Cohousing-L Mailing List: Tables, tables, tables.

[Sharon Villines (SharonVillines]

I do not yet live where there is a common house, but I attend many
conferences and have struggled with the table issue for years as a seminar
leader.

My preference is for rectangular tables that seat six comfortably, or eight
cosily. This size table can be moved fairly easily and combined with other
tables to make a large square, a small square, a long line, or a short line.
It is large enough that it doesn't enforce intimacy (or knee and foot
bumping) and small enough to be moved easily by two people. It doesn't seem
gargantuan if only four people are sitting there. I am assuming that the
common house dining room would be used for many different types of
gatherings and should be as flexible as possible.

Large round tables are popular at hotels because the staff thinks they can
fit an infinite number of people around them--and do. But they limit
conversation to the people on either side of you and face-making and sign
language to the person across from you. Most importantly, round tables
cannot be comfortably combined to make other seating arrangements--you can't
add on a section as more people join you.

BUYING ADVICE. Do not believe any catalog or sales person about how many
people a table will seat. Take your people with you and sit down at a sample
table with your sample chairs to be sure two people can eat opposite each
other without sharing a placemat or negotiating leg placement or sit next to
each other and still move their elbows. And that the table height fits those
chairs. In Manhattan restaurants have figured out that people don't lounge
around tables that are too low--they eat and get out. I doubt if you want
that effect.

Tip: If you have children's tables, it is cheaper to buy adult size tables
and chairs (wood) and shorten the legs. The cost is lower, the quality
higher, and they are much less tippy.

Sharon Villines, Who has moved from Manhattan the movie set to Florida the
postcard.
Archives of Detective Fiction, http://www.fictionlibrary.org
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Synergy Cohousing, Delray Beach, FL http://www.cohousing.net