(Note: Include a pic of your problem and your question gets posted first.)
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
My favorite answer: "Depends." (on how "warm" you want the space-- and how much you rely on the table to carry the weight-- what kind of light hits it? Do you see the table top bare most of the time, or do you like it to showcase tablescapes? Do you want it to macth chairs or contrast? Should it stand out or settle in to the rest of the room? etc.) Lots of variables that all boil down to (as MGR sez) personal choice.
I think MGR covered the veneer versus laminate, so I'll just weigh in on the top and edge combo...
On this table, I think the most successful look is when the edge and the top are as close in color as possible, to make the whole top look "carved from one block" and homogeneous. Otherwise, I think the edge banding calls too much attention to itself.
imho!
We have a table with a veneer covering and everytime we wiped it down ater the babes have eaten - some of the stain comes up...You can always cover it with a waxed cotton table cloth, but you might want to ask the company what the effect will be if you are constantly wiping down the table...
I just purchased the same table 3 months ago with the white laminate top and the black rubber edge, this is the classic look, the table is tough as nails, it can stand up to anything what ever happens on the table food, dirt, ink, markers, is easily wiped off, I also have the same table in another room from the 60's and it still looks brand new- go with the laminate
lol @ "tablescapes"
Um, why is that funny?
see if retromodern.com has a better price.
Thanks everyone,
I ordered samples of wood veneer and laminate from the site and then soon-to-be-father and I proceeded to scratch the hell out of both with keys and soon-to-be-father's tooth-bitten nails (I can't get him to stop!). The wood veneer has natural grooves (cut lines?) in it and our scratches didn't seem to bother it so we've ordered the table in a dark mahogany with dark mahogany edge band too. (The laminate did well too in our test.) I can't wait until it arrives. For chairs we've gone much chaeper and bought Crate and Barrel's espresso wood veneer infinty chair which seems to match really well. Bring on the vomit kiddo, I say!
Reef