To Dine or Not to Dine

For some reason lately I've been itching for a permanent dinning area. I'd love to have a full on dining room, but we'd have to move to make that one happen. That's not in the cards for the next few years.

So my question is, do I put the cash down and get a small table now, or wait until we move and get a full on big dinning table at the next pad we live in? My concern is, would we really ever use a dinning table or would it just collect mail and "stuff"? All of the current bare counters where I have strictly instructed "under no circumstance can any items be left on this counter!" are all covered with rented movies, mail, magazines - you name it. If there is an empty space the DH thinks it is fair game to put "stuff" on. My guess is a dinning table would end up the same -covered.

BUT, then I look at beautiful little dining spaces like these from Living Etc-



I think a nice little round table like this would fit nicely in our small home. I love how little visual space it takes up.



The base of this table is amazing. The color of paint, glass table, and mix matched white chairs gives this such a fresh feeling. Lurve it!



I WANT THESE CHAIRS!



Again, this color palette is right up my alley. I love the simple drum shade over the table instead of some fru fru chandelier.

These totally make me drool. Plus, I really miss dining without the TV on. Whenever Jeff and I are actually together around dinner time we will usually cook something up (meaning Jeff will cook something tasty) and catch up on shows on the DVR. Our current dinning table is either our laps or the coffee table. Not sweet.

Our "nice" table is this fold out table in the stairs landing downstairs. When we have guest come over we have to clear off all the mail/stuff, Find a place to hide all this mail/stuff, drag the table into the living room, put on a table cloth, and find any random chairs around the house. I'm pooped before we even sit down to eat.



For those of you with smaller families and living spaces what do you find? Do you actually use your dinning tables? Or do they tend to be dust and mail collectors?

P.S. I love this poster above our fold away table. Jeff stole this from the concert we went to during our very first date, exactly four years ago this past June 1. I cannot believe it's been that long!!