Journal

Provenance: Where the Stone and Wood Come From

Every stone was a mountain and every board was a tree. Knowing which, and where, is part of owning the table. Buyers of a fine dining table ask about size, finish, and price. Fewer ask where the m...

Extendable or Fixed-Size: Should a Luxury Dining Table Extend?

An extending table solves one evening a year. A fixed table serves the other three hundred and sixty-four. The question is which of the two the room is for. Few buyers can say with certainty how m...

Humidity, Heat and Altitude: How Climate Affects a Solid Wood Table

A solid wood table is never finished growing and shrinking. The question is how much, and whether it was built to do so. Solid wood is a material that responds to the air around it. It takes up mo...

Honed, Polished, Brushed or Leathered: Choosing the Stone Finish

The stone chooses the color. The finish chooses how the table will look, feel, and age every day it is used. Buyers of a stone dining table spend most of their time on the choice of stone: marble, ...

How Many Does It Seat? Dining Table Sizes by Number of Guests

A table does not seat the number of people it can hold. It seats the number who can sit at it comfortably, and the difference is where most sizing mistakes begin. "How many does it seat?" is the f...

A Luxury Dining Table in a Family Home: Children, Pets, Daily Life

A fine table in a family home is not a table to be protected from the family. It is a table chosen to live alongside it. A common assumption holds that a luxury dining table and a household with c...

Table Joinery: What Actually Holds a Solid Wood Table Together

The best joinery is the part of a table you never see and never think about, for as long as the table lasts. When people compare solid wood dining tables, they compare species, dimensions, and fin...

Inside the Lead Time: What Happens Between Order and Delivery

A lead time is not a delay. It is the part of the price you cannot see, spent on the steps that cannot be hurried. A made-to-order table is not taken from a shelf. It is made once the order is pla...

Walnut, Oak or Ash: Choosing the Species for a Solid Wood Table

Walnut, oak, and ash are all solid, all noble, and all correct. They are not interchangeable, and the difference shows up in the room every day. Most solid wood dining tables are made in one of th...

Daylight and the Dining Table: How Stone and Wood Read Through the Day

A table is chosen under one light and lived with under all of them. The window decides which one you see most. Materials are usually selected from a sample, in a showroom or under a lamp. The dini...