Make your dining room table big enough to fit a large group.
When planning a dinner party or a holiday meal for family and friends, space around the dining room table may be at a premium. Instead of setting up several folding tables around your dining room or spending the money or a larger table, use an extension for your existing dining room table. Table extenders allow all of your dinner guests to sit around one table. Create your own dining room table extender in a weekend with little carpentry experience.
Instructions
1. Stack two hollow core doors on top of one another. Hollow core doors are interior doors found primarily in low-traffic areas because of their lightweight construction. When stacking the doors, ensure the edges are even.
2. Place a piano hinge along the length of the doors. Position the hinge in the small space between the two doors and place one sidepiece on each door's edge. Use either the screws supplied with the hinge or small wood screws to attach the two sidepieces to the doors. Insert the screws through the holes in the hinge and into the doors' sides. Use a hinge the same length as the doors or as close to the length as possible. If the hinge is shorter than the doors, center it on the length so that equal lengths of the doors stick out from either end of the hinge.
3. Position both doors on top of the dining room table, face-up, with the non-hinged side down. Center the doors on the table. Trace the length of the table onto the underside of the doors where it touches the tabletop.
4. Take the doors off the table and flip them upside down back onto the table. Cut two pieces of 2-by-2 inch wood strips with lengths equal to the length of the table with a circular saw. Place them along the traced table length. Secure the wood strips in place with 3-inch wood screws spaced every 4 inches down the length of the strips. Screw them through the wood strips into the doors.
5. Place the doors back on the table with the hinge up and the wood strips down. Place the wood strips on either side of the tabletop. The strips act as braces to hold the doors in place.
Tags: wood strips, dining room, dining room table, room table, your dining, your dining room, core doors