Do all 10 chairs need to be at table all the time or can it be 8 chairs and 2 you bring over from somewhere else for large sit downs? DIAL UP YOUR CHAIR sizes to be proportional to table so, as to not look like child size chairs. Restoration Hardware furniture is over sized and generous proportions compared to many other retail sellers. Just any chair could be easily dwarfed by the RH table and look tiny. Here are a couple of my favorite modern chair makers KNOLL Brno flat bar chair which can be bought at auction and recovered in leather or vinyl of your choice and David Edward Furniture made for corporate, resort and colleges and available through dealers, I am showing here as a "host chair". Other "host" chair items possible of course. I just like this one.

Declaration - I am a rug business owner. The pros for having a rug - subfloor protection, noise suppression and atmosphere outweigh the cons - scratched floors (we all have a friend who comes for dinner and tips on their chair) noise (my kids constantly scrape the chairs) and cold bare atmosphere. Rugs complete rooms. Maybe the issue with young kids who are messy eaters could be the only reason you hold back. The issue relating to timber fading is another matter - timber floors darken with UV exposure, so your rug should always be moved around to make sure the fade lines are not obvious. Even if it just 10cm here and there to mix up the exposed area.

As no one discussed whether the size of the table was correct, I thought I would throw in a few tips... 1. The table should be placed a minimum of a metre away from the walls (or buffet) so that when someone is sitting down, a person can easily get behind this person to sit down at the next chair. 2. Allow 0.5m within the alignment of a passageway, so that people aren't encroaching onto the passageway when seated. Also so the furniture is not jutting out visually into the hallway. 3. You need to allow for comfortable passage beside the island bench through to the back door. From the plan shown, all this will work. To know whether the table will fit and where it should be placed. It is best to mark out the position of the table on the floor and then put chairs up to this so you can imagine where the chairs will be in relation to the space (both when in use and pushed in). Better still, so you can fully visualise the volume the table takes up, get a smaller table and cut up a cardboard to the right size and put it on top. All the best, Mark

new house with a blank canvas of primarily white walls, black frame doors/windows & blonde timber (oak) floors so would like to stick to this palette for the big items (though will introduce pops of colour with smaller decor items)... going for a scandi inspired contemporary look... and kitchen next to open plan dining is black, white & grey, haven't bought stools yet but will probably get timber ones