OK... final grasp at a straw - your set of chairs for when they are not visiting, and when extended family come over, bring out fold out chairs with washable slipcovers? I know how difficult it is when you want to have a room that you like but you are having to adapt it for just for the one-off occasions and not as you would like it ideally. Perhaps that might work so you get what you want (most of the time!)

A similar thing happened to me - a bottle of hand sanitiser exploded in my black leather bag whilst it was laying on my brand new cream leather car seats!!! Soaked through and transferred the black dye from my bag onto the seat, leaving a massive black stain. I tried to remove it gently with leather cleaner, only to find the more I scrubbed, the more I took the cream colour off and started to damage the actual leather of the seat. In the end I took my car to a furniture upholstery place and they colour matched the leather and sprayed the area that was damaged. It looks great now. If you look REALLY hard, you can still see where I took some of the grain out of the leather (too much scrubbing), but otherwise you wouldn't notice - best of all it didn't cost the Earth. I think a small area like what is on your chairs would come up nicely - it would probably cover the ink stains too. I think it's worthwhile getting the job done professionally. Good luck!

Hey Gioenne ... I bought home a black leather dining chair tonight and took it to the house Looks good . because the dining table is built in it has quite a big block holding it up in the middle and the chairs don't go all the way in unless I get baby chairs so I will have to deal with them standing out a bit from the table :( thanks for your support !! Desi

That's an interesting dilemma. I would be inclined to go with the dark grey chairs because: - the chairs will be under the table surface most of the time, so it shouldn't be "too dark" when combined with the dark grey sofa; - the dark grey should tie in well with the sofa; and - the dark grey will provide a nicer contrast with the concrete table surface. Does the store you're purchasing from have a returns policy? If you explained your dilemma, they may allow you to take one of each colour home to see which colour works best in the space. Alternatively, can you go to the store which stocks the table, see what other chairs they have in the showroom and see if there are some light grey and dark grey variations that you can try in the store?