Sep 17, 2016 3 min read

Whenever I move to a new home, it doesn’t feel like mine until I have had my family and friends sitting around the dining room table, talking, laughing, eating and toasting the new space. The dining table is at the heart of life’s celebrations, large and small. All topics are acceptable from serious to silly, and every age group is included. When my boys were growing up, no matter how busy all our daily schedules were, dinner together was a must. Here is where we mark the passage of time, get to know new acquaintances and reconnect to dear friends.

The dining table comes in all shapes and sizes, from a small cafe style set-up in the kitchen to a hand-carved harvest table or antique mahogany set passed down through your family. Its origin may or may not be part of your story, but your daily get-togethers will leave an imprint on it as a focal point in your life.

The physical properties of a table – how it looks and feels, its size and shape – do have a bearing on the atmosphere of the setting. I have seen many table tops that tell their own stories. When I came across the hand-crafted selection at Attitude Furnishings (www.attitudefurnishings.com), my heart skipped a beat. The artisans that make these tables have an unerring eye for the intrinsic beauty of wood, and delight in showing it off. Company founder and president Jerry Aiken states that “the natural characteristics of wood, its color, texture and grain, give it a unique personality. Created by nature, there are no flaws.”

Artisans enhance and manipulate the unique character in each piece of wood. Live edges follow the wood plank’s natural growth lines, and a burled end cut displays the history of the tree. The stunning one-of-a-kind table shown here is about 120 inches by 42 inches. It was produced with three sugar maple cross cuts inlaid into a live-edge sugar maple slab. This table radiates with all the energy and beauty that the material encompasses.

The creative minds and hands at Attitude Furnishings offer a wide selection of dining and coffee tables and chairs in a variety of materials. As well as solid wood, there are exotic wood veneers, metals, glass and alternate finishes from which to choose, made to your own specification.

Admittedly a high-end product, these tables may be out of reach for most of us. But just to view this work is inspiring. I have made or reinvented many tabletops along the way for my television shows and for my homes. I have painted over store-bought wood tables that had little character until I transformed the surface with exotic faux wood and stone finishes. I’ve deployed barn board and old doors, used carpenter’s trestles for bases and made my own stands. These are some of the tables that hold my memories, and there will be more in the future to be the pivotal point of gatherings and great conversations and, yes, in our home, a dumping ground for everything. At least we know where to look.

Email your questions to house2home@debbietravis.com.