My Table

Tables come in all shapes, sizes and colors. The first time I saw mine, it was in an outbuilding at my husband’s family farm. It had some other things stored on top of it, but I noticed it and kept thinking about it long after we returned home from that visit. Our girls were toddlers at the time and we were rapidly outgrowing our four-person round table, especially if we wanted family or friends to join us for a meal, which we did, frequently.

We asked Austin’s grandparents if we could make good use of the table and clean it up a bit! They were delighted that we wanted it and soon after that, my father-in-law picked it up, along with the matching benches, and it was in my dining area of our home!

I had never sanded or restored furniture before in my life, but I was determined to return this table to its former glory! There were several layers of peeling paint on the legs of both the table the benches so in the winter of 2018 I got to work! I cleaned, sanded, primed, painted and recovered the benches.

I was a History major in college, simply because I love history and excelled in the subject. My original plan was to go to law school, but that is another story for another time. The thing that fascinates me the most about history are the people and how the decisions of those before us affect the world we are living in today! I’ve always enjoyed antiques, old homes and quality items- something about them connects me to the past. I truly feel that we don’t make things with as much care and intentionality as they did in the past.

My table and the matching benches were hand made in 1940s by Austin’s paternal great-grandfather. I don’t know what kind of wood it is, but it is strong and has endured for 80 years! The legs of the table and the benches match, and he even put a silverware drawer in one end. He reinforced the table at the bottom with what looks like a really intense capital letter “I” (you can tell I have no knowledge of the terminology of building furniture- haha!). The benches are reinforced on each end as well.

In the 1960s, Austin’s grandfather put a new formica top of it in the popular avocado green color from that era. Pa has a masters in Art and has always had an eye for design, so he decided to add a rounded end to the side of the table across from the silverware drawer. I love this feature- it is so unique and can seat two people comfortably! It’s all about figuring out how to add more people around the table.

Austin’s dad, the oldest of four children, grew up around this table and remembers reading the back of the cereal box there in the mornings. It warms my heart to think of Austin’s Granny cooking hearty, farm fresh meals for her family and enjoying them around this table! As the children grew up, married, and the family continued to grow, Granny and Pa upgraded their table to a much bigger dining table and the green-topped table went into the outbuilding, where years later, I saw it.

It has made me happy to give our table a new chapter of life and it has already been a full one! It has come with us to three different homes. I homeschooled our girls on it for preschool and kindergarten during the pandemic. I’ve wrapped Christmas presents, served countless meals, celebrated birthdays and holidays, decorated cookies and cakes, helped with homework and even draped it with a sheet and made it into a fort!

The table is at the center of so much of our lives, so although the majority of this blog will be centered around food, “gracing the table”, is also about living our own lives with grace and creating memories and moments around our tables with the people who grace them often.