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.

The black leather sofas are the ones we currently have, but the modern one is in the family room. The antique one is currently in formal lounge, but we are not necessarily planning on keeping it… I am so complicated, aren't I :(

Hi Sam, I know where you're coming from, I too wanted to buy such a beautiful ornate table for my new home still under construction but it just wasn't going to look like it matched the modern home I wanted to put it in. I also wanted to feel like it could be used as most kitchen tables in a home are used, especially for me living on a farm, for eating or repairing something on some newspaper etc...impossible to do on such a beautiful table, you would ruin it to see it scratched !!! Not to put a damper on your tastes but your home will look so much better and have more style if you continue to try to match what you already have and that's at least a stunning kitchen that you've shown us all on this forum. If you think of the style and colour of your kitchen everytime you want to buy something or decorate, it will hep ground you to keep it similar. I understand there are people who say it's nice to have countless pieces of furniture that are all different in some way, as it can look like you acquired them along your journey in life but I think that this mixture of designs and colours doesn't gel in a modrrn house very well at all, perhaps a quaint old cottage but not a modern home with a lovely kitchen like you already have!!!

Hi CP and thank you! Your comment and suggestion is not controversial at all, but raises interesting design points. They are not shutters, but timber louvres. They can be raised and lowered as 1/2 panels- 2 per each window. When they are “open” it’s straight out to the deck and the elements. IE no glass Windows behind- just screens to keep out the insects. As the home is in the tropics, and currently it’s steaming hot and the humidity level is sky high too- in order to keep the room fully Air Conditioned (for now) it’s necessary to keep the louvres fully closed. So- it’s “either/or” with this window style, as they are not “traditional” windows. That’s why there is the glass door to the balcony and the skylights in the ceiling- to let in natural light in the summer steamy season. The only months we don’t need A/C are winter months here, which is June- September aprox. In those months when excessive heat has gone, I can open everything and there is a beautiful view out to the tropical rainforest vegetation and trees. Then, it indeed looks as though there are no window “treatments” as I can raise all the louvres. I once (years ago) got a quote to put in more normal windows, but the cost was exorbitant and besides, I felt it was ultimately the wrong thing to do as it would take away the unique character of this pole house. Tomorrow when it’s light, I can post some photos of all the louvres raised just to give you an idea.