen. However, a lucky few might have the fortune of planning their kitchen around a prized kitchen table because they are remodeling or building a new house. For the rest of us, the distance between any two walls will dictate the maximum size of our table. Ideally, you want at least 36 inches between the edge of your table and any walls. This gives your family members and guests enough room to comfortably get in and out of their seat. Let’s imagine that you have a three-walled breakfast nook that is ten feet wide by five feet deep. Discounting any islands or other obstructions that you might have in the rest of the kitchen, the limiting dimension in this case is the ten foot width of the nook.
So what is the biggest table you can comfortably use in this room? Coming in three feet from each wall, you are left with 48 inches of space. If you wanted to keep the table mostly within the breakfast nook, a table that is 48 inches long and 30 inches wide would work well in this space. This size table can comfortably seat four for most casual meals. You might find this table to be a bit tight if you serve a meal requiring multiple plates, bowls, etc.
You have a lot more options if the table comes into the kitchen by a few feet. A 48 inch square table will seat four adults very comfortably. A round table with a 48 inch diameter can easily accommodate six people. Rectangular tables up sixty inches in length will fit into this space and seat six as well.
If you are in the market for a new kitchen table, take a few careful measurements and be patient in selecting the right table for your house and your family.