Dining Table Legs

Height and finished surface

Every leg here is 71cm (28") tall. Add a top between 20mm and 50mm thick and the finished surface lands at 73–76cm, standard seated dining height. The same 71cm height also works under a desk, so if you are building a workspace rather than a dining table, the desk legs range is the place to start.

Choosing a style

There are around a dozen styles to choose from, and the choice is mostly about the look you want, not a hard rule about table size. Hairpin and single-pin legs fit as a set of 4, one near each corner. Box-section legs fit as a pair, two separate legs with no joining bars, one at each end. Our self-supporting bolt-together box-section frame legs, the Square Industrial and Quad frames, work differently again: they bolt together with joining bars into a single freestanding unit and fix to the top as one piece. They are the only legs we make that are self-supporting, so the frame provides the strength and stability rather than leaning on the top. That makes them as happy under a thin, non-structural top as under a thick, heavy slab. Box-section legs lean a little more heavy-duty and hairpins sit a little lighter, but that is a tendency rather than a limit: box-section legs are just as at home under a light top, and a Heavy Duty hairpin will carry a large dining table. Tapered oak is our premium solid-wood leg, a warmer and softer look than steel.

Weight and support

Our weight figures are quality guidance, not breaking limits. They tell you the load a finished table will carry while still feeling rock-solid, with no wobble, flex or reverberation in everyday use. The point at which a leg would actually fail is far higher, and we do not quote it. As a rough guide, a Classic hairpin build holds around 60kg, a Heavy Duty hairpin around 120kg, and a pair of box-section legs around 150kg. The bolt-together frames are stronger again, though we cap our guidance at 150kg. Tapered oak holds around 60kg. The legs hold up the top, but the top does its share of the work: a solid, stiff top is a big part of what makes the finished table feel rock-solid, so it is worth pairing good legs with a good top.

What you'll need

These are legs on their own, so you will need a top: pair them with one of our tops, or use your own board 20–50mm thick. Every leg is plate-mount and comes with a build guide and the screws to fit it. For most legs, marking the holes through the leg's own base plate is the simplest way to line them up. For more precision, our Premium Drilling Kit adds a centre punch and countersink bit, and we can supply a paper fitting template for most legs on request. If you are building a long top, or a thinner one that might flex, an L-channel stiffening bar fixed along the underside adds stiffness for a rock-solid surface.