New Table with a classy table cloth

We bought a new table! It has taken 4 years for us to pick one out but we finally got one. we figured with soon to be 5 people in our family we may need more than 4 spots to eat...maybe not. and the table has a leaf so there's the slight possibility that when my parents come they can sit at the table (not in matching chairs of course but at the table!). There were lots of conversations about how this time we were going to get a grown up table, and how we would not be buying one from Ikea (despite our new Ikea chairs). In the end... we went to Ikea. We decided we aren't quite at the stage of life for real furniture. Real furniture and small kids seemed like an expensive way to be sad... so let's wait 5 more years before getting something real. In the meantime this is awesome.

But see there's a problem, this table is white (ish) and from Ikea. It can probably get damaged pretty easily by scissors, paint, food, grimy hands, etc. Granted it was less than $300 but I don't know about you I don't have hundreds of extra dollars just sitting around. So we needed a solution to keeping the table in ok condition for the next little while. When I was a kid my mom always had some kind of vinyl table cloth on her table. I remember making fun of her for it and asking why we couldn't JUST eat on the wood table (she has a real wood table). But she was always adamant that we had to eat on the table cloth. Then I wondered why she insisted that the table cloth be washable, it seemed like we could get a better one if it was a regular cloth table cloth. And then there was my grandma's house, a whole different story. She had a fabric table cloth, covered with a sweet clear vinyl sheet, and we always had to use a placemat... if you'd been there this might seem really counterintuitive- don't worry I'm with you. So I swore I would NEVER have a clear plastic tablecloth or a washable plastic one. Yep that ended the day Michael started eating at the table. Our old table didn't usually have a tablecloth but I haven't let the kids use the new one because we didnt have one. I think we classed this Ikea classic up. It's not even a table cloth, it is a sheet of clear vinyl cut to size from walmart (thank you $2 per yard) and a table runner. I wanted a sweet map to put under the plastic like my sister-in-law used to have but Michael wanted this blue table runner... I may change his mind when he starts having geography tests in the fall.

so suddenly I understand why the classiness my whole childhood, I should also mention that 4 kids and 25 years later my mom has the same table and it still looks good. Oh and when we eat at the island (which is every meal) i am insistent that everyone has a classy non matching plastic placemat.