Two of our most common requests when designing tables are for a pedestal base and for extension leaves. Pedestal bases are great because they provide lots of room under the table for people’s legs and for chairs, as well as offering a high degree of flexibility on where people sit. Extension leaves allow for a table to be smaller on an everyday basis and expand to a larger size for special occasions. But what happens when you combine these two requests?
The Problem
The challenge with a pedestal base under an extendable table is the sizing of the pedestal. If your table is well supported at its regular size, extending it will reduce the overall stability. As you can imagine, it’s all about leverage so if the pedestal is too small, your table could get tippy at the ends. Imagine grandma needing support when she stands up. We don’t want her leaning on a tippy table!
By contrast, if your table is sized well for the extended size, it will be stable enough but you won’t have as much leg room on the everyday size. And you don’t want to be hitting your knees on the pedestal base every day.
The Solution
We recommend solving this problem by having a base that splits in two (or sometimes 3) parts. When you use your table on an everyday basis, the pedestal will look like one solid pedestal base. You'll have the space you need for knees, and it will be sturdy. When you expand the table to add the leaves, the pedestal will split into 2 parts, each part travelling with one side of the table. (if there is a third part to the base, it will stay in the middle). This gives your table support across the entire length. And because you still want your table to look great when extended, we work hard to make sure that the ‘half pedestals’ look elegant as well.
The Caveat
It is possible to build an extending pedestal table without using a split base. We will need to limit the amount of extension by using fewer leaves or narrower leaves so that we can maintain stability. Or we will need to size the base relative to the extended size which might affect leg room. If your core table is big enough, this may not impact comfort at the table.
If you’re someone who loves the look and functionality of a pedestal base AND wants an extendable table with leaves, let’s chat about how we can make that happen. We offer a number of split bases to suit a range of design styles. Our design team would be happy to walk you through these choices.
