Let's Gather Around the Kitchen Table

There's something special about the kitchen. It's a place of warmth and sustenance, from which issues the vital sustenance that will sustain you and your family throughout the day. It's where you belly gets full and your mind is eased, and the world is made simple, and wholesome.

All of these qualities make the kitchen the perfect place to gather friends and family for social situations. However this is difficult if people don't have somewhere to rest their feet and feel at ease. Even though snacking, and enjoying beverages, makes the kitchen an ideal gathering ground, if people don't have somewhere to go, they'll just end up leaning on the fridge, sitting on counters, or wandering aimlessly throughout the space.

A table provides a location, it's like a beacon calling people to come and join you within the space. It gives them a place to sit and chat, to feel at ease within the room, and to take part in the kitchen community. It is an intrinsically social tool that brings people together.

It also has a symbolic value. Sitting down with the family to share a meal is emblematic of good, wholesale situations which tend to bring people together over the good things in life. In this way you will be working with archetypes to subtly alter the nature of the environment you live within.

The problem with kitchen tables is that not every space is big enough to fit them. Often you will have kitchens that are so small you don't have room for anything except the bare necessities. Function generally has to win out over form in these situations because, in essence, the kitchen is supposed to be a functional place, a place to get things done.

There are a few alternatives however, if your kitchen is too small for a regular sized table. One is to play with angle, setting a square table butted up against a ninety degree corner. This effectively eliminates two of the side jutting out into the floor space. Another option is to have a small bar, or lunch counter installed along one of the walls. This can be coupled with some barstools to create a tiny, out of the way seating and eating setting. If construction is an option, you can often cut a hole through a kitchen wall into the adjoining room, creating a counter space in the area in between.

If you have the room, some people like to divide their kitchens into work space, and eating space, carving a small dinette out of a piece of the setting. This can serve as a backup dining room, or as the main eatery in the home, depending on how your house is laid out. The advantage of this is that you can divide the space evenly, putting all of your functional necessities by the sink and oven, and leaving the more social aspects of the space off to the side.

A kitchen table is a powerful social tool that can alter the nature of the space completely. However you have to be careful to make sizing considerations, and try to find a solution which flows naturally with the room you have available. A table too large can make the room feel cluttered and claustrophobic, removing much of the functionality from the setting. Luckily there are a variety of options available for alternative kitchen settings.
This article was written by Jim Slate. Custom stone tables can be purchased in any size and shape that you desire from PebbleZ.com - the rustic stone home décor store. They have a collection of over 40 different table designs, each one hand crafted in the United States, and built to our customer's exact specifications.

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