This is our kitchen table:
It’s simple and beautiful and – here’s why it’s special – it used to belong to Dale’s grandmother. This is the table that Dale’s dad grew up with and by some stroke of luck it wound up with us.
I truly love it. I remember when we were doing the kitchen over and Dale asked me if I wanted to get a new table. I thought he was kidding as it never would occur to me that we would get rid of it.
The wood is worn and gouged. There are marks from where Dale’s Swedish grandmother set down the ever-present coffee pot.
There’s even a mark from a night when Sharon and I, drinking perhaps too much wine, dyed some yarn and left a stain on the table.
Yes, it’s scarred and stained and burned. But it’s where my family sits down to dinner every night. It’s where I roll out pie crust and decorate cupcakes. It’s where Hannah did her homework when she was little and it’s where Dale rolls countless Swedish meatballs every Christmas. And as we do all those things we remember that those same things were done by generations before us.
This table is a part of our family and I can’t imagine our kitchen without it.
I would never get rid of it either.
I have similar pieces, in fact my house is decorated “early attic.”
That’s a wonderful table, and so many memories! I’d never get rid of it either.
I can’t wait to see your kitchen table! It’s full of love and history.
Wonderful post!
We have a table like this in our home. It used to be in my boyfriend’s great grandfather’s slaughter house. It’s such a thing of beauty that I doubt it we will ever get rid of it. 🙂
I’m with you – its too full of family history to ever get rid of it. Its beautiful!
It’s really a beauty, too.
I feel the same way about our kitchen table. It’s not very old… we got it when we got married nine years ago, but I’ll never replace it.
What a lovely table!
What a wonderful family heirloom, so full of memories! I’d love to have something like that in my home. It’s beautiful!
what a treasure!
What nice memories… never ever toss that table! We have two end tables in our apartment that were Dan’s Nana’s. On the underside of the oval one is a whole lot of crayon marking from where Dan was ‘practicing’ his letters as a toddler.
I really enjoyed reading your post! Our kitchen table is starting to look like that, but it’s not an heirloom. Maybe we shouldn’t refinish it after all. 🙂
What a great K. I love that table.
wonderful! I also sit at my Great Grandmother’s table.
I have my grandmother’s kitchen table, too, and love it for all the reasons you love your table. We have had houses where it didn’t fit in the kitchen space, but so we used it as a porch table or in my sewing room. It would be hard to part with.
It’s great! How old do you think it is?
There sure is something special about a kitchen table, and I love the warm, inviting look of that one. The markings contain history and sentimental value. I agree that it holds memories and meaning to all that gather there.
That is wonderful.
But you dye and drink? Tsk, tsk.
“K” is fo keeper. And kleenex which I now need after reading this post.
That’s a wonderful K. I love furniture with a story and a history.
Wonderful! I have few specific dreams or desires regarding future “home” items, but a big, old, worn, farmer’s kitchen table is one of them. Solid wood, knowing it’s been around forever, and the place to do everything.
Great story! Our dining room table was refinished by my Dad and given to us when we boought the house. It was my parents table and when they got a new one it was used in the basement as part of the platform for the car racing set. Yeah, I’ll never get rid of that table either.
Just wonderful, Carole! I’d like to sit there with you and have a glass of wine!
what a lovely K – and a grand ol’ gal of a table.
memories all rubbed into it with love.
I’d love to see it in person some day! Great history there.
That is awesome. I love family heirlooms like that.
I love your “k” post! My grandmother’s table and chairs are in my folks’ basement waiting for me to live in a place where I either have a kitchen or a living room large enough for a table. It’s almost enough to make me move.
Perfect K. Gorgeous table!
What a treasure!
K is for Keeper.
I love the sentiment you have with that table… for me it is important to have those types of connections. It is nice to see that others have the same types of connections.
Is that a quilted table decoration and did you quilt it???
That’s an heirloom I’d definitely hang onto!
(((hugs)))
fabulous table, there’s no way i’d get rid of it either, lucky you!
Table is a great treasure. Is that a knitted piece in the middle of the table, love it. Judy from Alaska ~~~
Table is a great treasure. Is that a knitted piece in the middle of the table? love it. Judy from Alaska ~~~
That’s a table marked with love, telling the stories of generations. I am guessing that the center mat is quilted.
Of course the table is here to stay – you could never replace that much history! :o)
How wonderful that you have a kitchen table that is part of the family.
Your table is a beautiful family treasure…you are lucky to own it.
I truly love patina. It is US.
It’s a beautiful table! Lucky you! My mom got rid of all the old furniture from her parents and grandparents long before I knew what treasures they were.
Nope. I’d never get rid of it, either. How could any new table ever compete with a table like yours?
Hee. That’s absolutely wonderful! I love your table. 🙂
Oh…the stories that table to tell!! It’s just broke in–who would want a knew one?
I am an only child, but my dad’s younger sister, who has six children, babysat me while my parents worked. She lived in a wonderful old house with a big kitchen, and she had a huge table. I have so many memories of that table, which she kept covered with a red checked vinyl tablecloth, where we colored on rainy days, ate our lunch, and watched her bake all the dozens of cookies she made for us every week. I forgot about it, but years later, my cousing invited me to a picnic at his farm. He has the table! I can’t tell you how good it felt to sit at that old table, surrounded by the new family members I really don’t know yet and the cousins I grew up with. It was funny, too to realize that now we are the grown-ups, my aunt is the grandma, and my cousins’ children are the kids.
These are the kinds of material objects that are really worth something. You could have posted a picture of a brand-new chrome and glass table that cost $15,000 and that you are proud of simply because it’s a luxury item.
Dale’s table is worth much more.