I have a new dining room table. This is exciting news! I’ve been dreaming of a big, roomy dining room table that will hold our family and friends for big pasta dinners for a very long time. I finally found it at a consignment shop, but now it’s giving me a lesson in patience.

I’ve been window and internet browsing for a new dining room table for a couple years. It definitely wasn’t on the top of our list of things for the house. It wasn’t even in the top ten, but when I went into a consignment store with my mom to look for a chair for her house, we saw it sitting there surrounded by a glowing light. Ok, it was just a bright showroom light, but I knew right away it was the one.

It seats 8 to 10 people. The top is all one piece, no cracks for crumbs to get stuck in or mess up our coloring projects. The legs are delicate and not too bulky, so the table does’t look visually heavy. The wood is slightly distressed so it won’t show when my kids ding it up, because they will. And it was $900, much less than other tables I had been eying. Yes, this was it.

It took me a weekend to convince Marcello that we should buy a new dining room table. I wasn’t sure he was buying what I was selling, but Monday morning he called me around 9, and said he’d been to the store, bought the table and it would be delivered by noon! Whahoo!! It was such a sweet thing for him to do. He always keeps me on my toes! I did a little dance and immediately put our old set up for sale to earn money for the chairs.

I sold the set by the next week on Craigslist. Can I share something I’ve learned selling furniture on Craigslist? When you want to sell something fast, research the prices of similar items and set yours slightly below. Forget forget forget what you paid for something, and list close to as low as you are willing to go. People will usually ask for less, so give yourself a little wiggle room, but remember that people with extra cash to burn are usually not shopping on Craigslist. The idea is to get a little cash for something you no longer need. If it sits for more than four days or so with no inquiries, it’s priced too high.

A month or so later, I took the $200 bucks I got for our old set and money from a graphics job I completed to order eight of these Eames-style chairs for $476. (We only buy something when we already have the money in the bank for it. Check out how I do my budget here.) It’s a good deal for eight chairs, but now I know why! It’s taking forever to get them! Over a month and a half. So meanwhile I’m staring at my lovely new table with three random, mismatched chairs in attendance. And it’s only making me hate the chandelier even more than I used to.

Isn’t the human mind something? Here I finally got the table I wanted so badly, even ordered chairs to go around it, but I’m wrinkling my nose at having to wait and already wondering when I will able to switch out the light? I have to make myself change my mindset, once again, to a thankful attitude. And changing the light fixture is like number 63 on the list, so I’ve got to relax.

Ok, I’ll stop rambling about this table and get to something you can take away from this post!

How to make an extra-long table runner

So now that I have this 9-foot table, all my table runners are way too short. I pulled them out and realized that a couple of them are double sided. Perfect! I ripped out the seams and sewed the ends together to make one long runner.

Tools

• double-sided table runner
• seam ripper
• scissors
• sewing machine
• thread

Time

• 45 minutes

Instuctions

• Rip out the seams with scissors or seam ripper.
• Sew two short ends together.
• Put runner on your table with the seam in the center of the table. Cut ends off allowing about 10 inches to hang past the table on each side.
• Sew the sides and end seams, following the existing crease.

Pretty easy, right? Now I have to figure out how to do centerpieces for such a large table. I have a feeling my old standbys will look puny! What are your favorite ways to decorate your dining room table?