Cohousing-L Mailing List: Dining room table sizes

[Sherri Z. Rosenthal (enocommons]

Chuck Durrett has strong opinions on this. If you know Chuck, you will not
find that surprising. My memory is that the narrowest table you can find
commercially available will still be wider than Chuck thinks is best for
coho dining rooms, and to really achieve his goals you need to have tables
custom made. The reason is this: wider tables cause people to have to raise
their voices to be heard by those around them during dinner time
conversation. Of course, the more each person speaks a bit louder to be
heard, the more cummulative noise, and the more there's a need to speak
even louder to be heard. So, take a tape measure and poke about for the
narrowest dining room tables you can find. While in the abstract, a few
inches seems insignificant, in practice they really make a difference.

Also, circular tables don't get Chuck's approval. They make it tough for a
person to hear and talk to more than just the person on either side of
them. While I see this is so, I think some medium-small circular tables can
make for a nice mix in some dining rooms. As long as they are four
person-ish in size, I think everyone at the table can talk to each other.

(Chuck, if you read this, I hope I have captured the gist of your wisdom
accurately.)

I recommend that you avoid veneer tables: Veneer will show partical board
innerds if it takes a bash. Solid wood can be refinished if it takes a lot
of knocks. It will hold up better to spills and rough treatment.

Best,
Sherri Zann Rosenthal
TCN Vice President
Eno Commons, Durham, NC