| My parents started their marriage buying an entire | | | | could look each person sitting at the table in the |
| house full of Early American-style furniture. The | | | | eye. And it was easy to slip a spare chair and a |
| centerpiece of our home was a round dining table. | | | | high chair to a round dining table. |
| We had years when its drop leaves were rarely | | | | My mother decided on a dinette set similar to |
| propped up, except for Thanksgiving or Easter | | | | mine in her retirement condo; she didn't really |
| dinner. Other times, we ate weeknight dinners, | | | | need seating for eight any more. Our family's |
| worked on school projects, and finished Halloween | | | | round dining table was handed down my youngest |
| costumes on its 70-inch surface. | | | | brother who was just starting out on his own. |
| Although my mother loved her round dining table, | | | | I moved into a new home, and my new square |
| she was frustrated by how few tablecloths she | | | | dining room accommodated my existing furniture |
| was able to find with a 90-inch diameter. When | | | | well. But a few years later, I bought a vacation |
| she found a tablecloth that fit, she used it for | | | | home, and used that as an opportunity to move |
| every event, year after year. | | | | out some of my well-loved and well-used |
| Many years after I was out on my own, I was | | | | furniture, and refurnish my everyday home. I |
| traveling for business. I entered a restaurant by | | | | didn't hesitate when it came to the dining room-a |
| myself, ready to take a small table in the corner | | | | found a round dining table, resting on a pedestal, in |
| and enjoy dinner on my own. But when I told the | | | | a rich espresso finish. Its contemporary lines |
| hostess, "party of one," she asked me if I | | | | updated a traditional style. |
| wanted to join the group table. I had never heard | | | | My round dining table has a unique feature. While |
| of such a concept, but there it was in the middle | | | | my mother's table had leaves that turned its |
| of the restaurant-a round dining table, bigger than | | | | familiar round top to oval (it seated 12 easily |
| Mom's-where solo diners could join a group and | | | | when she did that), my round dining table came |
| enjoy some companionship over dinner. I loved | | | | with four leaves-each in the shape of a quarter |
| the idea! Why didn't more restaurants do this? | | | | circle. I pull recessed support rods out from the |
| My time came to buy a dining table, and I chose a | | | | apron of the tabletop, rest an arc-shaped leaf on |
| contemporary rectangular table (no tablecloth | | | | top of the supports, and clamp it securely into |
| issues for me, I actually thought) in solid cherry. | | | | place. When I do that for each of the four |
| But when it came to furnish my breakfast nook, I | | | | quarter-circle leaves, and I expand the tabletop |
| didn't hesitate to select a glass-topped round | | | | from 60 inches to 72 inches, and I can seat eight |
| dining table. It was smaller than my mom's, and | | | | persons rather than six. |
| looked nothing like hers, so I was confident that I | | | | It's funny that I actively avoided choosing a piece |
| was making choices that were my own. | | | | of furniture that resembled that my mother |
| I immediately saw the virtues of my new round | | | | made a center of her home. I wanted to establish |
| dining table. The round dining table changed the | | | | a household that was uniquely mine. But I ended |
| dynamics of the dinner table-everyone sitting | | | | up being happiest with a choice first made by my |
| there was easily engaging with everyone else. I | | | | Mom. |