The Weird (Sometimes Brilliant) Things You've Used in Place of Chairs

The elusive dining chair

So you live in an apartment. Or a small house. Or a big house, but you are so shoe-obsessed that you turned the dining room into a second closet. Point is: You don’t have enough places for people to sit comfortably when they come over for a meal. So you’ve gotten reallll inventive.

Here are all of the things you told us you’ve used to dine in place of chairs. We’re impressed.

"For me, it’s not really a dinner party unless there’s one more guest than there are chairs and someone is sitting on a stool or a suitcase or a trash can lid (thank you, SimpleHuman for your comfort-seat top compost bin).”

"I always prefer to sit on the floor if it’s not too disproportionally awkward.”

"I’ve sat on my step-ladder.”

“Wine boxes stacked up. Usually just full (or mostly full) cardboard case boxes of wine, two of them, stacked on top of one another.”

"Very short ottoman (making eating nearly impossible for dinner guest).”

"My go-to for larger crowds is what I term the Literary Hippie Commune Style, i.e. cross-legged on the floor with a stack of larger hard-back books in front of each person as a ‘table.’ Obviously, the chicer the books the better.”

“Side tables. I have a couple little metal tables on the patio with glass tops and they work quite well as seats.”

"We use our planter in our backyard as a bench for summertime parties. The planter is really just a red brick wall that’s about three feet tall that’s planted with English ivy (our landlady is from Scotland and has an incredible green thumb). I usually push back all the ivy off the ledge and sweep any dirt or snails or slugs or leaves; then it makes for a nice bench that three people or so people can sit on. We have this ugly folding table (that we cover with a funky oilcloth tablecloth) and we scoot the table up to the ‘bench’ and bring a few chairs out and voila! Dinner for six!”

"When I was little, growing up in an apartment, my parents would borrow chairs from all the neighbors for their dinner parties. It was kind of a nice feeling to have everyone contribute to the party (even if they weren’t attending).”

And if all else fails: human beings.