The Greatest Table That Has Ever Tabled

Wandering through a Crate and Barrel last summer (there's one located next to one of my favorite stores on Earth, The Container Store), Steve and I came across a wonderful table. Its "origami" drop-leaf design allowed it to shrink to a mere 14 inches deep when fully collapsed, but could expand to seat a "holiday factor" of six. It seemed like the perfect table for the small dining area we had cleared in our kitchen redesign. We filed away knowledge of this great table possibility, wanting to be sure we considered all of our options, and went on our way. 

The first day of October, I spotted the table on one of the design blogs I frequent. My exact utterance at the time was "oh, no." It was on a list of (relatively) affordable tables well designed for small spaces. Which meant it was soon to become more difficult to acquire. 

Having found no more appealing options since we first happened upon this table, I clicked quickly over to Crate and Barrel's website to order it. I was able to... for delivery in mid-December. Luckily, there were no additional delays and the table arrived today, more than in time for Christmas.

And now, finally, I shall show my loyal readership why this table is the greatest. 

Fully collapsed:

How it'll be most of the time, one leaf up for me and Steve:

Fully extended (it's a bit impeded by un-assembled chair boxes at the moment, but it will fit nicely in our available space once we finish up the building process):

The chairs are Ikea. Steve and I sat in a dozen chairs that ranged wildly in price and style and this modest Ikea product was by far the most comfortable. I wanted to be sure long-term sitting would be comfy since this is the only table in the house and I want to be able to play games and lounge. It's hard to tell with the lighting weirdness in the pictures, but the seat covers are grey, not blue. I think it looks really great... we'll have to start hosting (small) dinner parties or something.