The New Kitchen Table!

Up until recently, our kitchen breakfast nook area looked like this:

The table was a hand-me-down from my parents that we've had since before we were married. When we first got it, it looked like this:

(move-in day for our old apartment)

We painted the white parts black pretty quickly, and we were pretty happy with the result:

When we bought our current house, we figured we'd replace the table with something new and more our style. But there were so many other rooms to tackle first (like the completely empty dining room and piano room, then the guest room and the other guest room, and then our bedroom). After all, at least the kitchen had furniture in it and looked "done." 

We honestly weren't planning on looking for a new table until the master bedroom and craft room were done (which still hasn't happened), but we happened to stop by World Market during a big furniture sale, and I immediately loved the chunky-but-pretty pedestals of this rustic table & chairs:

World Market's Arcadia Collection

Thanks to the big sale that was going on, a coupon we had, and an American Express gift card (a rebate from my new camera purchase), we were able to buy the entire set in the picture (table, 4 chairs, and a bench) for just $135! Our kitchen went from this...

To this!

We're really happy with it. The dark wood matches the kitchen cabinets and the dining room table in the adjoining room SO much better than the old table ever did. 

(I should really stop taking photos at midnight... but you get the picture)

I really wanted to have a bench on that side of the table because of the layout of the room. This is a horrible photo, but you can see how the room is kind of long with the kitchen table area stuck on one end...

With the high-backed chairs we had before, I felt like the chairs just cut that section of the kitchen off from the rest of the room and made it seem like two smaller rooms. Now, the bench makes everything look more open and connected, like one big room. I love it!

I love the rustic look of the table. Rustic isn't normally my thing, but in this case I just liked it!

If the table gets scratched or whatever in the future, I think it will just add to the character of it, so it will hopefully be a great long-term piece of furniture, despite its small price tag. Plus, it's just pretty. :)

There are two more chairs and two leaves that go on each end of the table, but it's a little cramped in that space when you include everything, so for now we're leaving it without the leaves, and the extra chairs are hanging out in the game room upstairs. It's nice to have them all though in case we ever need to seat 6+ people there. Generally we just eat in the dining room if we have more than four people though.

I found a pretty little linen runner at HomeGoods the other day and added it to the table, and I think it does a great job of breaking up all the dark. 

So, that's it! Yay new table! What do y'all think?