What do you have under your dining room table?

[Mommy_Mea]

We just removed (and threw away) the sisal rug we had under our dining room table. It was impossible to get food out of, and it was so gross by the time we got rid of it. Ground in raisins, beans, egg, popsicles. :bag:

Right now we have nothing under the table, just hardwood floors. Easy to clean, but so cold and echo-y.

What do you have under your table? How do you keep it clean?

[SnuggleBuggles]

Just a regular old area rug. Maybe I don't have messy eaters but aside from occasional crumbs, it just doesn't get dirty. We've had it for 10 years now.


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[GaPeach_in_Ca]

Just the hardwood floor. I don't have any rugs actually in my entire house. Just hardwood. (One bedroom has carpet still.)

[ArizonaGirl]

Wood look plank tile, no area rugs here.

We have almost 2300 sq ft of tile, and we love it.

[amom526]

After finally getting away of the nasty wall to wall carpeting in our dining room, there is no way I am ever putting down any type of carpet in my dining room again. I feel like it would get filthy no matter what.

[hillview]

Tile. No carpets or rugs anywhere. Mainly hw except kitchen dining and bathrooms. They are tile.

[elbenn]

For kitchen table, tile. For dining room table, just hardwoods but thinking that I need to add a rug because the legs of the table and the chairs collect dust bunnies so fast!

[specialp]

Hardwood. I dislike rugs under my dining room table.

[Simon]

Hardwood. I will consider a rug when my kids are older, but for now the spills are too frequent for me to invest $$.

[mackmama]

No rug just hardwood. We don't like how it interferes with pushing chairs in/out easily.

[boolady]

Hardwood, though I'd love to find an area rug. The only really messy eater who eats at our house is my FIL, but since he only eats at our house about a dozen times a year, we just whip out the vacuum once he leaves.

[BananaMama]

hardwood

[acmom]

Kitchen table (where we eat each day) - just hardwood.
Dining room table (only eat there 1-2x year) - area rug over hardwood

[vludmilla]

Wool rug over hardwood in dining room. Tile in kitchen under that table. I dislike the look of a dining room table without a rug under it. I think the rug "grounds" the table in the room.

[scrooks]

We have icky carpet in our dining room but are hopefully putting hardwood in this summer. Dh says we need a rug because chair legs will scratch the wood.....does anyone have this problem?

[SnuggleBuggles]

We have icky carpet in our dining room but are hopefully putting hardwood in this summer. Dh says we need a rug because chair legs will scratch the wood.....does anyone have this problem?

We did. You can buy things to pads for the legs though to help.

[mmsmom]

Kitchen table (where we eat each day) - just hardwood.
Dining room table (only eat there 1-2x year) - area rug over hardwood

Us too except tile under kitchen table

[trcy]

Just tile, no rug.


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[Mommy_Mea]

Wool rug over hardwood in dining room. Tile in kitchen under that table. I dislike the look of a dining room table without a rug under it. I think the rug "grounds" the table in the room.

This is part of why I don't like the "just hardwood" look. We have area rugs throughout the house.

This is the second rug we have been through, and it just gets so gross, mostly from "wet" foods that get ground in before I can clean up. The boys are still fairly messy eaters.


We have icky carpet in our dining room but are hopefully putting hardwood in this summer. Dh says we need a rug because chair legs will scratch the wood.....does anyone have this problem?

We have pads on the bottom of the chairs, but I still worry about this and part of the reason I had a rug.

[Momit]

Hardwood. We tried a rug but the chairs kept getting caught on it.

[Charlie]

We has a low pile inexpensive patterned area rug. it doesn't really get that dirty and the pattern I think helps with that. We have hardwood (that isn't in great condition anyway) but the chairs were scratching the floor. I couldn't find pads that fit the bottom of our chairs properly and they kept sticking to the floor too and making a mess.

[scrooks]

We has a low pile inexpensive patterned area rug. it doesn't really get that dirty and the pattern I think helps with that. We have hardwood (that isn't in great condition anyway) but the chairs were scratching the floor. I couldn't find pads that fit the bottom of our chairs properly and they kept sticking to the floor too and making a mess.
This is exactly what we have under the kitchen table to protect the hardwood. My kids can be messy eaters but we vacuum the rug often and we have a dog :bag. The dog is better than a vacuum...no dropped food gets by her!

I just don't know what to do about the dining room. I'm less worried about food mess on a rug in there since we don't eat in their often. I'm honestly surprise so many people have chairs right on hardwood without scratches!

[smilequeen]

We have a large area rug. The room looks weird to me without it.

[MMMommy]

Just tile, nothing under.

[specialp]

We have icky carpet in our dining room but are hopefully putting hardwood in this summer. Dh says we need a rug because chair legs will scratch the wood.....does anyone have this problem?

We have felt pads that nail into the chair legs. The sticky ones do not work as well or last as long. The dining room isn't used much, but DH replaces the kitchen chair ones about 2x year.

[robinsmommy]

If you want something, look into "floorcloths". If you're crafty, you could even make your own.

http://www.floorcloth.net/about-floorcloths.shtml

Or, if you really want a rug, I'd get one of the flatwoven wool ones from Ikea or Cost+. And plan on getting it cleaned, reversing it to hide stains, and replacing frequently. It's more forgiving and easier to clean than anything with more texture.

http://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/50168285/

[bisous]

Just wood. After years of living in apartments with cheap carpeting under the dining table it is heavenly to just sweep up after a meal. :) I know some think it looks unbalanced and I'm sure that it can in some spaces but I personally love the look of smooth, uncluttered flooring underneath my table!

[Ms B]

Right now, just dust under the DR table. I have been ogling a particular rug for about ten years now and I think that this is the year that I talk DH into it. The rug is gorgeous, but we only eat at the dining room table a handful of times a year (although that is changing as we start entertaining again and as The Biscuit does not drop EVERY BLESSED THING on the floor, so I expect it would last more or less forever, especially if we sent it out for cleaning every third year or so.

We have tile in the kitchen with nothing under that table and it is going to stay that way. I vacuum in there almost daily as it is and decline to add anything else that needs cleaning to that room.

[HannaAddict]

Hardwood. No carpets.


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[elbenn]

If you want something, look into "floorcloths". If you're crafty, you could even make your own.

http://www.floorcloth.net/about-floorcloths.shtml



I like the floorcloths-was about ready to order until I saw the price.

[HannaAddict]

Just wood. After years of living in apartments with cheap carpeting under the dining table it is heavenly to just sweep up after a meal. :) I know some think it looks unbalanced and I'm sure that it can in some spaces but I personally love the look of smooth, uncluttered flooring underneath my table!

It is a choice often made by high end interior designers and don't think it looks unbalanced at all! Enjoy the ease too.


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[robinsmommy]

I like the floorcloths-was about ready to order until I saw the price.

That's why I talked about a DIY. It's a primed and painted big piece of canvas, sealed with poly floor sealer, usually. You could find a simple rug design you like, sketch it out (or use stencils, if that is easier) and go. Or the braver souls could have kids help make them, esp if you do more of a random pattern style. It can be a great low maintenance, cleanable way to add color. This is way down on my to-do list, so I have no idea how much it would run when done, but it would surely be cheaper than a good quality rug. Cheaper rugs like Ikea - well, that may not be true.

http://floorcloths.com/how-to-make-a-floorcloth/

[jent]

Flor tiles as an area rug over hardwood. Easy to vacuum, and a pattern I love that will hide stains: http://www.flor.com/nizhoni-patchwork-crimson.html

We used to have an old area rug that was patterned but a pain to vacuum. I thought about that Flor rug for a long time before I pulled the trigger. So happy I did- we love it!

Some of the Flor designs can be quite pricey, but they have sales (usually 25% off) a few times per year.

[georgiegirl]

Tile. No rug. I can't imagine cleaning up after a toddler (and kids in general) with carpet underneath

[nfceagles]

We have an area rug. I feel weird having a table siting directly on hw floors. I went with one of those indoor/outdoor rugs so that we could take it out to the driveway and hose it down periodically.

[DualvansMommy]

We have Pottery barn area rug underneath DR table. We don't eat actual meals there often; maybe 4-7x a year. I would have some different type of easier rug to clean of we do eat there more often.


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[twowhat?]

It is a choice often made by high end interior designers and don't think it looks unbalanced at all! Enjoy the ease too.


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Yep, this. Our designer has worked for really high-end companies and she was totally fine with no rug under our table. It's anchored by a great lighting fixture and there's art on the walls...the eye doesn't even bother going down when walking past the space!

Our chairs are on the thick felt pads from Costco and slide in/out easily.

[essnce629]

We have felt pads that nail into the chair legs. The sticky ones do not work as well or last as long.

We have these as well and they are great! DS2 is a super messy eater and I was so glad when we moved from our previous house that had carpet in the dining room. YUCK!!! It's DS1's daily chore to vacuum or sweep under the dining room table.

[Mommy_Again]

Get an indoor/outdoor rug. Easy to clean, come in tons of colors and patterns (to hide stains) and relatively inexpensive so you can toss it when you're done.

We have several natural fiber rugs in our house and I love them but agree with food and little kids they are problematic.


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[Mommy_Mea]

We have an area rug. I feel weird having a table siting directly on hw floors. I went with one of those indoor/outdoor rugs so that we could take it out to the driveway and hose it down periodically.


Get an indoor/outdoor rug. Easy to clean, come in tons of colors and patterns (to hide stains) and relatively inexpensive so you can toss it when you're done.

We have several natural fiber rugs in our house and I love them but agree with food and little kids they are problematic.


This is something I was considering, I figured the low pile would make it a lot harder to get food stuck, and I could hose it off if things get really bad. Thanks everyone for the input and ideas!

Our dining room is the only place we eat, no space in our tiny little kitchen :)

[klwa]

Just the floor. I don't like the look of a rug under a table because of the "dropped food" issue. Squicks me out.

[khalloc]

A hungry chocolate lab. Waiting for anything that looks like it might be fair game. Ha ha!

[AnnieW625]

we had a rug for a while, but now we have just bare hardwood floor.

[citymama]

Just the floor! Much easier to keep clean. And yes, our dog scavenging for bits of fallen food!

ETA you should have added a poll - curious to see how many folks have rugs versus the floor!

[Globetrotter]

Just our laminate floors. I can't imagine dealing with a rug under the dining table, although it would look nice.

[TwinFoxes]

We have a large area rug. The room looks weird to me without it.


Same here. Our dining room isn't very big, but it does seem to need a rug. We "vacuum" it after every meal (ie, the dogs lie under the table and eat any crumb that hits the rug.)

[ahisma]

We have a low profile indoor-outdoor rug. We have mismatched chairs and I feel like it grounds the table. Plus, our floors are in poor condition and need to be refinished, so I'm a fan of covering them up.

[vludmilla]

I wonder if there are regional differences. I'm in a close in suburb of NYC and it's uncommon to see a formal dining room here without an area rug. Casual dining rooms (that take the place of a kitchen eating area) are more often bare floor under the table.

[KrisM]

Crumbs?

We eat in our dining room daily. We just have hardwood under the table.

[ourbabygirl]

We just have hardwood (and sadly, no dog yet to eat the crumbs, though 1 year old DD likes to scavenge a bit :)). I'd like to get a rug, because I agree that it looks incomplete without one, and would help provide more color, pattern, interest, and grounding for the table in the room. We actually got one from Macy's last spring, but ordered it big enough to fit under the table in its biggest setting (8-10 people), and unfortunately, it was way too big for the room. So we brought it back, but I'd still like to have one, just don't know what material it would need to be to be feasible with 3 small kids (esp. a messy toddler). A lot of what we've seen have raised flowers and such, which would be too hard to have when you have to pull out the chairs constantly.
We have an eat-in kitchen/ dining room (very open floor plan house), so even though we have a fancy table that we inherited, we eat every meal there (which is a lot, since I SAH with the two younger ones), so we really should have a nice rug to go with the aesthetics of the room. But it gets so messy, now probably isn't the best time for it.

[gatorsmom]

Formal dining room has an area rug over coated concrete.
Table we use everyday next to kitchen has bare coated concrete

[ilfaith]

We have a an area rug over hardwood in our formal dining room. But we probably only eat there about four times a year. The table adjacent to our kitchen, where we eat the bulk of our meals, is on bare hardwood floors.

[bisous]

This is an example of the bare floor look that I really like in the first picture of the link. It is a more modern look though.

http://www.studio-mcgee.com/studioblog/2016/3/11/wvy2nrxfy6luqrnvdqlokb2lhpjyku

[nfowife]

My entire house except for finished basement is hardwood. I do have area rugs in every room except for the dining. My kids make a lot of crumbs, and at least once a day something that is food is on the floor under there....a few noodles, half a strawberry, etc. would gross me out to have carpet.

[kristac]

Mostly Legos.

[div_0305]

Bare hardwood floors. I bought a rug to try out a year ago for my new table, and returned it the same day. Hated that chairs couldn't be moved properly and also hate rugs in general for hygienic reasons. Like so many PP, we are all hard surfaces in our house by choice--wood, tile, marble.

[Mommy_Mea]

So as an update, I was worried about the kids scratching the hardwood floors pushing the chairs around (even with the felt pads), and so I finally got an IKEA rug I have been eyeing:

http://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/40227902/#/40260519

It is super low pile, so not much gets caught in it. So far stains come up easily, even on the white. And I bought this to make a quick vacuum so much easier than with my behemoth Dyson (and it was $14 when I ordered it!):

http://www.amazon.com/Dirt-Devil-SD20000RED-Simpli-Stik-Lightweight/dp/B002KCO96C?ie=UTF8&psc=1&redirect=true&ref_=oh_aui_detailpage_o06_s00