Extending Dining Tables

The telescopic extending table

A telescopic table parts in the middle on machined runners and takes one, two or three loose leaves. It will grow further than a draw-leaf — two metres becomes three and a half without difficulty — and because the leaves are separate they can be added one at a time.

The trade-off is storage. The leaves have to live somewhere, and a leaf is a handsome, awkward object roughly the size of a door. We can make a leaf box or a slim cupboard to take them, and on a fitted job the leaves often end up in the base of a dresser or in a window seat.

How much a table actually grows

Allow six hundred millimetres of table edge per person, or eight hundred if the chairs have arms. On that basis:

• 1,500mm closed — six people. A draw-leaf takes it to about 2,400mm and ten people.
• 1,800mm closed — six comfortably, eight at a push. Draw-leaf to around 2,700mm, or telescopic with two leaves to 2,900mm and twelve.
• 2,100mm closed — eight. Telescopic with three leaves reaches 3,400mm and fourteen.

The figure that usually settles the size is not the table but the room. Leave seven hundred millimetres between the table edge and the nearest wall where a chair pulls out, and a full metre where somebody has to walk behind it — and remember to measure that clearance with the table open, because that is the state it will be in when the room is full.

Tops, leaves and matching timber

The leaf has to look like it belongs, which is a matter of selection rather than luck. We cut the leaves from the same boards as the top, at the same time, and keep them together through machining and finishing so that colour and figure run through. A leaf cut from a different board six months later will always announce itself.

Tops are made from wide boards, four or five across a metre of width, thicknessed between thirty-two and forty-five millimetres depending on the span. On a draw-leaf the leaves are made slightly thinner than the main top, which is what allows them to sit flush when they rise.

Bases that suit an extending table

An extending table can sit on legs at the corners, on a pedestal, or on twin pedestals. A single pedestal is right up to about a metre and a half of top; beyond that the base has to be set out around where the top parts, which in practice means twin pedestals or a stretchered frame.

If legroom matters more to you than length, a pedestal dining table is the better answer, and it can be made to extend as well.

Chairs

An extending table is the one case where it is worth buying two more chairs than you think you need, because the whole point is the day the table is full. Carvers at the ends, side chairs down the sides, and the two spares living somewhere else in the house until they are wanted.

We make chairs to match every table we make, in the same timber and finish, so the extra pair bought later still matches the first six.

Prices

An extending dining table in solid oak starts at around £3,200 for a draw-leaf on a frame base and rises with size, timber and the complexity of the base. Telescopic mechanisms and twin pedestals cost more than draw-leaf and frame. Every quotation is drawn and priced for the actual table, not taken from a list.

Every extending table we make leaves the same Suffolk workshop as our fitted joinery. Where a dining room also calls for panelling, a dresser built in, or a kitchen, that work is done by our sister companies, Reeve & Co Interiors and Square & True.

Frequently asked questions

Can a draw-leaf table be left extended permanently? Yes. Nothing is under strain when it is open, and some clients leave one leaf out all year and both at Christmas.

Will the leaves match in ten years? They will move together, because they came from the same boards and live in the same room. A leaf kept in an unheated loft and brought in twice a year will take a day or two to settle back.

How many people can I get round it? Six hundred millimetres of edge per person is comfortable, five hundred and fifty is possible for one meal, and eight hundred is generous. Corners do not seat anybody on a rectangular table, but they will on a round one.