Making your Dining Room Holiday-Ready

The dining room is one of the rooms of your home that will be seeing a lot of action during Christmas and New Year's. A little planning ahead will help make your dining room holiday-ready; a welcoming place to entertain family and friends.

Buffet or Sideboard

If you have a buffet or a sideboard, make sure it is stocked with what you need to set your table for those special meals you will be hosting. Check to see that all of the pieces of the dinner service you will be using are present and accounted for. Ditto for the cutlery drawer and stemware you will require.

Place a festive pillar candle or a hurricane lamp ringed with pine boughs or a wreath of holly on the buffet.

The same checklist will apply to the china cabinet in your dining room.

Dining Table

The spotlight will be on your dining table. After all it is the focal point and main purpose of the room so you will want it to look its best. Clean and condition, especially if it is a wood one, your dining table as per the manufacturer's instructions.

If the only place in your home for a gift wrapping station is the dining table, make sure that everything has been cleared away in time to get the dining room ready for guests.

Choose a centerpiece for the table that is in the low-to-mid height range. You don't want decorations in the center of the dining table that will block the view.


More Holiday-Ready Dining Room Tips

When you're expecting guests with young children, have a couple of extra telephone books or thick pillows or cushions on hand just in case the booser seat was forgotten at home.

Ensure any linens you will using such as a tablecloth and napkins have been freshly ironed. Keep some paper ones on hand as extras for both the adults and the kids.

Inspect your chairs to see if they are good to go. Spot clean as required. If you're going to need more chairs on the day of your festive occasion, know in advance from which rooms you will be getting them from.

- E.L.

My journeys in finding the perfect dining room chair

When I left off I was talking about my adventures into dining room decorations. I had found the perfect dining table. My walls were painted the prettiest green anyone could imagine. Pieces were falling into place for my very first grown up apartment.

I stepped back to admire my stunning living space and realized there was something missing. How could I forget something as important as dining chairs? Where were my guests going to sit when they came over for delicious dinner parties?

I once again turned to my trusty sources. The internet gave me two well loved chairs that needed a bit of love to revive them to their former glory. The hunt was still on to complete my set of fabulous
dining room chairs. I hunted and hunted. Frustrated I put the search on hold for a pair to compliment the ones sitting in my apartment.



Instead I focused on how I was going to refurnish these stately chairs. Many different things came to mind. I could paint them, stain them. Cover them completely in fabric, endless possibilities. One thing was for certain, the well worn dated pattern on the seats were the first thing that would need to go.
In the end I decided the best and easiest thing to do would be to paint the chairs a solid color and cover the seats with a cute fabric. I really didn’t want to have a green overload, also, thinking long term for future places of residence. I had to choose my paint and fabric carefully.

I ended up painting the chairs this gorgeous deep brown, almost as rich as a dark chocolate bar. The seats got carefully removed, the old fabric hastily discarded. I also bought new cushioning for the inside of the seat, and settled on this thick upholstery fabric with an intricate leaf pattern. I get weepy thinking about how stunning these chairs turned out.

However my work was far from over, I still had to find two more chairs. One weekend I decided to take a drive as far out of the city as I could, in this small town I found the missing pieces in my dream dining room. These two chairs were almost identical to the ones I had already found and fixed up. Overwhelmed and overjoyed I carefully packed them into my car. I stopped to get a piece of pie from the stand on the side of the road and turned around to head back into the city. As I write this I look into my dining room and can’t believe that this dining room set is mine. I have lots more to do in my place, and I cannot wait to share more of my adventures into the adult world.

-RL

Dining Chairs are Handy for Short People

I’m short and I never feel shorter than when I am in my kitchen preparing a meal or putting away dishes. Especially when I’m cooking for company because I need pots and other items I don’t use regularly, I seem to be constantly reaching for things that are out of reach. I do own a step stool, but it’s conveniently tucked away in the walk-in hall closet. My favorite weapon of choice in the Battle of the Less Tall is the dining chair that is closest to the kitchen.

The chair is a wood ladder back with an upholstered seat in some mystery fabric I’d be hard pressed to identify. The dining chair, along with its two other companions, was a hand-me-down from my grandmother. While they are serviceable (and have given me my money’s worth), they don’t match my dining table and I am working on replacing them. In the meantime, however, they, well at least the one closest to the kitchen, is a practical stand-in for the step stool I’m too busy to fetch.

Not just relegated for use in the kitchen, I also utilize the side dining chair to get into my silverware chest, which sits on top of my china cabinet in the dining room. I keep searching for a more convenient place to put it, but there doesn’t seem to be any other spot for it. To access the cutlery I use when I’m expecting guests, I need my trusty dining chair.

My kitchen cabinets don’t go all the way up to the ceiling; while providing a handy storage space for my cookbooks and other sundries, it does need to be cleaned from time to time. The step stool is too short. Even when standing on it, I still am unable to comfortably sit on the counter in order to stand up on it to wipe down the top of the cabinets. My multipurpose brown dining chair is a must-have accomplice in my cleaning adventure.

I’m sure I’m not the only short person on the planet that hijacks a dining chair as a stand-in for a step stool. But if you are looking for new dining chairs to be used in the more conventional manner, you’ll find a wide selection to choose from at More Dining Chairs.

The Secret Life of Nesting Tables

The nesting tables were shipped to me from my hometown, along with some other items I claimed, after my father sold the house my sister and I grew up in. I wanted these particular items because each one I had chosen reminded me in some way of my mother and represented to me the comfortable home she created and recreated throughout the years.

I also chose the nested tables because, after working at Cymax Stores combined with living in an apartment, the value of multipurpose or multifunctional furniture pieces has become clearly evident to me. The three tables, of varying heights, sit one underneath the other and can be used as a single unit or separated and used as accent tables or end tables. The handy thing about these tables is that, when entertaining, they can be moved around the room to accommodate those not sitting next to a surface upon which they can put a drink or a plate.

The wood nesting tables resided for a good portion of their lives in the living room of my childhood home. Even though they had been moved about the room from one place to another over the years, I don’t ever remember a time when I didn’t pass by them on my way to somewhere else. I have walked passed them so many times, even if they weren’t in my possession, I could describe them to you by heart. They have bowed fronts with routed edges, fluted legs, arrow feet and a fluted, three-sided stretcher. How then could I not notice that the feet of the two smaller tables never touched the ground?

Perfect size for a telephone table, ever since they arrived at my apartment, they stand against the wall next to the big armchair. The top nesting table holds the phone, a funny pen holder and a small basket of assorted note pads collected over the years from stocking stuffers and promotional handouts. But one evening I came home from work late, and because a favorite TV show of mine was about to start, I broke my own rule and ate dinner in front of the television. I grabbed one of the nested tables, placed it in front of the couch, put a placemat on it and sat down to dinner. After I had eaten, I cleared everything away. That’s when the trouble started.

When I tried to put the table back, it had me totally stumped. Like the Powell Brown Cherry Two Piece Nested Accent Tables, I thought it would simply slide in underneath the two other tables. But it didn’t. Something seemed to stop it from slipping back into place. Sometime later, I finally figured it out. Working on the theory that something was blocking the way, I removed the middle nesting table and turned it upside only to find grooves on the inside edges. The nesting tables should be slotted not slid into place. Hence the reason for the legs of the two smaller tables floating above, rather than resting on, the floor.

I experienced a weird sensation. I sat on the floor, just staring; these tables had been so much a fabric of my life, they were now revealing something new to me, after all these years? The more I stared, the more I appreciated the simple elegance of the design of these nest tables. All three tables can be lifted up and moved as one without any slewing around or unnecessary juggling. Ingenious! I returned to the couch and what was left of my show.

But all the time, I wondered what other secrets my mother’s nesting tables were keeping from me.

What Did You Expect?

Anyone who’s ever been to an amusement park is likely familiar with the log ride. You know the one where you and 2 to 3 others sit in an imitation-log vessel and trolley up coaster tracks before plummeting down into the water below with a great splash. It’s like a watered-down (pun intended) roller coaster for those not so brave as to take on the Corkscrew et al.

Every time and each one I’ve been to has a sign, in plain view from the line-up, stating something along the lines of “Please understand use of this ride may result in your garments becoming wet to varying degrees. Remove hats, store cameras ... etc., etc.” in the simplest language possible. Not only that, but the splash zone is usually in full view of the cue and those waiting can see the aftermath of the landing as water explodes in every which direction.

Yet, there always seem to be one individual who has this purely mortified look on her face as the log approaches the dispatch area. As she steps from the log, she’s in a heated huff-n-puff exasperated state staring at her wet clothing in disbelief and erratically looking around for sympathy or an explanation.

I have to admit I find this no end of comical and entertaining. What on earth did you expect? The last time it happened the missus and I were visiting her folks in Seoul and we were at Everland, where I was taking video with my digital camera and captured the whole sequence on tape. Needless to say, it’s been quite a hit with friends and family here. At the end she proceeds to berate one of the ride attendants who you can tell is trying desperately not to laugh.

The terms inevitability or likelihood come to mind, much in the same way my dad used them when he explained the concept of inflation to me as a pre-teen. Fast forward a good twenty years where the cost of consumer goods is growing exponentially based on a number of factors, not the least of which is skyrocketing transport costs growing out of our addiction to oil, and many people are screaming blue murder. Again, however different the context and severity, I’m left wondering what exactly we expected based on the projections which started to surface as long ago as the 1980s.

The fact is that consumers now need to shop smarter, with a greater multi-tiered objectivity. The advent and growth of online shopping has been of considerable benefit to this end, and Cymax Stores is a perfect example of such a resource happily at the disposal of the people. Selection, quality and competitive pricing are values any individual can appreciate.

For those looking to add functional and sufficiently stylish bedroom storage on a budget, consider any one of the Prepac Dressers or Chest of Drawers which students and young adults will likely find hard to beat for the price. A young family may feel similarly enthused with the selection of affordable quality at www.morediningtables.com, a Cymax Stores subsidiary and an excellent source to fill all your dining area needs.

There just might be a few who’ll be pleased to know they don’t necessarily need to stand their TV on upturned milk crates after looking over the selection of Sauder TV stands at www.audio-video-furniture.com as rigid and stylish as they are light on the wallet.

Sometimes you just have to know it’s going to happen. How you respond is often all you have. Pack an extra t-shirt or make an e-stop by Cymax for reactionary measures alone.

I Think Therefore I am a Dining Chair

I'm blond, I'm beautiful and I'm young. I have a svelte figure that I’m particularly proud of and one that I like to show off as much as possible. I live with my mother, father, one sister and two brothers. Our cousin also lives with us. But he’s a dining table.

I don’t know what life is like for him, but for me life as a Pastel Dining Chair is pretty casual, comfortable and fun. I have plenty of style and I’m built to last. This is not surprising, since I started out as heavy duty steel tubing, constructed for durability. My rich finish is applied in five stages, which is hand-applied for a customized look. Meaning I’m unique, even though I might closely resemble my siblings.

But the final result—if I may say so—is simply stunning. I have shapely legs, a classic lattice-back, finials, cushy upholstery and a curved crestrail. My crestrail is made of wood, in a soft warm color, which adds distinction and lessens my strong metal look. It also allows me to blend seamlessly with my cousin, the table.

The best part of being a chair in a Pastel Dining Set is that we belong to a family of five. Instead of having to take time out of their busy day to go to a retail store, we were bought online through Cymax Stores. I was conveniently shipped straight from the warehouse to my new home in what seemed like no time at all.

Since they lead such busy lives, they don’t get a chance to sit down all together for a meal as often as I would like them to. But I’m more fortunate than my sister, who has no one sitting in her on a regular basis—she’s the spare chair for when there’s a guest. I belong to a teenager, who is very energetic and talks a lot. Mostly on her cell phone when she thinks her mother isn’t looking or is too busy talking to her younger brother. The smells from the kitchen are always delicious and everyone seems to be having a good time.

My least favorite part of being a Dining Chair is when they gather to celebrate a holiday. Because the dining room is filled to capacity with people and their laughter, that’s when all the strange looking, miss-matched ones show up. You know the ones I mean—the padded, red vinyl kitchen chair from the breakfast nook, the saddleback stool twins from the family room downstairs and even a computer desk chair with casters for goodness sake! She really doesn’t belong! It bothers me that they don’t match. But I suppose I shouldn’t mind—the more the merrier! And I have to admit, we all do have fun around the dining table, who just loves being the center of attention at a holiday gathering.

Even if I say so myself, a Pastel Dining Set from Cymas Stores is a good investment. Providing a place for loved ones to gather for holidays, other special occasions or “everyday” meals, your dining room furniture is an integral part of a lifetime of memories.