yvonne, yes i guess we can use it in the dining. The dinining room is small and doesnt have any windows. the kitchen has a lot of natural light that will come across to the dining due to the open kitchen plan. We will be buying new furniture for the dining. We could buy a glass top table with wood chairs / wood table with wood chairs. The room will be painted offwhite similar color as the base of this fabric. All walls will be painted the same color by the builder, Afer taking possession of the house we can repaint it where needed for accent wall etc. Its an appartment, we live in India.

you can do decopage and coat in varnish or varythane (sp?). The real thick stuff they use I think is epoxy. But, google and see for sure, I'm guessing!

At first glance I think that if you are going for a modern look, I would suggest nesting tables instead of a coffee table to create interest. Here are a few ideas for you: http://deciture.com/the-amazing-set-of-3-wood-nesting-table/ http://deciture.com/gilbert-galvanized-nesting-tables-set-of-3/ http://deciture.com/flouressa-mirror-top-nesting-tables-set-of-3/ http://deciture.com/brighton-mirror-top-nesting-tables-set-of-3/ Hope this helps you!

How wonderful of you to do something so nice for your parents. The only thing I would say is be sure you can return it should they not like it, we all have different tastes and you just never know. That being said how about something like this from Joss & Main...also consider an ottoman that opens up for storage and is flat enough on top to act as a table. This one was one Overstock I believe you can flip the tops to be table or footstool.