Your dining table says a lot about your home. It is where you, your family, and guests eat and socialize. As such, you want a dining table that complements the room and your style. Such as table would promote a healthy home while serving as the focal point for the entire ensemble. Luckily, you have a few customs and pre-made options available to you.
While you can get the same functionality from both, a custom dining table option generally offers you more design options than a corresponding pre-made model from a big box store. This is because they are custom-built for your home and style. Though, a pre-made table does offer some benefits in some situations.
All this depends on getting the right table design and features for your room. The wrong custom table will fail as much as a wrong pre-made one. By reading further, you will learn how to avoid the downfalls and choose the right design aspects for your dining table.
Should You Get a Custom or Pre-made Dining Table for Your Home?
In this fast-paced world, everyone wants things done immediately, or at least overnight. However, choosing a dining room should not be such a thing. You want to get it right the first time because of the importance it has in your home. It is one of the few things in your life where quality matters over everything else.
This is because your dining table is the main focus of your home. Your dining table is where you:
- Eat with your family and friends, and how you serve matters
- Entertain and socialize with guests, and strike up conversations
- Accentuate your décor, and bring excitement to your room and home
- Promote a healthy home, and withstand the obstacles you face every day
If you want these activities to go smoothly, your dining room must provide the necessary comfort and atmosphere you and your guests expect. Cramped spaces can make everyone irritable, leading to arguments and missed opportunities. However, your room might be thwarting your efforts to do this.
Custom or Pre-made Table
There are many reasons why this might be the case. The physical dimensions of the room might be too restrictive. Other times, the style and décor might be the issue. In either case, you may want a new table that can let everyone breathe a little better.
Luckily, you have numerous options to get it right, though they all fall under the same two categories. You can try your luck and get a pre-made table from a big box store or you can get something custom-made. Both have their advantages, though a custom table works best in most situations. Either way, it all comes down to what you need.
What to Look for When Buying a Dinner Table
With so much riding on your dining table, there are some important factors you must consider when shopping for you. If you get these details right, your new table will add new life and feel to your home.
Type of Dinner Table and Construction
Before you choose anything else, you must select the right material construction and style for your new dining table. Generally, you want something similar to the other furniture in the room. Either way, it comes down to one of the following three choices.
- Glass Dining Table – gives an ultramodern look and feel, transparent creating the perception of space, but is prone to scratches and cracking
- Solid Wood Dining Table – environmentally friendly, high-end, and traditional, offers great quality in a durable sturdy package, can come in any shape, pattern, curve, or arc, but heavy, high-maintenance, and expensive
- Marble Dining Table – limited in supply but easy to manage and high quality, resistant to high temperatures, heavy objects, and scratches, but not always environmentally friendly
Size and Shape
If you want your new table to fit your room, you must consider its size and shape. You want enough room for your guests and chairs, but these factors go beyond the physical dimensions too. A round table makes your room smooth and calmer, but a square one will make it feel refined.
Colors
Table color is often the most difficult choice, but it is one you have to make. You want the table to match the décor of your room, and that includes the color palette. This will maximize the look and feel and make everything fit naturally.
Durability
Your dining table will take a beating. Thus, you want one that can take the pounding with minimal wear and tear. That will ensure your table does not break when you need it the most.
Transportable
If you want a dining table you can easily move it as needed. This is useful if you move a lot, but it will also help you when you need to rearrange it to host large parties.
Benefits of a Mass-Produced Dining Table from a Big Box Store
When most people need to buy a new dining table, their first instinct is to head over to a nearby furniture store and browse the selection. There is nothing wrong with this. Pre-made tables work well in many situations along with a few other benefits.
Cost
Pre-made table manufacturers can utilize more efficient processes and techniques that lower the cost of production. They can then pass those savings on to you, along with the saving that comes with the usual market scaling.
Beyond the production costs, furniture outlet pricing is usually preset by the store. So, the price you pay is the price listed on the table except for delivery and taxes.
Availability
Pre-made tables are already available for purchase. You can just go to the store today and buy them. That makes them great for when you need a new table right away.
Accessibility
Because most furniture stores put out displaced sets of their wares, you can test the dining tables right there in the store to make sure they will work for you. There are no surprises. Everything you see is how the table will look once you take it home
Disadvantages of Pre-made Big Box Dining Tables
Despite these benefits, furniture outlets limit your options. The selection they put out for display is usually all they have in stock. If none of it will fit your home or style, you are out of luck as customization is rarely possible.
The Benefits of Getting a Custom Dining Table
If you need more control over your dining table design, you can have a custom table made for you. As these tables are tailored-made for you, they come with numerous benefits that you can reap immediately upon installation.
Infinite Option Availability
The first thing you will notice is the abundance of available options. Depending on your chosen craftsman, they may even be limitless. This is because custom dining tables are done from scratch. So, your craftsman can easily design them from the ground up according to your exact specifications.
As such, you will have multiple opportunities to discuss and influence the construction of your dining table. These decisions can include the table:
- Size, height, and shape
- Tabletop type, style, engravings, and quality
- Wood type and quality
- Finish color and style
- Style and quality of any included hardware, chairs, and other furnishings
You can let your imagination run wild to pick the perfect shape, size, construction, detailing, and so forth. It is your table. You can have it match perfectly with your lifestyle and décor goals right out of the box. Otherwise, you can let your style fit the table. The choice is always up to you.
Uniqueness
Because your craftsman builds to your specifications, your custom dining table would be a one-of-a-kind high-end piece of furniture. It will not only serve as the centerpiece of your room’s ensemble but also a topic of conversation that the envy of your friends and family for years.
Healthier and Superior Quality
Custom-made furniture also receives more attention to detail than mass-produced stuff. That means that only the highest quality materials go into the making of your dining table. As a result, it will be highly resistant to scratches, stains, and microorganisms, ensuring that you always have a healthy and hygienic get-together-cum-dining atmosphere.
High Durability and Return on Your Investment
The high-quality and unique construction will also make your new custom dining table a highly durable work of art. It will resist most wear and tear, serving your family for years, but it will also gain value through the years as well. If properly maintained, your new dining table may become a prized possession to pass down to your kids.
Made to Fit Comfortably in Your Room
Because you specify the final dimensions, you can ensure your new dining table can fit the exact floor space or shape of your room. The result is an optimal design that offers enough space and utility that everyone will have a comfortable place at the table. Nothing would be out of place or inconvenient, maximizing the full potential of your dining room.
Environment Friendly Lightweight Construction
While it depends on your circumstances, you can ask for a lightweight custom dining table. These lightweight tables will be much more durable than anything mass-produced, though they might not be as cheap and replaceable. Plus, the lighter construction will lead to a more environmentally friendly building process as your craftsman can source fewer polluting materials.
Fits Your Long-Term Budget Goals
While a mass-produced, pre-made table from a big-box furniture store offers cheaper upfront costs, a custom dining table will retain that value longer. That is because of how durable it is. A custom table resists most scratches and chips, ensuring you can enjoy your table for years with little maintenance.
The Disadvantages of a Custom-Made Table
Thanks to these and other benefits, a custom dining table is usually the best option when searching for a new table for your dining room. You get a gorgeous table that fits your life and home perfectly that may even grow in value. However, that is not always the case. A custom table brings some steep trade-offs with it, and these tradeoffs may not be worth the investment.
The first and foremost is the high initial investment cost. You are paying a premium for that customization and top-quality materials and construction. It gets even worse if you break it as there will be no readily available replacement parts, meaning buying a new table would be your only choice.
The second disadvantage is production time. Your craftsman will not begin working on your table until you place the order for it. As such, you might have to wait a while before you can enjoy your new table. This might become an issue if you need the table immediately.
Finally, you are going in blind when buying a new custom table. You have nothing to test or try out until your craftsman completes the project. That means you have no way to spot anything wrong with the table until it is too late. At that time, your only options are to settle with what you go with or request a brand-new table.
Dining Table Buying Tips
Regardless of where you get it, your new dining table will be an investment in your home and lifestyle. As such, you want to get it right the first time. To that end, here is some common advice that may help point you to the right table for you.
- Beware of False Promises – Shady dealers will often quote lower prices than well-known furniture brands for the same level of quality. They can only achieve those markdowns by cutter corners such as material and assembly quality.
- Craftsman experience is everything – Carpentry skill is all experience-based. It takes years to fully understand how wood behaves and finishes.
- Find your inspiration before shopping – You can find your design and style inspirations anywhere including in magazines, websites, films, television shows, and so forth. Once you find something, you can show it to your craftsman to see how doable it is.
Conclusion
Your dining table is more than just where your family eats. The right table can open up your home in numerous ways, making shopping for a new one an important investment decision. Luckily, you have options. You can get a mass-produced table if your needs require it. Otherwise, you can get a custom one to show off your unique style in form and comfort.
