Is there such a thing as an adjustable table?

Fat Guy · February 5, 2007

Standard kitchen counter height is about 36 inches, and the standard height of a dining-room table is about 29 inches. Does anybody know if there's such a thing as a large kitchen table that can adjust between 29 and 36 inches in height, so as to act as a counter some of the time and a table other times?

Fat Guy · February 5, 2007

This item, from Levitech, looks like it might perform that function. Says it can hold 500 pounds, and seems to accept a variety of tabletops.

Blether · February 5, 2007

I can let you have 1,000 beermats at a discount ? :cool:

rooftop1000 · February 5, 2007

I have Castro Covertable table that goes from coffee table to dining table....

For Sale

tracey

jrobin · February 5, 2007

Are you making a table or do you want to adjust an existing table?

Jennifer

Big Bunny · February 5, 2007

Cinder blocks?

BB

Blether · February 5, 2007

BB - yes ! And do away with the legs altogether for that just-stolen urban guerilla look :wink:

phaelon56 · February 5, 2007

Adjustable drafting tables typically go from around the 35" to 37" heighty at lowest upt o about 48" at the highest. The cheapies use friction knobs on tubes for manual height adjustment but starting in the $600 price range you'lll get a pneumatic cylinder system with foot pedal activated adjustment - aking to what a good drafting chair has.

Most come with a melamine top but can easily accept other tops on the same frame. What remains unknown in most of the specs at first glance is how much weight they'll support.

Anna N · February 5, 2007

We keep an adjustable drafting table around because we can easily extend our dining room table with it. It is a cheap one and certainly I wouldn't want to put much weight on it but for a spare working surface for prepping it would work out fine.

Fat Guy · February 5, 2007

Are you making a table or do you want to adjust an existing table?
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As yet, I'm not doing anything. I'm theorizing because I think this could be the next big thing in kitchen design! I know a lot of folks with small-ish eat-in kitchens who haven't got enough countertop space and therefore wind up doing a lot of prep work at the dining table. It seems to me that with 7 inches of elevation, the dining table becomes a real counter. But of course sitting on stools is inferior to sitting in chairs. So wouldn't it be great if the table could lower 7 inches for dining, and raise 7 inches for work -- all with the touch of a button! It would need to be a very sturdy table, probably something intended for industrial applications, but with a nice butcher block tabletop attached.

Anna N · February 5, 2007

Are you making a table or do you want to adjust an existing table?
←
As yet, I'm not doing anything. I'm theorizing because I think this could be the next big thing in kitchen design! I know a lot of folks with small-ish eat-in kitchens who haven't got enough countertop space and therefore wind up doing a lot of prep work at the dining table. It seems to me that with 7 inches of elevation, the dining table becomes a real counter. But of course sitting on stools is inferior to sitting in chairs. So wouldn't it be great if the table could lower 7 inches for dining, and raise 7 inches for work -- all with the touch of a button! It would need to be a very sturdy table, probably something intended for industrial applications, but with a nice butcher block tabletop attached.
←

OK. If you are going into the table design business please take it one step further! I want a table that can serve as a coffee table, a dining table and an extra work surface - now that would be something for those of us in teeny-tiny houses! I know I have seen, at an exorbitant price, a coffee table that can be raised to dining height. Imagine the space I would gain if I could ditch the coffee table.

**andiesenji** · February 5, 2007

I have 4 of these folding banquet tables that adjust to 3 different heights.

From my days when I did some catering and fund-raising breakfasts, etc.

We used the higher setting for buffet service.

Check at Costco or Sam's Club. One of the stores had adjustable height tables similar to these a couple of years ago - I haven't looked at them lately. A friend bought a couple for work tables in her T-shirt silk-screening shop so they had to be very sturdy.

ray goud · February 5, 2007

This might be just the thing, if you are willing to pay for industrial quality:

McMaster Carr company,

mcmaster.com

has tables with adjustable height and top slope. Their catalog number is 6103t6, and they have three different sizes. Use that link to get to their site and type in that cat.#. I can recommend the company without reservations, provided you accept the price premium for quality and having stuff in-stock.

Good luck

Toliver · February 5, 2007

Here's one:

Powell Surveyor Round Adjustable Dining Table

The height can adjust from 30" to 36". The legs look like what you'd find on a tripod, where they can slide up or down depending on your needs.

edited to add:

This company makes height-adjustable tables (looks like they use a barber chair-type apparatus) but not to the height you want:

Space San Diego adjustable tables

And this company doesn't say how high their Italian tables adjust:

Le Corbusier Dining Table

Edited February 5, 2007 by Toliver (log)

jrobin · February 6, 2007

You can get tables at 42" high, usually called pub tables, but that is too high for working.

Tables also come in heights of 36", which is the same as a counter height. I think stools with backs are more of a comfy/safe feel.

At my island I have room for 4 stools (there are 5 of us, but we don't all need to sit at the island all at once), but only got 3 stools so I can easily push them aside when I need the room and don't want them in my way.

I do remember seeing a custom kind of hollowed 'block' that fit at the bottom of a wood table leg to make the table higher when it was used for working. When it was in place it looked like part of the turning on the leg. It definately was not with the touch of a button.

Jennifer

cats2 · February 6, 2007

And this company doesn't say how high their Italian tables adjust:
Le Corbusier Dining Table
←

According to this e-Bay seller, the height of the Corbusier goes from 27" to 30".

Ooh...how about this table? Not only is the height adjustable from 12.6" to 31.5", it's a dropleap table, so the width can be adjusted from 27.56" to 47.4"

Kerry Beal · February 6, 2007

On the boat we have a pedestal that adjusts the table from coffee table height (actually shin barking height) to counter height (hip wacking height). I can't recall if it is pneumatic or not, but it adjusts easily and you can put any sort of table top on it that you want. It has infinate adjustment in it's height range, if you need 24 1/2 inches you can get that.

So it might be worth checking a marine supply place like West Marine.

**andiesenji** · February 6, 2007

I forgot to mention, in case you did not check the website, that these tables are also available in a 48 x 24 inch size. http://www.competitiveedgeproducts.com/detail.aspx?ID=11

They adjust up to 36 inches tall, which is a good working height.

Note that these have a cross brace at each end that, on the two this size I have, is about 2 inches above the floor. When we used these at events, I had plastic-coated steel wire shelves (Home Depot, etc.) that would rest on the cross braces at each end. We stored extra supplies on the shelf to keep them up off the floor and this also added bottom weight so the tables were less apt to move if bumped.

rooftop1000 · February 7, 2007

Are you making a table or do you want to adjust an existing table?
←
As yet, I'm not doing anything. I'm theorizing because I think this could be the next big thing in kitchen design! I know a lot of folks with small-ish eat-in kitchens who haven't got enough countertop space and therefore wind up doing a lot of prep work at the dining table. It seems to me that with 7 inches of elevation, the dining table becomes a real counter. But of course sitting on stools is inferior to sitting in chairs. So wouldn't it be great if the table could lower 7 inches for dining, and raise 7 inches for work -- all with the touch of a button! It would need to be a very sturdy table, probably something intended for industrial applications, but with a nice butcher block tabletop attached.
←
OK. If you are going into the table design business please take it one step further! I want a table that can serve as a coffee table, a dining table and an extra work surface - now that would be something for those of us in teeny-tiny houses! I know I have seen, at an exorbitant price, a coffee table that can be raised to dining height. Imagine the space I would gain if I could ditch the coffee table.
←

This finally prompted me to check on the Castro coffee/dining table I have available.....someone asking 1000.00 on Ebay :shock:

tracey

**DerekW** · February 7, 2007

...Does anybody know if there's such a thing as a large kitchen table that can adjust between 29 and 36 inches in height...
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It's a pillar mechanism, not a complete table, but this one from Lee Valley has the seven inch lift you're looking for.

ray goud · February 8, 2007

...Does anybody know if there's such a thing as a large kitchen table that can adjust between 29 and 36 inches in height...
←
It's a pillar mechanism, not a complete table, but this one from Lee Valley has the seven inch lift you're looking for.
←

By the way, Lee Valley is an excellent mail-order house.

I just received a magazine with an ad for the device listed here:

http://www.adjustabench.com/about.asp

I haven't seen it in person, but it's another possible solution. Might not add to the esthetics of a designer kitchen, though...

crouching tyler · February 8, 2007

From a technology perspective, it might be useful to look at the tables that are built into RV's. It seems like many of them (as in boats) are meant to adjust from table to bed height. The mechanism might be useful. Not attractive, necessarily. But useful.