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A table that seats six for fifty weeks of the year and twelve for the other two is a different problem from a table that is simply large. Three forms answer it, and they answer it in genuinely different ways. A drawleaf carries its leaves under its own top. A telescopic table parts in the middle and takes loose leaves you keep somewhere else. A gateleg drops its leaves against the frame and stands flat against a wall. All three buy you length, and all three charge for it somewhere.
The drawleaf, and what happens when you pull it
Two leaves live permanently beneath the main top, resting on tapered bearers that run in slides. Pull one end and the bearers travel outwards; because they taper, the leaf rises as it comes, until it has risen exactly the thickness of the top and locks level with it. The main top itself is loose on the frame. As the leaf emerges the top stays central and floats down onto it. It takes about five seconds and one person can do it standing at one end.
Either end works on its own, which gives you three usable lengths rather than two. Our standard leaves are 18in each. A drawleaf refectory table at 72in closed goes to 90in with one leaf out and 108in with both; 84in closed goes to 102in and then 120in; 96in closed goes to 114in and then 132in. Depths are 35in or 39in and the height is 30in. Prices start from £3,580 in oak, including VAT.
The part that matters ten years later is where the leaves come from. They are cut and matched from the same boards as the top, machined and finished at the same time, and then they live under that top in the same room. They take the same heat, the same light and the same humidity, so they weather at the same rate. A leaf cut from a different board six months later will always announce itself.
What the drawleaf costs you
The first is that the extension is fixed. Two 18in leaves add 36in and no more. If you need a table to go from eight places to fourteen, a drawleaf will not get you there, however large you make the closed size.
The second is that the base has to be set out around the point where the top parts, which constrains what the base can be. Up to about 1.5m of top width a single pedestal will do it. Beyond that, in practice, it means twin pedestals or a stretchered frame. You cannot simply put a leg in each corner and hang the leaves off the ends. The leaves are also cut slightly thinner than the main top, because that is what lets them rise flush, and the closed table carries the weight of two leaves it is not using for most of the year.
Telescopic runners and loose leaves
The telescopic table works on a different principle. The table parts in the middle on machined runners and accepts one, two or three loose leaves, added one at a time as the numbers rise. Loose extension leaves are 45cm each, so the growth is incremental rather than all at once, and it goes considerably further than a drawleaf will. A two metre table on a telescopic mechanism can reach about three and a half metres with three leaves in.
It costs more than a drawleaf of the same size. If the step you need is genuinely large, that is money well spent.
The leaf has to live somewhere
This is the awkward part and it is the reason people regret telescopic tables rather than the mechanism itself. A loose leaf is a handsome but awkward object roughly the size of a door, and there will be up to three of them. A leaf kept in a cold loft and brought down twice a year takes a day or two to settle back into the room before it sits properly.
- A purpose-made leaf box, sized to the leaves and made in the same timber
- A slim cupboard, often in the same room
- A dresser base, which will usually take them flat
- A window seat with a lifting lid
Decide which of those it will be while the table is still a drawing, not after it is delivered.
The gateleg, and the argument that has held for four hundred years
A gateleg table has hinged leaves at the sides, each one carried by a leg mounted on a pivoted frame. That frame is the gate. Swing it out, lift the leaf, and the leaf sits directly over the outer edge of the gate rather than cantilevering off the frieze. That is the whole reason the form is stable enough to eat at, and the reason it has survived four hundred years of use where lighter arrangements have not. A drop leaf table does the same job with a pull-out bearer or a bracket; it is slimmer when closed, but it will not take the same weight.
We make three forms. The double gateleg has a leaf and a gate on each side and an oval top when both are up, from 69in to 132in wide and 57in to 78in deep, seating four to six. The turned-leg round gateleg is 66in across, seats four, and is asked for in cherry more often than anything else we make. The single gateleg has one leaf, one gate and a drawer in the frieze; at 66in by 48in it lives against a wall and opens when it is needed. All three are 30in high as standard.
What the gateleg gives up
Legroom, mainly. The gate leg lands under the outer edge of the leaf, which is roughly where a diner on that side would like to put their knees. It is also why the tops are oval: the ends stay clear of the gates so nobody is asked to sit on a corner, and the seating figure of four to six is honest rather than optimistic. Closed, it is a narrow console rather than a table, which is either the point or a disappointment depending on what you wanted.
Windsor and ladder-back chairs suit it, because both are light enough to move when the gates swing, and a carver at the head once the table is open finishes it properly.
Choosing between the three
If the table is used every day and occasionally has to take two or four more, the drawleaf is the right answer, and the fact that the leaves never leave the table is worth more than the extra length a telescopic table would give you. If the step is genuinely large, from eight to twelve or fourteen, take the telescopic mechanism and sort out the storage first. If the table has to disappear between uses, the gateleg is the only one of the three that will.
Whichever you choose, allow about 24in of table edge per person and about 36in between the table edge and the wall behind a chair, more like 42in to 48in where someone has to walk behind a seated diner. Measure that with the table open, because that is the state it will be in on the day it matters. If legroom matters to you more than length, a pedestal table can be made to extend as well, and it clears the corners entirely.
Send us the room, the door widths and the number you need to seat on the worst day of the year, and we will draw it. You can also put rough figures together yourself with the quote builder, and timber samples come by post so you can see the colour in your own light before anything is cut.