Good Questions: Which Surface on My New Eames Table?

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Hello AT,
I am contemplating buying the Eames round dining table with segmented base (by Herman Miller) from highbrowfurniture.com. It comes in a range of wood veneers as well as laminate. We're expecting our first baby in a few months and we want something hardwearing as well as stylish.
Does anyone have an advice as to which top I should go for? Is wood veneer easy to take care of or shoud I play safe with laminate?

Also, any info on the table (favorite tabletop color, what tabletop color looks good with which edge band) would be appreciated!

Reef

Dear Reef,

this is a personal style question really, as we would always choose to live with wood over laminate.

In our opinion, laminate smacks of the office and wood takes the edge off. Not having a messy little child (yet) however, we won't pretend that we know whether or not laminate is simply a requirement.

We leave that to the experts out there, while we vote for long lasting, warm feeling, always treatable with oil - wood. MGR

Comments (1)

If you are using it as a dining table for children, definitely get the laminate. Wood veneer is wood, and delicate wood at that, and it should only be an option for adults that use coasters with their drinks 100% of the time if you want that veneer to hold up. Veneer IS easy to care for, its also easy to ruin. Replacing veneer on a table is expensive and a job for a pro, and an amateur can't just sand and refinish a veneer top.

Solid wood tops can be made for these tables, but aren't cheap and aren't indestructible either, but they are gorgeous. A Corian or other solid synthetic top would be more attractive than a laminate top, but also would not be cheap: it would however, be the most durable surface choice.