How to Design a Custom Conference Table: Shape, Size, Base, Finish and Power, Step by Step

The short answer: to design a custom conference table on OfficeSimpli's builder, go through its six steps: pick a top shape, a size (set lengths from 6 to 20 feet), a base and the finishes, add options and power, then review the price. The 3-D table changes with every choice, and the price updates as you go. Here, “build your own conference table” means you design it online and it is made for you, with no woodworking. On the last step you say where it is going, and our sales team emails your delivered price. It is made to order and ships in 2 to 3 weeks (tables with metal legs can take around 4 weeks).

Should you start from a ready-made table or from scratch?

The builder opens on Start. You can load one of 17 ready-made configurations, or tap “Start from scratch” and build your own. The ready-made ones are made to order too, like every build here; they are not our ready-to-ship table. Not sure which kind of table you need? Read our guide to choosing ready-to-ship or custom. A ready-made table loads into the builder, and you can change anything on it. Left exactly as it loads, it shows one price with shipping included, and step 6 reads: “Shipping by curbside freight within the continental US is included.” Curbside freight means a truck brings the table to your curb, driveway, front door or loading dock; step 6 below explains delivery.

Change anything and the builder prices your table part by part, with freight quoted to your address: “Shipping is not included; contact us for a freight quote to your address.” The build in this guide starts from scratch, so each step below shows one choice and what it does to the table.

Step 1: which top shape should you pick?

Step 1 has seven shapes: Round, Square, Rectangular, Racetrack, Boatshape, Bow-end and Sightline. A boat top is widest in the middle and narrower at both ends; a racetrack top has straight long sides and fully rounded ends; a bow-end top is gently curved at the ends; and a sightline top is wide at the head and narrower at the foot. Each card shows a starting price, and the builder explains it: “Prices here are for the tabletop alone; the base is priced in step 3.”

How to decide: the shape sets how people face each other and the screen. Our conference table shapes guide puts it simply: “Boat and racetrack tops soften a long table, and a boat's gentle curve also gives a slightly easier view of the people on your own side.” A sightline top lets the side seats see the head of the table, and round and square tables suit small groups.

Our build: Boatshape, for that easier view along our own side. The 3-D table changed to a boat shape as soon as we picked the card.

Step 2: what size do you need, and what is the top made of?

The size menu lists set sizes, with feet beside the inches. Rectangular, racetrack, boat and bow-end tops come 6, 7, 8, 10, 12, 14, 15, 16, 18 or 20 feet long. Their depth goes with the length: 36 inches at 6 feet, 42 or 48 at 7 and 8 feet, 48 at 10 feet and 48, 54 or 60 from 12 to 20 feet. A boat top is measured at its widest, in the middle. Sightline tops come 8, 10, 12, 14, 15, 16, 18 or 20 feet long. Round tops come 30, 36, 42, 48, 54 or 60 inches across, and square tops 30, 36, 42, 48 or 54 inches.

One length is marked “custom length” in the menu: 15 feet (180 inches). It is final sale, which means it cannot be returned for fit or a change of mind. So measure the room before you pick it. It ships on the same made-to-order timeline as the other sizes.

How many people fit? Our conference tables page gives these numbers. The first number gives each person about 30 inches of table edge, with a seat at each end. As our shapes guide puts it, “the higher number sets chairs a little closer”.

For other lengths, round tops and square tops, our size calculator turns your room and headcount into a table size (step 2 links to it too). Our size guide and sizes for 6, 8, 10 and 12 people go deeper.

Tops longer than 8 feet come in sections: two from 10 to 16 feet and three at 18 and 20 feet. A multi-finish top (one finish on the ends, another in the middle) always comes in three. The builder says how they join: “the sections join underneath with connector hardware, and the grain does not line up across the seam”.

Below the size menu you choose the top's surface. Both choices are laminate, a hard surface layer, on an engineered wood core. Our laminate colors page explains the two: TFL (thermally fused laminate) is fused straight onto the core and resists scratches and water. HPL (high-pressure laminate) is a separate, denser sheet bonded on, so its wear layer, the hard surface that takes the daily use, is thicker and harder. Thickness: 1-1/8 inches is standard. Edge: a 2mm PVC band, a thin plastic strip that covers the edge, is standard, and wood edge bands cost more.

Our build: 42 inches deep at the ends and 48 in the middle, 144 inches (12 feet) long, in two sections. We kept TFL, the standard thickness and the PVC edge.

Step 3: which base goes with your top?

Step 3 shows the bases that fit your top size and hides the rest. For our 12 ft boat top, 13 of the 26 base options showed up: laminate bases, laminate cylinders and several kinds of metal legs. Each card shows a picture of the base and its price.

How to decide: the look, the legroom and the power cords. Not every base has a path for power cords. When yours has none, step 5 says so and names the bases that do. The builder's note on one panel base reads “Hollow 3/4" laminate bases, sold as a set with wire-management troughs.” Those troughs are channels that carry the cords under the top, between the bases. With metal legs, cords run in the open unless you add a wire basket or a cable spine in step 5. Some metal leg sets swap the middle legs for a laminate pedestal, a box with hinged doors, where the cords can run.

Five single-post bases, for round and square tops, also come in a seated (29 inch) or standing (42 inch) height.

Our build: the metal A-frame legs, number 5 above, for a lighter, more open look under a long top. Metal legs can add a week or two: the builder says tables with metal legs can take around 4 weeks to ship, instead of 2 to 3. The table on screen changed to match.

Step 4: how do you pick the finishes?

Step 4 has 15 laminate finishes, the same ones on our laminate colors page. Eleven are standard: Glacier White, Battle Creek Oak, Hardrock Maple, French Grey, Straight Noce, Iconic Maple, Portico Teak, Carmelo Mist, Slate Grey, Grigio Notte and Black. Four cost more: Fawn Cypress, Iron Hemlock II, California Walnut and Vienna Coffee. Each name describes the laminate's pattern: California Walnut, for example, is a walnut-look laminate.

You pick a finish for the top, then for the base. A laminate base matches the top until you pick another finish, and bases with side panels get a third pick for the panels. Metal legs get a metal color instead, such as silver, black or white. Each finish also comes in a matched HPL, so “a TFL desk and an HPL table in the same room read as one color”.

Our build: Straight Noce on the top and black on the legs. The table on screen took the new finish as soon as we picked the swatch.

Step 5: do you need power in the table?

Step 5 starts with the top itself: rounded corners (on rectangular, square and sightline tops) and a 1/2-inch reveal, a thin strip set in under the edge of the top. Then power. The builder calls a power unit a grommet: a box of outlets and charging ports that, in its words, “sits flush in the tabletop”. There are five, each with a picture you can open for the details: 3 outlets, 2 USB-A, 2 USB-C; 2 outlets, USB, plate slot; 4 outlets, USB, network; 3 outlets, USB, HDMI (a plug for a screen or projector); and 6 outlets, USB, plate slot.

How many fit depends on the top. One- and two-piece tops take up to two (one on a 6 ft table), and three-piece tops take up to three. A round or square top takes one, in the center. A unit with a plate slot takes a connection plate: network and phone jacks, or HDMI, VGA and audio connections, which the builder sums up as “Plug a laptop into the room's TV or projector.” If a base has no path for power cords, the builder says so on this step.

Under the table goes a wire basket, in five lengths. The builder describes it: “Holds power strips and spare cable under the table. Usually one per grommet.” A cable spine carries cables from the table down to the floor. Our power options guide explains which kind of power a room needs.

Our build: two of the 3-outlet units with USB-A and USB-C, one in each section of the top. With metal legs the cords would hang in the open, so we would add one wire basket under each unit, as the builder suggests. The picture shows the units before any basket.

Step 6: how do you get the price, and when does it ship?

Step 6 lists every part of your table with its price, then the total. You can set how many tables (1 to 50), add White Glove Delivery (“We'll schedule the carrier to deliver it inside, to the room of your choice.”) and ask for an assembly quote.

How it reaches you: by freight truck, curbside or to a loading dock. Our buying guide explains that “the driver brings the table to your curb, driveway, front door or loading dock, but does not carry it inside or upstairs.” You bring it in from there. White Glove Delivery, a paid add-on, carries it inside to the room you choose. Assembly is not included with either option. Our conference tables page says “Everything arrives on a pallet in a handful of large, mostly assembled pieces rather than as a box of parts.” You put it together, or ask for an assembly quote on this step.

Card checkout is not on the builder. “Get my delivered price” opens a short form, and our sales team emails your price. The form asks for your name, email and delivery ZIP code, plus a few delivery questions: business or home, loading dock, assembly. Then it asks how you will pay: card, or invoice or purchase order. The price comes by email soon, not on the spot, and it is the delivered price, freight to your address included.

When does it ship? The builder's terms read: “Made to order. Ships in 2 to 3 weeks (tables with metal legs can take around 4 weeks).” Freight then typically takes 3 to 10 business days after it ships, so plan for both.

Need a sign-off before you order? “Save as PDF” and “Copy share link”, at the top of the builder, pass the build to your team.

Worth knowing: our conference table buying guide says it plainly: “Once a made-to-order table goes into production, the order cannot be canceled, so settle the size and finish first.” And every step of the builder notes that the configuration and the price are not final until we review your build.

Custom conference table questions, answered