[Paul M. King]

Just stepped aboard. We are selling our home and moving to a small retirement apartment. We need some small furniture and thought Ikea might be the place to start. Our first need is for a small table with two chairs. The table needs to be expandable to seat four and occupy as little space as possible at the minimum. Anyone have tips in what they bought in a similar situation and your degree of satisfaction with your purchase? We will be 20 miles from the store and need pointers on the best method of delivery for octogenarians without a truck, but with rels who have pickups.

Peking in Portland

[Macks13]

My personal favorite is the BJURSTA... available as a square table with pocket leaves you can pull out to seat 4...

The FUSION table/4chairs set is nice because all four chairs store underneath the table - giving a nice 3'x3' footprint. (However, I personally don't think the chairs are terribly comfortable, so I encourage you to try them out before you settle on this one.)

There's also the LESKVIK drop-leaf table that seats 2-4 and is a little more traditional in style...

...and finally there's the NORDEN drop-leaf that has some nice storage in it and folds down to only about 8" wide! I own this one, and actually use it as a sewing/craft table. It can get heavy, since it is solid birch and has the added weight of the drawers.

(I am such a Dining Dork!) Good luck!

[jayndoh]

Though the Bjursta is versatile and attractive I don't recommend purchasing it. It simply won't hold up if used frequently. This is information I got from my mother in law, who is the kitchen/ dining manager at our local store. If you're going to be in a small space you might want to go with a round table... it saves space but offers the needed surface area. I would say to get what I got, the Liatorp. It seats 4, but has a leaf that will seat 6. It is a pedestal table. It is very sturdy and a easy to put together. It's also less expensive than the Bjursta. I was able to fit the table and 4 chairs (Henriksdal BTW) into my sub-compact hatchback and still see out the back window. Good luck to you.