Fine Dining
Our old dining room table was solid core door (free) with $20 IKEA legs. We covered the door with black vinyl. It was childproof, easy to clean and completely hideous. Oh, and the door was 24”
wide, so you could rub knees (and plates) with the person sitting across from you. That dining room table was the equivalent of milk crate shelving or the beach chairs I once passed off for a living room suite.
So we needed a new dining room table. We couldn’t buy our ideal dining room table, of course, it will sport a layer of ground-in burritos, sour cream and blueberries in about a week.
So I looked at my favorite furniture website, IKEA, and found that dining room tables – unless they are a door with wobbly legs and a vinyl tablecloth - are not cheap!
I also found that IKEA only delivers SOME of their surprisingly not-inexpensive dining room tables. The ones that you actually want to buy are only available in their stores. So if you live, like us, remote from all IKEAs, you’re out of luck.
So, I checked out one of my other favorite furniture websites, Design Within Reach, which had the perfect dining room table - on sale!. Reminiscent of a surfboard (if you just thought “yuck!” you can stop right here), the table would be at home in a Case Study house (if you’re still going “yuck”, remember that I warned you to stop reading). 
If Charles Eames surfed, this would be his surfboard, in other words. In more other words, it goes well with our Eames chairs.
Similarly, it goes well with our two year old. You can mush blueberries (or even blackberries!) into the white powder-coated surface, and they come right off with a baby wipe (my preferred cleaning method).
One word of warning, though - the table tends to dent when you jam a sharp fork into it, so until she can control her urge to play drums on every flat surface, Finn not only gets a child sized fork, she also gets a placemat.