I fell in love at the Ideal Home Show, and now I'm convinced that no other dining room table will be right for me. The thing is I know this table won't work in our kitchen/dining area as it's too long and would restrict access to our two tall kitchen larder cupboards. The ones with all the food in, that I go into and out of a lot... But on the other hand, the width is fine and it's a beautiful table...

It's definitely a case of the heart says yes, but the head says no. Unfortunately. But it is beautiful, look:

It was also incredibly smooth and I couldn't help but find myself stroking it as I chatted to the Norr11 team, but thankfully that happened a lot so they didn't think I was so very strange at all. I managed to sneak in three visits to the stand to make sure I still liked it (and yes another stroke or two as well), the last time with MOH in tow who liked it but was less enamoured with it than I was. Clearly I've some work to do there!

I know what I need to do - and that's to find a chunk of wood that can be made into a table top that fits the space I have. Ideally that chunk of wood would be around 1.5 metres, not the 2.2 metres of the table I saw (and sadly that's the smallest size). Oh and some iron legs to rest it on, although I have seen that you can buy the Raw legs from Norr11 for €600. If anyone has any ideas on where I can source some wood please let me know.

Amazingly the stand also had dining room chairs I liked too. A table and chairs from the same place, that's unheard of for me in our search for a replacement dining room table and chairs - well in this case my logical self is ruling the table out, but you can see how I'm trying to convince myself can't you?

The chairs are available in a mix of neutral finishes too, so if we went for these I'd still be able to take the mix and match approach I'm keen on. I haven't let myself get as far as thinking what colour or finish I'd have as I know the search for my perfect table is still underway.

It's the style of the white chair above that I'm keen on, you might have noticed that the legs of the chair don't join onto the base of the seat - well they do obviously but not at each leg. I learnt this aids comfort and helps extend the longevity of the chair as the legs don't splay over time, making the chair creak and groan. How clever.

But now I've seen what I want - and I know it would look stunning with our new kitchen in our open plan layout - I've got to find a way to make it happen, because everything else I'd seen before is now being compared to these. And as for MOH, I'm sure I'll manage to bring him round too... eventually!

Update: Since posting my table love on Facebook I've now got a new lead and will be following up buying a chunk of wood from Kent Logs. How cool is that? It means I don't have to give up on my dream table...