After three year’s in our house, we have are slowly replacing our Ikea furniture with more permanent pieces. The one at the center of our home — and indeed, the center of our lives it seems — is our Strind coffee table. It serves us well, offsetting a dark brown leather couch with its round white surfaces and delicate metal legs. We love the bottom shelf for stacking our current selection of magazines and children’s books (both of which seems to pile up effortlessly). The wheels make it easy to push aside when it’s time for one Isadora’s gymnastic demonstrations or we just want to kick our feet up with ease. But, it is getting wobbly.

To keep the balance in the room, we’d like to stick with white and round. We’ve found a few options. Which one do you like?

The Sybil table reminds me of the 70s rec rooms from my youth. It’s pretty groovy, but maybe too heavy? As a bonus, the top level swivels for optimal drink poising. $550 at modernfurniture.com

A high gloss and metal table is the most elegant of the bunch. $565 at bastores.com

Classic modern may be the way to go. The white version of the design stable seems sensible. $313 at inmodehome.com

What do you think? Any suggestions I should consider?

We have a rug problem in our kitchen. Namely, we need one but everything we put there gets crazy stained. The spot — spanning from the sink the end of our new dishwasher (ah… the dishwasher) — gets a lot of traffic. Spills happen constantly. Also, no matter what kind of rug pad we put underneath, it slips and slides. My search is on: I need something washable that stays where you place it. Ideally it would be a bold color — like yellow or red or perhaps a combination of the two. You can sort of see our old Ikea rug in this photo below. This rug was wool — bad idea. Before that we had a cotton rag rug. Frequent washing turned into real rags.

I’m thinking of splurging on a rug by Pappelina. We have a runner from them in our upstate place. It’s works great in a mud room. The only that’s holding me up is the price — about $300 at Royal Design. I suppose it would be worth it for the kitchen rug of our dreams. But it is completely plastic. All plastic. Is that a good idea?

Another brand I’m considering is Chilewich. I’m a big fan of their products. Their rugs and mats are lovely; if only they came in brighter colors…

Dash & Albert? But they are only cotton — won’t they stain and slip?

Any other suggestions? Help!

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