How to Extend a Solid Dining Table

A table big enough to seat more than your immediate family can take up a good chunk of your dining room space. Since it is not often that you host a horde of 12 or more, it doesn't make sense to waste the space when you aren't having guests. You can get an dining table with extra leaves or add a glass top to a solid table to turn a smaller table into seating for lots more. Does this Spark an idea?

Instructions

Center Leaves

1

Go underneath the table, and find the latches that release the two sides of the dining room table. Release the latches or hooks; most simply unhook.

2

Pull the two sides of the table apart as far as they go.

3

Insert the center leaf, or leaves, into the gap left by pulling the table apart. Some leaves have pegs that fit into holes in the side of the table or other leaves; if so, insert the pegs into the holes. In other case, the weight of the expansion leaves keeps them in place. Push the table back together.

Drop-Down Side

4

Get under the table, and look at the place where the table ends and the drop-down leaves fold down. There probably is a sliding bar that is pushed back into a groove under the center leaf. When the sliding metal bar extends, it supports the drop-down leaves.

5

Raise the drop-down leaf with one hand.

6

Slide the metal support bar under the drop-down leaf. It probably fits inside a channel on the underside of the leaf. Lock in place if there is a lock.

Glass Expansion

7

Put plastic disks called bumpons on the four corners of the wood table. The disk will stick but shouldn't harm the surface of the wood. They're only about 1/16 inch thick, so they won't raise the glass much above the surface of the wood. Bumpons keep the glass from sliding.

8

Place the glass on the table on top of the bumpons. You should have a helper because as soon as the glass sticks to the bumpons, it's difficult to move around.

9

Cover the glass with a tablecloth so the area looks solid and you can't see the gaps between the ends of the wood table and the end of the glass.