Choose the chairs before the table

Most people choose the dining table first and the chairs later.

I would do it the other way round.

You touch a table with your forearms for a few minutes. You sit in a chair for the whole evening. If the chair is wrong, a long dinner gets short.

And the two have to work together. What matters is the gap between the seat and the underside of the tabletop. Too little and knees hit the apron. Too much and you feel like a child at the grown-ups' table.

Armchairs make it harder. The arms need to slide under the top, or the chairs stand a step away from the table all night.

Then the legs. Four corner legs seat people differently from a pedestal or two trestles. Count where the knees go, not only how many plates fit.

This is why we like to see the chair early, even when it comes from another maker. A table can be adjusted around it by a centimetre or two. The chair usually cannot.

Sit first. Then choose the wood.