There was once a time when I knew exactly what dining chairs I wanted. And in truth, it wasn’t all that long ago.

I was looking ahead to having beautiful upholstered grey chairs with a real air of luxury about them. We replaced the dining table last year – a plain white wooden extendable table – and were saving up for some chairs to complement it. Of course, we still need to sit somewhere so we’ve got the old ones just lingering like a fart in an elevator that just won’t go away.

Truth be told, it just looks all higgledy piggledy and is the last thing in the dining area which needs changing. See Exhibit A above.

I’d seen the Flynn range from Made about a year ago and decided I wanted them. No wait, scrap that. I NEEDED them.

Image Source: Made

And so I waited.

In January of this year they were even put on sale and I decided it was time. I called in Joe and asked if we had the go ahead to finally update our dining room. Since we’d just had a baby, and Christmas, it was kind of important to check we had ANY money…

Thankfully, my mum just so happened to be there and asked for a sneaky peak. Let’s just say that it’s lucky one of us had our thinking cap on, because she cleverly reminded me that we now have a baby. Not that I needed reminding of course…

I’ve seen kids around the dining table so I should have known better. I’ve seen them wear a bowl of spaghetti on their head and smush banana into their toes, and somehow manage to manoeuvre a soggy rusk under their arse. This is now my future.

So I asked myself: do I really want to spend £600+ for chairs that are going to be 50% cotton and linen, and 50% pea puree?

I’m all for making our house better looking. It’s what this blog has been documenting for 3 years now! But everything we buy MUST be fit for purpose, and it’s safe to say our needs are changing.

And I for one don’t want to limit Luna in her own home, following her around constantly saying “don’t touch that” and “I’ve told you, that’s off-limits!”.

That’s not the kind of house I want for our family. And so the hunt starts from scratch.

Truth be told, it’s become a bit of a fiasco and I’ll admit, Joe and I have been super picky. Here are some of the styles I’ve loved – and lost – on the hunt so far. As you can see they’re all white (or could easily be made white), they’re wipeable, timeless in style, and could easily be modified to have a wipable fabric to avoid kiddy messiness.

Fretwork-backed chairs

I love the geometry of these chairs. LOVE. I keep finding them in a faux bamboo, get proper excited, and then realise that they’re only available in the States. GAAAAH. On my search I’ve managed to come across 3 UK suppliers of the faux Bamboo style but at around £600 a chair seeming to be the standard cost (and we need 6 chairs) I think it’s safe to say this option is out of our budget.

Image Source: Pinterest

Hepplewhite Shield Chairs

Although these are traditionally dark wood and we are looking for white chairs, I’d seen a makeover of something similar on Pinterest. Isn’t it gorgeous? Ideally, this is exactly what I’d like. A crisp white frame but with classic features, a patterned navy blue fabric to complement the rest of our kitchen theme, and then a potential plastic coating to make it child-proof. Sounds legit, am I right? I found 6 chairs almost identical to these for only £40 on eBay and my internet went down as the bidding finished, meaning I lost out by only £2. Gutted doesn’t cover it. The search continues.

Image Source: Pinterest 

So as you can probably tell, I’m still on the lookout for our dream dining chairs, but if you see something you think I’ll like, drop me a link below! I think I’ll need all the help I can get with this one.