Choosing Your Table Top

A warm grey-beige tone with a close, fine grain. Birch is a very heavy, hard material, and holds up well to daily use.

Sourced from mills in Finland and the Baltic states - Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania - the traditional home of birch plywood production. Cheaper birch ply is available from elsewhere, but it doesn't meet the standard we set. Read more about what we check for in every top.

Worth knowing: birch is heavy. Expect to ask for a hand if you rearrange the room often.

Comfortable against almost any leg colour, particularly greys, black and pale blues.

Estimated weight, top only - see note at the end of this page: roughly 34-39kg at 180cm, 50-58kg at 240cm.

Creams and browns, with a noticeably thicker grain than birch. Light, and suits the widest range of colours.

Milled in Northern Italy, the standard source for furniture-grade poplar plywood.

Worth knowing: poplar is softer than birch or meranti - not the choice for a household that's particularly hard on furniture.

Pairs well with yellows, buffs and greens.

Estimated weight, top only - see note at the end of this page: roughly 22-24kg at 180cm, 32-36kg at 240cm.

A rich pattern of deep brown and red-brown that none of our other tops offer, enhanced by the oil finish. The grain is thick, like poplar's, and thicker than birch's.

Meranti ply is made for marine use, so it resists damp to a marine grade. Birch and poplar are treated to resist damp and water; Meranti goes further. Medium weight and hard-wearing, sitting between birch and poplar rather than at either extreme.

Sourced from Southeast Asia.

Worth knowing: meranti's colour is a marmite one - people love it or leave it, though increasingly, it's the love that wins out.

Pairs particularly well with dark colours - reds, greens and black.

Estimated weight, top only - see note at the end of this page: roughly 23-33kg at 180cm, 35-49kg at 240cm.

The same timber, the same finish, the same everything as Meranti above - just a different edge.

Instead of a square edge, Meranti Stingray tapers the underside away at 45 degrees, leaving a thin, rounded lip. It lightens the whole top visually and gives it a more classic feel - and it's the corners that catch the eye first.

The same edge shaping is available on Birch or Poplar on request. It doesn't suit every wood quite as well, but we're happy to talk it through.