The little IKEA table that I bought when I moved to Chicago 5 years ago has served me well at my last two apartments. In each of those places I only had a small space for a dining area so my small table with 4 chairs was perfect. In our new condo we have much more space for a dining set. Since we want to be able to have everyone sit for dinner parties and host more poker parties, a new table and chairs were high on our priority list.

Both Kristin and Christina recommended World Market dining room sets to us. They said that they were stylish, well constructed, and reasonably priced. When we were looking at couches in Naperville we went to World Market and looked at dining room sets at World Market, but didn’t buy anything.

A week or two later Kristin offered to drive us out to Oak Brook to look at furniture. We went to Dania, West Elm, and then back to World Market. World Market definitely had the closest to what we were looking for in size and style. It was also the sturdiest and the most in our price range. We selected what we wanted and it was kind of a cluster running to a few different stores to get everything, but in the end we got 8 chairs for half off. We couldn’t transport the table so I ordered it online. World Market was having free shipping, so that wasn’t an issue, but because the table is so big and heavy they were charging $70 extra. I found a coupon code online for a percentage off and ended up knocking $85 off the price, so the $70 was not an issue any more.

When we got the table we put the leaf in it and had all 8 chairs around it, but it was a bit much for everyday. We took the leaf out and put 2 chairs to the side and I think that’s how we’ll keep it unless we have people over.

If you are looking for a small table and 4 chairs and would like to buy my table in the “before” photo, email me. rachelle at rachelleb dot com. We’ll probably be putting it on Craigslist soon.