Why are Table Legs?

November 13, 2014 2:14 PM

At restaurants, tables often pedestal or trestle legs. At home, most dining tables have "stick legs" at the corners. Why?

Some of my theories:

- ease of flatpacking home furniture
- at home people are dumb
- vague aesthetic concerns
- cost
- solving different engineering problems.

posted by gregglind to Grab Bag (15 answers total)

Pedestal tables are less likely to be jostled/bumped than tables with a leg in each corner, maximizes floor space, ease of mopping or vacuuming under tables.
posted by mdrew at 2:20 PM on November 13, 2014 [6 favorites]

At a restaurant, you want a pedestal so that you can cram the maximum number of chairs (and thus paying diners) into the space. The downside is that a pedestal table is much less sturdy, and can be prone to tipping over or becoming off balance -- how many matchbooks have you shoved under restaurant tables in your life, for example? At home, where maximizing revenue is not a factor, you might as well go with a more stable table.
posted by Rock Steady at 2:20 PM on November 13, 2014 [2 favorites]

When you go out to eat, you're not paying much attention to the table. The table can be vaguely unsightly/not nice to look at, but you don't care because the rest of the room is so highly decorated, and because you're there for the food, the company, etc. Also, if the table is wobbly, you either won't notice or won't be there long enough for it to matter.

At home, on the other hand, you're going to be staring at that table day in day out for years, so you want it to look nice. Also, if your table is wobbly or otherwise shoddy, you'll probably try to return it. So companies that cater to residential retail customers emphasize something that's not going to actively be a nuisance. Because they want to sell tables.
posted by Sara C. at 2:26 PM on November 13, 2014

Best answer: The downside is that a pedestal table is much less sturdy, and can be prone to tipping over or becoming off balance

This doesn't strike me as true... a 4-legged table is just as (more?) likely to be off balance as a pedestal table, and certainly I've never seen this problem in an in-home dining room pedestal tables.

I'd say most people I know who have "real" dining room tables do have pedestal table (due to their obvious superiority both functionally and aesthetically), so there may be some confirmation bias. I just bought a custom-made table and the vast majority of leg options were pedestal. but seeing Sara C's response, I think probably it just comes down to taste.

I can now think of an exception, which is older/cheaper tables that take leaves. You can definitely get pedestal tables that can split and accept leaves and keep the pedestal intact, but that is obviously a harder engineering challenge than separate legs. that pull apart. Also, really seriously huge tables can't be supported easily just in the middle.
posted by brainmouse at 2:32 PM on November 13, 2014

A pedestal table will be much heavier than a 4-legged table.
posted by dilaudid at 2:34 PM on November 13, 2014 [4 favorites]

Many restaurant tables are bolted down to the ground. So they don't have to worry about balance. To create a moveable pedestal table, you'd need a large, heavy base for it to not tip over.

Many restaurants put table cloths over their tables, so they don't care about how it looks.

That said, tulip tables are quite common in midcentury modern style homes and they're not unusually expensive. But that is a specific aesthetic that I suspect many people don't go for.
posted by ethidda at 2:56 PM on November 13, 2014

Best answer: If you have a large group coming to a restaurant, you grab several tables and move them together. If you have a large group coming to your house, you spread out your table and add leaves. Pedestal tables are easy to move since all of the support is in one structure and you don't have to stop for each leg catching on something or not sliding easily. Legged tables are easier to expand since you move out the supports as you grow the table, and you don't have to worry about stuff on the table moving the center of gravity outside of the feet.
posted by ckape at 3:01 PM on November 13, 2014

This doesn't strike me as true... a 4-legged table is just as (more?) likely to be off balance as a pedestal table

The wider the base of support the less difference it will make if the table or the floor is uneven. So a 4 legged table will usually be less wobbly than a pedestal table.

But really I think it's a matter of size. Restaurant tables tend to be smaller, per person, than home dining room tables. Because they only need space for your plate your drinks, and a basket of bread. At home you also need serving dishes. The larger the table, the worse a pedestal design works. Not so with conventional legs.
posted by aubilenon at 3:18 PM on November 13, 2014

I imagine restaurants using pedestal tables has something to do with people being able to sit wherever they want if there are no legs blocking anyone -- i.e. you could comfortably seat five or even six people at a table for four that has no legs in anyone's way. In a home, a table with legs will be lighter and easier to handle than a pedestal one.
posted by AppleTurnover at 5:26 PM on November 13, 2014

My best guesses are:

- Ease of engineering/maintenance. Less stuff to break.
- Easier to clean the floors.
- Easier to move chairs and pull up extra chairs without table legs interfering.
posted by gnutron at 7:07 PM on November 13, 2014

I'm going to guess that shipping costs and therefore total price may affect this - my aunt was recently thrilled to discover a vintage, simple, solid pedestal base that worked for a tabletop she'd found - I remember how she talked about everything she'd found that was similar and new was ridiculously expensive.
posted by stormyteal at 7:28 PM on November 13, 2014

Best answer: This article on the history of tables, which is admittedly very thin on content, seems to suggest that pedestal tables were invented/popularized in the 1780s because they get in the diners' way less than a traditional table, and are easier to expand out to make a bigger table.

Both reasons are applicable today, and I think if you used 4-leg tables in a modern restaurant -- unless the tables were really oversized -- you'd probably annoy people who would be kicking them when trying to sit down and get up. So in a modern context it is an established design pattern, at least in the West.

(Re the stability issue, both 4-leg and pedestal tables can wobble, but the force required to actually get one to fall over is much less with a pedestal table, depending on the size of the base. Restaurant tables often have very heavy cast-iron bases to make them harder to knock over. Absent this, they'd be pretty annoying.)
posted by Kadin2048 at 9:54 PM on November 13, 2014 [1 favorite]

Well, we have a pedestal-style dining room table, with leaves (which haven't been in place for years).

I personally think that restaurants prefer pedestals for the obvious reasons of moving chairs/people about and capacity. It's not just how many you can fit around or squeeze someone in between others, it's that the legs will catch the chairs when you're moving them for whatever reason.

Corner legs on tables, though, work in residential settings because you're usually putting the table in one place and keeping it there almost forever, and you would usually (in modern homes anyway) have enough room around it for everyone. The formal dining room is passé and dining "areas" in open-plan styles are a lot more flexible and offer the room around the table that a corner-legger needs.
posted by dhartung at 12:20 AM on November 14, 2014

Response by poster: Awesome answers so far!

/me bringing the fight against tall people getting tangled in corner legs to homes everywhere. Everywhere in my house at least.

Pedestal bases in restaurants I understand. What still confuses me is why T-Bases aren't more common in home settings. They are ubiquitous on conference tables (in the US), but very rare on home tables. They offer the stability of bases (wide footprint), adjustable feet (often!) for leveling, no interference with sitting, and are cheaper than (or comparable to) stick legs.

(I buried the lede a bit here in that I feel axe-grindy about corner legs, and want to find good justification to buy / build a different style of leg for my small home dining table. No leaves, small table, small room.)
posted by gregglind at 6:16 AM on November 14, 2014

What still confuses me is why T-Bases aren't more common in home settings.

I can't answer with any sort of authority but I suspect that I'd be stubbing my toes on a table like that at home something fierce.
posted by Kadin2048 at 12:43 PM on November 14, 2014