A Kitchen Table

One of the things that came up, when we found our new apartment, was the fact that there was room for a kitchen table. I liked that idea, but didn’t really think that much about it. As we set things up, though, there was an obvious space in the kitchen–in front of my cookbook shelf–that needed to be filled. Last week, I pressed Craig on the subject and showed him a wide variety of options. On Twitter, Charlotte Druckman and Oliver Strand mentioned the famous “Tulip Table” which was a little too expensive for us; but IKEA makes a decent copy called Docksta. We decided that would go well if we got some colorful chairs to go with it. We found those on Crate and Barrel’s website.

This part’s boring: I called Crate & Barrel in Pasadena, they said they had the chairs in stock, I got on the highway and the woman called to say they were missing parts. I turned back and waited a few days until the chairs were in with all their parts. Then I went to get them while Craig went to IKEA to get the table.

The big surprise is, once this was all set up, I absolutely loved loved loved having a kitchen table. Why the past tense? I love love love it.

I can sit there in the morning and drink my coffee and do the crossword puzzle:

If I make dinner and it’s just us, we can sit at the kitchen table and it’s way more casual and fun. Plus it’s a shorter trip to bring the dishes to the sink.

Or when I’m making breakfast, Craig can sit there and keep me company while he reads the paper.

So! If you have space for a kitchen table, I highly recommend it. It doesn’t seem like it’ll make that big a difference in your day-to-day cooking/eating life, but turns out it does. It makes the kitchen a less lonely place.