Metal furniture components are the frames, bases, legs, and mounting parts that hold furniture together, and many projects can start from a customizable catalog part before going fully custom. A good spec starts with the load and use, then covers the material, whether it’s welded or knock-down construction, the dimensions that must be exact, and the finish, which affects weld prep and cost. To get an accurate quote, send a sketch, drawing, or CAD file along with the quantity, material, finish, and how the piece will be used.
Getting the Frame Right
A table can have a beautiful top and still wobble or sag because of what’s holding it up. A lounge chair frame can flex when someone leans back. A credenza’s steel base can sit a quarter inch too tall for the millwork next to it.
Designers usually spend the most drawing time on the surfaces people see and touch. The metal frame or base often gets a rough sketch and a note that says “steel, black.” That’s enough to start a conversation with a fabricator, but getting the part you pictured usually takes more detail than that. If you’re still deciding whether fabrication is the right process, start with our guide to other ways to make a metal part.
What Counts as a Metal Furniture Component?
A metal furniture component is any fabricated metal part that gives a piece of furniture its structure, its support, or a visible metal detail. The most common are:
- Frames for seating, benches, casegoods, and shelving
- Bases and legs for tables, desks, and counters
- Stretchers and aprons that tie legs together and stiffen a frame
- Brackets and mounting plates that attach tops, panels, and upholstery
- Modesty panels, screens, and shrouds made from formed sheet metal
- Hardware features such as leveler housings, tapped holes, and connection points
Some projects need a single part. Others need a full frame system that a furniture manufacturer will upholster, top, or assemble into a finished product. Northwest Metal Products makes both, and our work includes component programs for contract furniture brands such as Steelcase, Herman Miller, and Haworth.
Custom Doesn’t Always Mean Starting From Scratch
Before you draw a base from nothing, look at what already exists. The Northwest Metal Products catalog includes X bases, T bases, cantilever bases, tri-leg bases, and suspended legs, and every catalog product can be customized.
That covers a lot of projects. If a catalog base has the right look but the wrong height, footprint, or finish, changing those details is usually faster and less expensive than designing a new base. The underlying design has also already been made and used, so there’s less to prove out.
A fully custom design makes more sense when the shape is new, when the base has to match existing work on site, or when the piece belongs to a product line you want to own.
Start With the Load and How the Piece Gets Used
Before you pick a tube size or a finish, work out what the component has to hold and how the furniture will be treated.
What Sits on It?
On custom metal tables and desks, top material changes the job. A stone top is far heavier than wood and requires broader support beneath. Glass needs support points that won’t create stress points. Solid wood expands and contracts with humidity, so the base has to let the top move.
Is It Commercial or Residential?
A conference table in a busy office, a restaurant banquette, and a dining table in a private home take very different amounts of abuse. Hospitality and contract furniture are often dragged, bumped, and cleaned, and the frame design should account for that.
Does It Move?
Pieces that get reconfigured, stacked, or rolled need joints that withstand repeated handling. Pieces that stay in one place don’t face that wear.
Designing Metal Seating Frames
Metal chair frames and other seating frames are loaded differently than tables. Weight moves every time someone sits down or leans back, and that movement puts racking stress on the joints where the legs meet the seat rail. Joint design matters more than tube size alone.
Our catalog also includes stainless steel chair legs that can be customized.
Choosing Material and Profile
Metal
Steel is the most common choice for furniture frames and bases. It’s strong, stiff, and affordable, and it takes powder coating, plating, and other finishes well.
Stainless steel resists corrosion and looks good brushed or polished without a coating. It costs more than carbon steel and takes more work to fabricate and finish.
Aluminum is light and won’t rust, so it suits pieces that get moved or live outdoors. It’s less stiff than steel and often needs a larger profile to carry the same load.
Brass is usually a decorative choice for accents, trim, and visible details where the warm color is the point.
Profile
Tube (round, square, or rectangular) is the most common profile for metal furniture frames. The hollow section makes a frame stiff without making it heavy. Wall thickness is the primary variable, with thicker walls supporting longer spans and heavier loads. For table bases and frames, we most often use 1-inch to 4-inch round, square, and rectangular tubing with wall thicknesses anywhere from 16GA to ¼”.
Solid bar gives a slim leg visual weight and density. It’s heavier and costs more than tube. If you like the look of solid stock but the budget is tight, ask whether tube with the same outside dimension would look similar for less. It often does.
Plate and flat bar appear in base plates, mounting plates, and blade-style legs, where a thin, flat profile is part of the design.
Sheet covers modesty panels, shrouds, screens, and formed parts that wrap or enclose.
Welded or Knock-Down Construction?
How the frame goes together affects its strength, appearance, shipping cost, and installation.
A welded frame arrives as one rigid piece. The joints won’t loosen, the frame stays square, and exposed welds can be ground and blended until the joint disappears. The downside is size. A fully welded base for a long conference table is a large, awkward object to crate, ship, and carry through a doorway.
A knockdown frame bolts together on-site. It ships flat, costs less to freight, and fits through tight spaces, and a damaged part can be replaced without scrapping the whole frame. The joints need careful design, usually with machined connection points, threaded holes, or bolted plates, and the hardware has to be hidden or treated as a visible detail.
Some pieces combine the two, with welded subassemblies that bolt together at a few points. You get most of the rigidity of a welded frame at a shipping size you can manage. Our team ships both knockdown and fully welded pieces, as well as the combined option. We’ll work with you to help you choose based on shipping costs and space constraints at installation.
Whichever route you choose, decide which welds will be visible. A weld hidden under a tabletop can be left as is. A weld on the outside corner of a polished leg needs careful welding and blending, which adds time.
Dimensions to Get Right
Finished Height
Common finished heights are about 29 to 30 inches for dining and conference tables, 36 inches for counter height, and 42 inches for bar height. The base height is the finished height minus the top thickness and the leveler or glide height. Leave either one out and the table comes out tall.
Footprint and Stability
The base footprint has to balance the top’s overhang, and a slim pedestal under a large top can tip once it’s in use. If you want a minimal base, a heavier base plate or wider feet can keep it stable without much changing the look from above.
Clearance
Check knee and leg clearance under aprons and stretchers, and check whether chair arms will slide under the apron. On desks and workstations, leave room for cable management and any modesty panel.
Mounting Points
Plan how the top, panels, or upholstery attach:
- Wood tops mount through plates with slotted holes, so the wood can expand and contract without cracking or pulling the fasteners.
- Glass tops usually sit on clear pads or bumpers at set support points.
- Stone tops often need a broader support area or a sub-top underneath.
Leveler and glide locations belong on the drawing too. Most furniture levelers use 3/8″-16 or 1/4″-20 threads, which need tapped holes or threaded inserts. Northwest Metal Products machines in-house, so those features are added in the same shop as the rest of the part.
Tolerances
Mark the dimensions that have to be exact: overall height, mounting hole locations, and anything that mates with another part or with site conditions. Everything else can fall to the fabricator’s standard tolerance, which at our shop is +/- ¼” on a fully welded or assembled base. At Northwest Metals, we can also produce tighter tolerances, but it will increase your cost. Machined parts have tighter tolerances, which make joints tighter or improve fit where parts in the base assembly need to fit together. Calling out tight tolerances on every dimension adds cost without improving the piece.
Put the Finish in the Spec From the Start
Polished and plated finishes show every weld flaw and surface mark, so the part needs more grinding and blending first. Powder coat hides minor surface texture, but it adds thickness, so threaded holes and tight-fitting parts have to be masked. Raw and clear-coated steel shows welds and mill marks, which some designers want as part of the look. See our full list of finishes.
Finish can also steer material choice. A brushed stainless finish can sometimes replace chrome plating for a similar look and different long-term wear. Talk through the options with your fabricator before locking in the material.
Quantity matters, too. Metal finishing often carries a minimum charge per batch, so on very small orders, that minimum is a larger share of the cost.
Spec Mistakes We See Most Often
Each of these is easier to fix on the drawing than in the shop.
- Leaving the top and levelers out of the height. The base gets drawn to the finished table height, and the table ends up an inch or two tall. Make sure you clarify whether the height of the final product includes the levelers or not.
- A footprint too small for the top. The table tips when someone leans on the edge.
- Choosing the finish after the design is set. A polished finish on a design with many exposed welds adds hours of grinding and blending.
- No plan for attaching the top. Without mounting plates or hole locations on the drawing, the attachment method gets decided late.
- Tight tolerances on every dimension. This adds cost without improving the piece.
- Showing the look without the load. A drawing with no top material or intended use leaves the fabricator guessing at tube size and wall thickness.
A Project Example
We once had a customer bring us a completed design, including the finish, for a luggage bench intended for a hotel room, but the product was too large to fit through the finishing process they had selected. We redesigned the product to be constructed in sections that could be assembled after finishing, hiding the assembled joints. The product turned out fantastic, and the customer was delighted with it.
For a full walkthrough of another project, see how we turned a customer’s photo of a custom dining table into a finished base.
What to Send Your Fabricator
You don’t need a full set of shop drawings to start. A dimensioned sketch is enough for a first conversation, and we can help turn an idea into a drawing. The more of this list you can answer, the more accurate your quote will be.
| Item | What to Include |
| Drawing | CAD file, shop drawing, or a dimensioned sketch. A rough idea is fine to start. |
| Quantity | One piece, a prototype, production quantities, or expected repeat orders |
| Material and profile | Your preference, or the look you’re after so we can recommend one |
| Finish | Finish type, color, and sheen |
| Load and use | Top material and weight, setting (commercial, hospitality, residential), and whether the piece moves |
| Must-hit dimensions | Finished height, footprint, clearances, and mounting hole locations |
| Construction | Welded, knock-down, or open to a recommendation |
| Mounting and hardware | How tops or panels attach, plus levelers, glides, or inserts |
| Timeline | Install or launch date |
We accept DWG, DXF, PDF, JPG, or PNG files.
Quotes most often take longer because of missing information such as quantity, detailed dimensions, or whether the height includes the levelers, so include it up front if you can.
Furniture manufacturers developing a new line should also include any testing standards the product has to meet and the expected annual volume.
Prototype First, Then Order Production
A prototype lets you check proportion, stability, and finish in person before you commit to a full order. It also catches problems a drawing hides, like a stretcher that hits a chair arm or a finish that reads darker than the sample chip.
Northwest Metal Products makes prototypes on request, and there’s no minimum order. Pricing per piece drops as quantity increases, so many projects go from one prototype to a round of adjustments in the production order.
Working With Northwest Metal Products
Northwest Metal Products has been a custom metal fabrication shop in Grand Rapids, Michigan, since 1978. We make metal furniture components for furniture designers, manufacturers, interior designers, and architects across the country, from single custom bases to frame systems for new product lines.
Forming, machining, welding, and finishing all happen in our shop, so your parts don’t bounce between vendors. If you already have a design, we’ll make it. If you have an idea and no drawing yet, we’ll help you get there. Our work is backed by a one-year warranty and made to last far longer.
Have a frame, base, or part in mind? Request a quote and send us what you have.
FAQs
What are metal furniture components?
Metal furniture components are the fabricated metal parts that give furniture its structure and support, including frames, bases, legs, stretchers, brackets, mounting plates, and panels. They can be standalone parts or complete frame systems that get tops or upholstery added later.
Can I customize a catalog table base instead of designing one from scratch?
Yes. Every Northwest Metal Products catalog product can be customized, and changing the height, footprint, or finish of an existing base is often faster and less expensive than a new design.
What metal is best for furniture frames?
Steel is the most common choice because it’s strong, stiff, and affordable, and it takes most finishes well. Stainless steel works where corrosion resistance or a bare metal look matters. Aluminum suits lightweight or outdoor pieces, and brass is mostly used for decorative details.
Is tube steel strong enough for furniture?
Yes. Most metal furniture frames use tube steel because the hollow section is stiff for its weight. Wall thickness and profile size should match the span and load, so tell your fabricator what the piece has to hold.
Should a metal furniture frame be welded or knock-down?
Welded frames are more rigid and won’t loosen, so they suit pieces that stay in place. Knock-down frames ship flat and install more easily in tight spaces, which helps with large pieces, long-distance shipping, and difficult access. Some designs combine welded subassemblies with a few bolted connections.
What should I include in furniture shop drawings?
Include overall dimensions, finished height, material and profile, finish, mounting hole locations, leveler or glide locations, and construction method. Mark the dimensions that have to be exact. If you don’t have shop drawings, a dimensioned sketch is enough to start a quote.
Can you match or replace an existing metal furniture part?
Usually, yes. Send photos, dimensions, or the part itself if you can, and we’ll look at what it would take to reproduce it.
Do you make prototypes before production?
Yes, on request. There’s no minimum order, and the price per piece drops as quantity increases.
