Why We Built the Build Your Own Conference Table

The short answer: we built it because the old way of buying a custom conference table was a list of fixed tables and an email address. If you wanted a different size, a different base or a power unit in a different place, you wrote to us and waited for a reply. At OfficeSimpli we wanted a buyer to see their own table, in 3-D, with the price updating as they change it, and then ask for a delivered price with one short form. That is what Build Your Own Conference Table does. For the steps themselves, our walkthrough How to Design a Custom Conference Table goes through each one in order.

What was wrong with buying a conference table online?

Most online furniture stores sell conference tables as finished products. Each one has a fixed length, a fixed base and a fixed finish. That works when a buyer wants exactly that table. It falls apart as soon as they want one thing changed.

We could see the problem in the questions people typed into Google when our site came up in the results. They asked about custom conference table shapes, custom sizes, and what colors a boardroom table could come in. The answer to every one of those questions used to be “email us.” A buyer who is comparing three stores on a Tuesday afternoon does not want to start three email threads.

The other problem was imagination. A product page shows one table in one room. A buyer looking at a 10 ft table with a panel base has to guess what the same top looks like on metal legs. They also have to guess what a 16 ft version looks like with the extra support it needs.

Why put the catalog rules on the page?

Because the industry has not had much reason to change. Office furniture is still sold the way it has been sold for decades: a printed price book, a dealer, a quote that takes days, and a drawing you have to ask for. Every rule about what fits what, which base goes under which top, how many supports a long table needs, lives in that book and in the heads of a few experienced salespeople. The buyer never sees any of it.

We decided to move those rules out of the book and onto a page anyone can use. The builder does the catalog math in the open, while you watch. Pick a 16 ft top and it knows four panel bases go under it. Pick a round top and it offers only the bases made for one. Add a power unit over a base and it knows whether the base needs a notch. Nothing about the furniture changed. What changed is who gets to see the rules.

We started with a room size calculator that answers “what fits in my room” without a phone call. The builder is the next step. The questions it answers used to need a dealer. Now they need a browser.

Why draw the table in 3-D instead of listing the options?

Because a list hides the things that matter. A base has a shape, a width and a position under the top. A power unit has a size and a place. The two can collide: a power unit set directly over a base can need a notch cut in that base. None of that shows up in a drop-down menu.

In the builder, every choice is drawn on your table the moment you make it. Pick a shape and a size, and the top appears. Pick a base, and it appears under the top, with the right number of supports for the length. Add a power unit, and you see where it sits. You can spin the table and look at it from any side, and from low down, which is what you would do in a showroom.

The 3-D view is not a photo of one example table. It is drawn from the real catalog sizes, so a 48-inch-deep top is 48 inches deep, and a 20 ft top shows its three pieces. The short film at the top of our conference tables collection is a recording of the builder itself: one table turns while its finish, legs and power change.

Why does the price change as you go?

Because price is part of the decision, not something you learn at the end. A thicker top costs more than a standard one. A Premium finish costs more than a standard finish, and the builder says so next to the swatch. When those facts appear beside the choice, you can weigh them before you decide.

The builder shows the tabletop’s price as soon as you pick a shape and size, adds the base when you choose one, and adds finishes, options and power after that. Only freight waits for the last step, because it depends on your address. The last step asks for your delivery ZIP code, and we email you a delivered price with freight included.

We also kept prices off this post, on purpose. Prices change, and a number copied into an article goes stale. If you want the price, it is one click away.

What can you actually change?

Every option in our made-to-order line. Seven top shapes: rectangular, boat, bow-end and racetrack tops from 6 to 20 ft long, tapered tops from 8 to 20 ft, and round and square tops. A standard or thicker top with a choice of edges. 26 base styles, from panels and cylinders to metal legs, and only the ones that fit your top are offered. 15 laminate finishes, extras like rounded corners and wire baskets, and built-in power units.

Our step-by-step walkthrough, How to Design a Custom Conference Table, goes through every one of those choices in order. Our post on choosing a base goes deeper on what each base type does.

Why start from a popular configuration?

Because a blank page is hard. The builder opens with a set of ready-made tables. You can take one as it is, or use it as a starting point and change the base, the finish or the length. The hard part was never the table. It was knowing what could be changed, and a starter table shows you.

A starter table taken as is ships by curbside freight (to the curb or loading dock, not inside) within the continental US at no charge. Change anything and we work out freight for your address as part of the delivered price.

What happens after you click “Get my delivered price”?

A short form asks for your name, email, delivery ZIP code, whether the address is a business or a home, whether there is a loading dock, whether you want a quote for assembly, and how you will pay (card, or invoice or purchase order). We email you the delivered price, typically within 1 to 2 business days. Made to order. Ships in 2 to 3 weeks (tables with metal legs can take around 4 weeks). Freight transit then takes 3 to 10 business days.

If you need sign-off first, two buttons in the builder help. Copy share link gives you a link that opens the exact table you designed, so a partner or a facilities manager sees what you see. Save as PDF gives you an itemized page of the build at builder prices; the emailed quote is the one to put on a purchase order.

Worth knowing: the builder’s price covers the table. The delivered quote adds freight for your address and confirms the total after our team reviews the build. A size or option the builder does not list is quoted separately.

Questions about the builder, answered

Is the builder free to use?

Yes. You can design as many tables as you like, share them and save them as PDFs without buying anything. You only hear from us when you ask for a delivered price.

Are the tables in the builder real products?

Yes. Every shape, size, base, finish and power unit in the builder is something our US manufacturing partner makes to order. The builder will not let you pick a base that does not fit your top.

Why is there no “buy now” button?

Because freight on a conference table depends on where it is going and whether there is a loading dock. We work that out for your address and email you one delivered price.

Can I change the table after I get the delivered price?

Yes. Open your share link, change what you need, and request a new delivered price. Each request is a fresh quote.

Written by Jeremy M., who built OfficeSimpli's Build Your Own Conference Table, and checked against the live builder.