From Shooting Pool to Homeschool With Ping Pong: Converting our pool table to a work table using a table tennis topper

Whoops! I just realized that this is a double post. I was having trouble posting earlier and it didn't look like it went through for about ten minutes, so I refreshed the page and tried again. I guess I should have checked the feed first. I've got unique comments on both so I don't want to delete either, but please only upvote one. I'll do my best to avoid this mistake in the future...

One of the main reasons for our move to North Carolina was to be able to transition my wife to primary caretaker, homemaker and homeschooler from her current role as breadwinner, without destroying our financial lives of course. In particular, our home must be prepared to create a rich learning environment for our children in which they can explore subjects and work on projects. The pool table that came with this house is pretty nice. It's a real slate table, and as such, it's heavy enough that if we wanted to be rid of it, we would likely have to pay someone to take it off our hands. This is probably the same reason the previous owners decided not to take it with them. I like the idea of having it for entertaining guests on occasion anyway, so we've decided to keep it in the bonus room and just use it to double as a work surface for the kids to do projects on.

This is the solution we came up with. I remember seeing one of these in someone else's house before. It's a cover for the pool table that allows it to be used for table tennis. It also makes for a nice flat surface to draw or do crafts, or pretty much anything one would need a table for. We liked this idea because it was cheap, it was quick and it was easy. When we're not running around like crazy people trying to set up our home, finish up one career, start another, get established legally in a new state, repair our vehicles after the abuse they took during the trip and getting our home in good repair, maybe then I can take this on as a project and build a nicer setup with some cabinet grade plywood. Until then, this will have to do. Even if I had the time, I don't have most of the woodworking tools required yet anyway. Those things tend to be heavy and I sold a lot of that stuff before the move.

This is one of the easier DIY jobs I've done lately. This topper comes in two halves, each of which are a folding pair of panels. All four panels combine to form the quadrants of a regulation sized table tennis surface. One could simply just plop this on top of the pool table as-is, but for those like us who want to preserve the hardwood and felt that the table is made out of, the kit includes little foam feet to protect the table underneath. Since I wanted to center this thing exactly to prevent the topper from tipping off when the kids inevitably try to climb on it, I measured both the topper and the table to find out exactly where to adhere the feet. This way the feet would center on the wooden rails of the table, and the topper would be centered left to right and fore to aft, making it as stable as possible for something that isn't screwed down.

The installation diagram in the kit had the feet at the ends of the tables more centered on the panels themselves, but when I placed the topper on the table, this hinge actually sagged and rubbed on the wood, which would surely have damaged it. We simply pulled it back off and moved them towards the center more so that the hinge is held just high enough so as not to make contact with the wood.

The black foam blocks pictured above came with the kit to place over the center of the pool table to both protect the felt surface and hold the center of the panels up from underneath. Turns out they're about three eighths of an inch (about 10mm) too short to work on my pool table while also using the feet. I hunted around the property for some wood of the appropriate thickness since I haven't outfitted the shop with a table saw yet. Otherwise I could rip one out of something thicker. Left behind by the previous owners, this wood trim piece was both the perfect thickness and the perfect width to get the job done.

I just cut it to length with my miter chop saw and sanded the corners. These will be buried beneath the table topper so they'll be rarely seen, but I couldn't resist stopping off in the kitchen to rub some olive oil on them to bring out the color a little bit and maybe protect the wood a little. They look almost too good to be buried beneath this work surface. Man I love natural wood finishes. I had my wife help me set the second half on the table after its feet were adhered into place. Note: if you buy one of these kits, don't try muscling your way through and putting these on yourself. The panels are half inch particle board and they're very heavy and awkward. You'll be sure to damage either your pool table or the panels themselves if you go it alone. The Amazon reviews are riddled with pics of people damaging the panels by trying to lift them alone, then inevitably crashing the edges into something. Get some help for this part. You won't regret it.

With the whole kit assembled and installed for our purposes, my daughter couldn't resist setting up the net too. Here she is pulling the net over the support to complete the job.

For the price it's a surprisingly nice table tennis surface, albeit a fragile one. I'm sure ours will get dinged up and will rarely ever see use for playing ping pong, but for now we've got a semi-permanent solution for a creative work space in the bonus room. I'll call that a win.