What do you think of mismatched chairs in the dining room? Love it? Hate it? Indifferent? Myself, I kind of love the mismatched look, as long as there is a unifying characteristic between the different seats, whether its color, style, or scale.

Yesterday morning my dining area looked like this:

We inherited this dining table and chairs a few months back when my husband’s parents got a new set for their kitchen and passed this on to us. This table is the one my husband grew up with, and I love it.

The top is solid butcher block—perfect for kids! When we brought it home, we sanded the top and frame with plans to refinish them. We chose a dark walnut for the base but loved the top more natural, so we just sealed it with cutting board and butcher block oil. I can scrub just about anything off the surface of this table and it still looks amazing. We couldn’t be happier.

The chairs are a nice, good quality set, but the wicker seats are super-not-kid-friendly, since any spills are immediately ground in. Not so lovely. Benches are the perfect solution, but finding the right size and style of bench has so far eluded me.

So after a fantastic shopping trip, around noon yesterday I had high hopes for this look:

But for now, it’s not meant to be. So we’ve settled back to this

Hmmmm, dinner table schizophrenia anyone? It all started with this post where I mentioned finding my shutters at the local Habitat ReStore. A few kind local friends casually mentioned in the comments section that they’d like to make a visit sometime, so I dragged one along with me yesterday on another ReStore excursion—I’ll take any excuse to make another trip to check out all the new good junk they have. And I totally scored!

These chairs and bench were sitting outside as we arrived, and the workers were cleaning them off and getting ready to carry them inside as we left. Originally I got just one of the chairs (for five bucks!), thinking I’d paint it a glossy white and use it as a desk chair in my entry way. After paying and hauling it out to my car, though, I reconsidered and went back for the other one, falling in love with the bench along the way. And at only $20 for the bench, I snagged all three for just $30.

Mega-score, right? We’ve been wanting a bench to use at the dining table, and the arm chairs seemed perfect for each end to add a little character. So I brought them home and scrubbed them all down before bringing them inside.

Wah-wah. The arm chairs are a good three inches lower than a standard dining chair. Anyone know of a good way to add height to chair legs? They’re solid, sturdy wood, and I hate to let these go. Because frankly, this?

In spite of the festive Valentine touches, this just looks a little sad. Without the chairs on the end to anchor the table, the bench is just too short and the whole room looks out of scale now. I don’t really want to add the original dining chairs back in to the look, either. I’d love to figure out a way to make these new-old chairs work. I just love the lines on them.

What do you think? Is there any way to save those amazing chairs? Should I keep looking? Or are you against mismatched seating in general? I’d love to hear from you!

Linking up with Miss Mustard Seed.