Sourcing legs and frames for solid wood desk and table tops

How can you pair your Solid Wood Top with the perfect legs or frame to get your dream set up, exactly as you imagine it? The key is stability for the desk, and support for the top. This post briefly discusses frames for sit/stand desks, and the different styles, retailers and considerations for individual legs for static desks.

Do you need a sit/stand frame?

If your wooden desk top needs to rise and fall/be height adjustable then you need a metal frame. Individual legs that are height adjustable are not sit/stand and so will need to be manually adjusted, often with the desk upside down. They generally have a small range to get the perfect height whilst sitting (never standing).

We have many articles on different frame styles and where to get them from, here are a few:

Static height legs

If you are happy your legs being a certain height, the world of custom legs for your solid wood is pretty diverse. Here are the best places our customers have found for the following categories of legs:

• Cost effective legs: Ikea legs, trestles or drawers (we can arrange to pre-dill holes in the required locations, making it even easier to put together.) Related article: The cheapest way to get a hand made solid wood table or desk.
• Traditional wooden legs: square solid wood legs or sites like Heritage Components. (We would advise going for legs with a plate rather than just one screw.)
• Metal individual legs: sites like Tiptoe or The Hairpin Leg Company (We would advise checking reviews on stability for your leg of choice.)
• Metal industrial box legs: sites like Taylor’s Collection or Amazon (There are many styles, including legs that are fitted to the centre of the top, perfect for coffee tables).

Reminders for custom legs for standard desks

Desk frames potentially come with more considered support for a desk top than individual legs. They are built for a certain weight class and a certain size of top. So when it comes to fitting individual legs, the placement and quantity is important and needs planning. Depending on the wood type and thickness, one leg in each corner might provide stability but not enough support for the desk top (Related article: How thick does a solid wood desk top need to be?). Or perhaps the top has enough support, but one of the leg placements being off could make the desk unstable.

Hints and tips for L-shaped desk legs

Using individual legs for L shaped tops is possible, but stability and support is again crucial. It is important to make sure both the return and the inside corner have enough support. Often most weight is placed in the corner, where the join is, making it theoretically a weaker spot.

If the desk is to be placed in a corner, and unlikely to move, you may consider adding battens along the wall the provide extra support. Related article: How L-shaped desk tops are constructed.

Recommendations for dining table legs

It can be tempting to have too large of an overhang for a dining table, heavy dishes placed on the edge of a table, or people subconsciously leaning could place weight on an extremity causing the table to tip. Leg placement is crucial to ensuring that enough chairs can fit around without being cramped by an annoying leg.

Pointers for coffee table bases

Overhangs can be larger with coffee tables, the centre of gravity is lower, the weight they are expected to bear is also less, so leg styles like ‘straw bundle’ etc can provide enough central support.

Anything can be a base for a top

People can put tops anywhere, on top of anything, as long as their is stability and support for the top. Customers put tops in bay windows, use drawer packs (related post: Karlby & Alex Review – Using IKEA counter tops as desk tops, custom height draw packs), storage units (i.e. Kallax), window sills, and even kitchen islands as a base for their table tops.

Create your solid wood top for custom legs today…

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