Too Many Tables

Or maybe I should call this Consumer Excess or Keeping up with the Jones' if the Jones' shopped at Goodwill or There's another table in the basement-too! Either way, last weekend we ended up with exactly 4 tables in our dining room. A beautiful antique drop leaf table that is too old and delicate and "nice" for our family to actually use. A very old walnut veneer table, that many years ago, was being used as a saw horse in the wood shop at the school where my father taught graphic arts before my father rescued and repaired it for my mother. Derek's table, that he bought for his first post divorce-pre Katherine bachelor pad (he is very attached to this one) and finally the new table I purchased at the thrift shop last weekend. It has carved legs. Carved legs!

OK, it seems more than obvious to even the most casual passerby that we did not need another table. And it became painfully obvious to me at the point I took this photo....we have too many tables. And now, even though we have managed to move two of the tables to other rooms, we still have too many tables and may always have too many tables because we are two very sentimental fools, neither of us willing to part with a single table. Can you say "don't all home offices have dining tables." I know I can.

And perhaps worse of all this new table has no chairs....well it HAS chairs-we have lots of chairs. Actually once I counted all our chairs for a school project and we had about 48 chairs in our house. I love chairs. But the new table (did I mention it has carved legs) needs new chairs because nothing we have-no, not even a single one of the 48 chairs we currently own-"goes with" the new table. As much as I luv this table....I am starting to think I should have left well enough alone and just gotten over myself and my foolish need to have my home look a certain way. After all, the dogs are content to beg at any type of table and the children are not picky as long as they can eventually smear it with gogurt and finger paint.