8 guests, seating for 6/an easy solution!

Recently sweet husband and I hosted a dinner party in our home.  Now, let me start by saying that dinner party with our friends is generally a very loose term.  It usually involves great food placed on the island and every man, woman and child for themselves!  But this time was different, we all got sitters, a caterer and prepared for an “adult’s only” night in!

Since, I really wanted this to feel like a grown up meal, I decided to create a pretty table to go along with our wonderful meal that, remember, none of us had to cook.  That’s a reason for a party right there, kids or no kids!  As I counted couples, I realized if this was going to be a true grown up dinner party, everyone had to sit at the same table!  We very rarely sit at our normal gatherings, someone is always chasing down a child or cutting up someone else’s meat (hopefully a child’s and not a spouse’s!).  That’s when I realized I had a problem, 8 people, seating for 6.

So, what’s a girl to do?  Go out and buy a new table? Great, but no, that’s not on the project list at the moment!  Here’s what sweet husband and I did…

 

We took our dining table for 6 and transformed into a table for 8!

So here’s the table before, lovely, but still only seats 6…

 

We covered it with a rug pad cut to size…

 

Sweet husband went to Home Depot and had them cut two pieces of MDF for us.  MDF is super heavy, so you really might need a friend to help out with this part.

 

Even though, we knew that the boards were heavy, we decided to put super strength velcro on the bottom just in case.  By the time we were done, those MDF boards were super secure!  That is until we wanted to remove them, which is the beauty of this whole project!

 

All we need to do now is to dress it up!

 

I found these adorable and affordable birdcages at World Market.  To be honest, I hadn’t been in to World Market in a while and I was pretty impressed with their selections.  The birdcage, however, was black and I wanted a softer look, so back to Home Depot for some oil rubbed bronze spray paint and I was in business!

 

These sweet bird plates were also a World Market find and my bird theme was complete!

 

Add in the chocolate napkins from Home Goods, rattan napkin rings and green table cloth from World Market and we were ready for a party! A party for 8!

 

Here’s the after shot!  Those beautiful linen chairs are my sweet neighbors and they are brand new!  Thanks Michelle for letting us use them!  As for the empty wall behind the table, I just haven’t found the perfect thing for that wall yet, and of course, this is the angle we used for most of these shots, not from the other side of the room where all of the artwork and the beautiful sunburst mirror is…

 

One last shot… I hope this gives you some ideas about working with what you have.  This was a great option for us and we can set it up whenever we need to, because who doesn’t love a party!  And the more the merrier!

Love to hear your thoughts on this project!  What do you do when you have more people than seats?