Fixed and extendable table

Next generation extendable table

Extendable table, sometimes are a necessity: less and less room in the house, more and more people to be accommodated, starting with the friends, because, given the time not really thriving for anyone, you tend to stay at home rather than going out. And then the boyfriend of your daughter at lunch, father and mother in-laws and sisters and brothers in-laws for Christmas, colleagues for a pizza ...

In short, the opportunities are many, and we need an extension table, yes, but only when needed. Moreover, it must be nice also when it is closed, with the extensible structure hidden or that is an integral part of the design. When it is opened, then, must be large and, above all, practical to manage, even by one person alone.

They are now banned from all, or nearly all, the catalogs of furnishings for home the tables with side extensions that were taken out from under the top and that have ruined many fingers before the arrival of the new mechanisms.
The extendable tables of new generation are really beautiful and practical to use. Let's see some models.

Extendable table with practical mechanism

About practicality, it is important that the table is extendable but the movements are easy to accomplish and, above all, that the mechanism is reliable, durable and compact. There are systems that provide for the accommodation of the extensions below the top of the table, in the useful space generated by the thickness of the guides for the sliding, hidden on the sides by strips of the same material of the top.

This happens especially in wooden classic style models. It is more difficult to accept such a system in the design models, where it is the reduced thickness of the top to characterize the minimalist style typical of modern furniture.

In this case, the systems most frequently proposed are those that allow extensions to be already mounted on the guide rails below the top and the feet, to slide along the latter and, with a mechanical shutter, to stand up and become coplanar to the ground top. Alternatively, there are only the feet of the table to roll aside to allow the extensions housed under the top to open like a book and then to be positioned.

As regards the material of the extensions, sometimes is used the same of the table, some other times different materials are used, or with different colors. Let's see some model.


The table Lanai V by Sicea, which produces extendable tables since the early 60s, has dimensions 130x94 cm when closed and opened from 130x154 cm, with the extensions that are added to enlarge the top, when space is not available in length.

This table has the structure in oak stained wenge and glass tempered glass and lacquered red or white. The top thickness is 8 mm while the extensions are in particle veneered board with veneer.


The table Keyo by Bontempi has the structure that rolls with just one unique lateral extension that is positioned flush with the floor, making a table for 6 in one for 10 people, without renouncing to a minimalist style, typically modern. The structure is in steel, painted white, black or dark brown, aluminum or chrome, while the top may be in glass, frosted glass or painted, lacquered steel or melamine.

Extension table in transparent glass

The choice of the table with the transparent glass is often dictated by the difficulty of combining other materials in an already rich furnishings. So the idea of adding other elements may look as an error of style.

In this regard, the crystal tables of the latest generation have more, compared to those in production a few years ago, the possibility of being extendable through the inclusion of mechanisms that facilitate the movements of opening and closing and which, moreover, are the same elements that characterize the aesthetics of the table.

Not being able, in fact, to hide it, it is much better to treat the metal mechanism as part of the formal model.


The table Enterprise by La Seggiola, for example, translates very well what I am talking about. It is a model of modern table in glass and steel, but which may be inserted in classics contexts. The structure is in polished steel and the shaped top is made in transparent glass.

Its size increased from 150x105 cm/ 90 when closed to 220x105 cm/ 80 when open, with the addition of two practical side extension that come out from under the top to get up and be positioned flush in a very practical way.

Fixed table

If the environment lack the necessary space for the opening of the table, then the only solution is to take a fixed table, adapting it to the room and as a style and finish, of course, both as a form of the plan. The latter will be round or square for tiny spaces, oval or rectangular or for elongated spaces to stretch with optical effect to enlarge a room.


We'll see it at the next round of the Milan Show in 2015, is called B-110 and is the new table proposed by Dale Italia to those who love hardwood to be included in classic or modern contexts, in contrast to a minimal style furnishings. This table has a clean and simple design and features a solid old oak top full of cracks generated by long-standing and exposure to the sun and weather.

The oak wood used, in fact, has more than 100 years and is recovered in Trentino Alto Adige from old farmsteads. After improving it is worked to become a plan to lay on iron legs with finishes rust, metal or lacquered, with custom sizes on request.


For those who do not love edges and prefers the round top, maybe to be included in a particularly elegant room, Formitalia Luxury Group proposes, always at the upcoming Salone 2015, the table Mihaela. It is a table characterized by wooden structure with round top on the central base, it is wrapped in leather Chianti Bull Tobacco and New Coconut Tobacco with oval bit in gold finish. The chairs are coordinates, which are also coated with the same type of leather.

Table and chairs are part of Formitalia Boutique Collection, which is enriched with furnishings, all characterized by patterns, prints and details that recall the world of horses. The materials used are the Como silk, metal and leather, processed by Florentine artisans from centuries of experience. The leathers used are selected from the most prestigious ones and worked with print crocodile and ostrich, now unmistakable sign of this collection.


Dimensions much extra for the table that Piero Lissoni signed for Lema, also previewed in Milan next April. It's called Memo and it has a minimalist style, despite its size: 400 x 110 cm. As with all his accomplishments, confirming a path now well established, Lema also proposed in the last meeting between the collections of natural materials such as wood and more modern ones such as metal and glass.

Memo also respects this trend, being made with oak top and heat-treated metal structure available in matt brushed aluminum, lacquered red or black. Again combinations of heterogeneous materials for refined proposals of contemporary furniture.


About combinations of different materials, we point out the table Fenice, by VG New Trend, still a proposal on preview during the next Salone del Mobile in Milan. It is a table with a very original realization, with the top in the shape of a single or double leaf, surely destined for great spaces or other environments where it will be the undisputed star of the furniture. It is made in oak, walnut and corten steel.