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I've always kept my dining room table covered with the table pads and then a table cloth over that. When I had my last house staged for showings, I took off the covers and left the beautiful cherry wood showing.
I'm getting ready to move into my new house and part of me wants to be able to look at the beautiful cherry wood every day, like it looked in the staged house. But I'm afraid of the wood getting damaged from daily use.
For those with nice wooden dining room tables, what do you do? Do you protect the wood with a cover, with the trade off that you don't get to enjoy looking at it? Or do you go with the "nice things are made to be used" approach and figure the enjoyment you get is worth the possible wear and damage?
My MIL and SIL both have big wood dining tables. They leave them uncovered but they don't get used. When they do get used they get covered. If you don't need it for everyday use I would leave the cover off.
Personally I tend to trade off the "look" for more practical things.
I cannot have a table cloth on mine. The cats would make it slide off. And leave fur on it. And sleep on it. And generally make it messy. Plus, it would collect dust. So I leave mine with wood showing and just wipe it down before I use it. If I am having a large family gathering, I put a nice plastic holiday themed covering down so I can just pull it off and wrap it all up and toss it after we are done.
if you use the table every day you could compromise by using place mats, which are easier to remove and replace than the pads and tablecloth.
Nice things are meant to be used, too.
Old English Scratch Cover will take care of minor dings, and there are craftsmen who can fix major injuries, if it comes to that.
I agree that nice things are meant to be used; otherwise why do we have them?
We don't use our formal dining table every day and we leave it uncovered. We use a table cloth when we use it on holidays.
Our kitchen table is also really nice though (well, it will be when my husband is done making it) and we plan to use place mats there for our daily dining. I like how place mats look though, so that's really the main reason we have them.
I don't have a 'formal' dining room... just a regular one. We are currently remodeling it.
In the old one, the table was uncovered. Table pads and tablecloth was put on when used.
In the new one, the table will be uncovered. We are not getting table pads and tablecloths... just some placemats to be used when needed.
So definitely a mix of approaches. We'll be using it every day as the main eating area, so I guess I need to factor that into the equation.
I'm thinking maybe a combination of a table runner and placemats, so there is something covering the middle to put serving dishes on along with the eating dishes.
If I use a tablecloth, it would be over the pads, so I can't see myself putting those plus a cloth on and off for every meal.
So definitely a mix of approaches. We'll be using it every day as the main eating area, so I guess I need to factor that into the equation.
I'm thinking maybe a combination of a table runner and placemats, so there is something covering the middle to put serving dishes on along with the eating dishes.
If I use a tablecloth, it would be over the pads, so I can't see myself putting those plus a cloth on and off for every meal.
I have a large glass dining table at home. I leave it uncovered for the most part. When I use it or the kids come over I just add placemats and some cork trivettes
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