A Clean Well Lighted Folding Table

It occurred to me recently, as I moved into a new, vacant apartment, that a clean, well lighted folding table is one of the most useful and important piece of dining furniture to have in a living space. There is very little in the way of dining furniture that has as much use as a flat space upon which meals can be served and eaten, card games can be played when it is used a card table season in and season out, and as a dining table capable of seating one or more people when the folding table and chairs are paired together well. As I stood in the middle of the bare room I remembered my grandparents always having a small dining table whose legs folded up neatly inside the lip running along the edge of the table, and I remembered that this folding dining table served them as a card table on those rainy evening they played different card games with their friends. There was always plenty of light directed to the top of the table, and the top of the table, when they were playing on it, was always kept scrupulously clean of crumbs and liquid spills. I was fascinated by the cleanliness of the table top, and I would slip up after the folding table had been folded up and put away with the other dining furniture that wasn’t in use and brush my fingertips across the felt top. Eventually, this table was replaced with a brand new folding table and chairs, but I enjoyed the memory of the folding table and how a small dining table could serve me quite well in my new digs.

As I began looking around for a suitable folding table for my new apartment, I was almost overwhelmed by the number of available options. The materials used to make this kind of table are wood, molded plastic, Samsonite and laminated plywood. Obviously, the shape of the table can be round, square or rectangle. In the area of a folding table and chairs, the numbers of colors that are available are equal to the numbers of color in the rainbow. These days, what my grandparents considered a folding table, which was really a small dining table at best, is now a literally banquet table that can fold in the middle of the table itself and be hung from the wall. Naturally, the old felt covering on my grandparents’ small dining table would become discolored if something was spilled on it, a double shot of liquor, for example, or if it was torn by somebody with a fancy ring on their finger dragging their canasta winnings to their side of the table, but today’s folding table is often constructed of blow-molded plastic, which is invulnerable to water, wine, scratches and the cat losing its lunch when nobody is looking.  Granted, as easy to use as a folding table is when employed in a small space, it still takes up room even when it is folded. Amazingly, there is a folding dining table that resides in a lower section of a cabinet, and the cabinet is broken into storage bins about the table, which is extracted on a sliding panel that opens up like an accordion. When fully extended, this small dining table seats eight people. When the mechanical imagination is given license there is no end to how much utility can be applied to a folding table.

Even with all the options available to me, I still want a simple, square folding table and chairs in my small apartment; well, I want the chairs to match the table, if possible. To that end, I am willing to settle for a plain table whose metal legs fold up into the top of the table, which will allow me to lean my small dining table against one of the apartment walls and cover it with a decorative cloth, or, if I wish, store it in the one closet in the bedroom. Of course, there is the lure of the drop-leaf folding table that comes with a rolling base and blockable wheels, but how would I ever slide that beast under my bed when company is knocking at the door? No, I want a folding table like the one my grandparents had, the one I remember from my childhood, and I want to simply sit at it on a matching folding chair. I want to sit at my small dining table and drink an espresso in my underwear while thinking small, easy to manage thoughts about my clean, well lighted folding table, which is just a table, not a decoration.