We have a nice dining table that seats 4 comfortably. I needed a practical way to expand the table to seat 8 for when company comes, but with the following limitations: it needed to be easy, sturdy, and cheap. And the only power tool I've allowed myself to buy so far is a power drill (the less we buy now, the less we have to get rid of if we decide to move overseas again). Cardboard turned out to be a perfect solution. We had quite a lot of empty boxes that I saved for a purpose like this, and a friend who owns an electronics shop was happy to give us a few larger boxes. In the end, it really was as simple as measure, glue, cut, tape, and attach.
Here are the steps I followed:
1. Measure the width of the table and the new length you want to add. I didn't do this very scientifically. I just sat down in a chair off the end of the table and approximated how much space was necessary for a new place setting, given the width of the chair.
2. Gauge and glue.
You want the thickness of your leaf to match the thickness of the table, so start stacking your cardboard layers. Figure on some compression happening. For sturdiness, the cardboard layers need to alternate direction. Cardboard has channels running through it and is always weaker in one direction. Also, it's best if your cardboard layer is all one piece, but you can use multiple pieces like I did here. Just make sure you don't have gaps lining up on top of each other or it will be too weak. A glue gun works fine to fix the layers together. I used a cheapie glue gun from a 100 yen shop, but would have preferred a better model that would heat up enough glue for one layer. You don't need to use a lot because the tape and screws that we add later will also help hold it together.
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| Planning the layers for the cardboard leaf. Single whole pieces are best, but you can glue two pieces close together if you're careful about it. |
3. Cut.
I just used a utility knife to cut through the layers one by one. It wasn't exactly easy, especially when I ran across the glue. It made quite a mess too, but I expected that. I rounded the edges, figuring that sharp cardboard edges wouldn't survive long anyway.
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| Cardboard leaf, mid-process |
4. I wasn't happy with the top. It had some bumps to it. I tried to level them out with brown paper tape. It worked well enough. The trickiest part was cutting the edge that would meet the table. Our table edge angles under, so this leaf needed to match. I imagined the slope as a triangle with a base and a height, and flipped it upside down to find the part of the cardboard that I needed to cut away. Also a very messy step. Pretty sure at one point I was even using a serrated bread knife to get it done.
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| Nearly completed cardboard leaf, just needs the clips |
5. Time to attach. Which means buying the necessary parts and getting them home by bicycle. It definitely added a layer of complexity, but I managed. Nobody died.
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| My ride |
At first I tried plastic pipe, but it drooped. Thin metal pipe (often used for shelving) worked much better. At the top of the picture below is a pipe cutter, followed by the pipe clips, O-rings of various sizes to keep the pipe from slipping out, something apparently called a t-nut, screws to go into the t-nuts, and screws to attach the clips to the table.
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| Necessary parts |
Ideally, each pipe will have 4 clips; two under the leaf and two under the table. Use the t-nuts on the surface side of the cardboard leaf, with screws attaching the clips from the bottom. Annoyingly, the t-nuts were sold 5 to a package so I ended up 1 short, which is why there is one clip missing on the cardboard leaf in this view. I plan to fix that eventually.
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| Attached leaf from underside view |
I would absolutely do this project again. The cardboard is lightweight, and since the clips remain attached, all I need to do to extend the table is slip the pipes into the clips and then slip the cardboard leaf onto the pipes. It's incredibly sturdy, but also easy to pack away. Even better, the clips don't get in the way of the normal function of the table.
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| Leaf in place, top view |
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| Leaf in place, hidden by the tablecloth |
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