The Internet’s Favorite Transformer Table Is Truly a Great Hack for Small-Space Hosting

I try to be a healthy skeptic about DTC furniture I see endorsed by celebrities and influencers all over my For You page. As someone who works in media, and also just exists in the current age of the internet with a basic level of digital literacy (at least before AI entered the chat), I usually assume vlog-style clips touting or even noticeably featuring specific products involve at least some level of affiliate marketing or influencer gifting, as Dwell does. (If that assumption surprises you, fashion and culture writer Emilia Petrarca has a helpful explainer about how affiliates work, and how they might influence the decisions of writers and content creators, on her newsletter, Shop Rat.) So, when the Transformer Round dining table popped up on my TikTok feed just before my partner and I moved into our 700-square-foot Brooklyn apartment this summer, I imagined the extendable table—with a round wooden top and thick fluted base, at quick glance pretty indiscernible from West Elm’s Ellington round dining table—probably wasn’t exactly what was advertised. But we were really eager to be able to host in our space without having to sacrifice style for function.

The Canadian modular furniture company, founded in 2016 by six friends (none of whom had experience in furniture production), was born from a Kickstarter campaign that raised millions. The brand has always done almost all of its advertising through videos on Facebook and other social platforms and sells directly to consumers on its website and at Costco, where the original rectangular Transformer table is hugely popular. A section of the website below the words "From Our Celebrities to Your Home" features embedded vertical videos from TV personalities in the home-design universe—organizing expert Marie Kondo, who partnered with the brand in 2024 (essentially just publicly giving the products her stamp of approval), former Queer Eye interior designer Bobby Berk, HGTV star Sabrina Soto, and realtor-influencer Heather Rae El Moussa of Selling Sunset fame—explaining how they use the company’s various modular tables, desks, and outdoor furniture. There are also sponcon-adjacent clips from actresses Ashley Greene and Sophia Bush. In Bush’s video, she says in a voiceover, "I can’t tell you what I would’ve given to have had this in my first New York City apartment," as she sets up her Transformer Round dining table set in a space that, like the others’, has plenty of room for the piece when fully extended.

Again, in my mind, all of these things were potential signs that the "viral" Transformer Table might in reality have some quality issues or be less well-suited for small spaces than it promised. But my partner and I were moving into a much tighter apartment than we’d previously been in, in a neighborhood nearer to many of our friends, and one of the major draws for us was that we’d be able to have people over more often. Our existing six-person dining table would eat up the corner between the open kitchen and living room, which would be an eyesore and constrict the path between those spaces, as well as to the (much-needed) storage on the far wall. The Transformer Round table seemed like it would fit neatly into the space when it wasn’t extended and allow us to quickly adjust in the moments when more table seating was our priority. So I reached out to the company about testing the Transformer Round dining set - The Practical, which comes with a table and bench, both extendable. Here’s my honest take on what the dining set is, and what it isn’t.

Arrival and assembly

My order arrived a week after I placed it. Three men maneuvered three heavy-looking boxes to our second-floor walk-up. We had white-glove service, so I can’t speak to the ease of assembly, but the bench came fully intact, and the head of the table and two pieces that form the base took about 10 minutes for the men to piece together using what looked like standard Allen wrenches.

I pretty immediately realized one element that knocked a few points off the scale for small space–friendly design: the table, which retails for $3,537, and bench, for $1,615, each include three extension panels, and while the bench panels tuck neatly into a space within the seating when you’re not using them, you need somewhere to store the additional table leaves, which measure about 20 by 45 inches and are pretty weighty. We keep ours under our bed (we intentionally chose a bed frame that’s raised about a foot off the ground so we’d have extra room for unsightly storage), but we’d otherwise have to tuck them away in our already stuffed closets or lean them against a wall in plain sight, which would be a significant aesthetic sacrifice. The brand’s solution for this is that its Transformer Round sideboard has storage for the table’s three panels, if you want to spend the $2,615 price for it and have space for the extra item. (On both fronts, we didn’t.)

Quality check

I’m admittedly on the middle-lower end of the materials snob spectrum (at least for someone in my particular profession), but I have very few complaints about the actual look of the bench and dining table, which use solid wood and engineered hardwood with oak veneers and come in four finishes—Scandinavian oak, Royal walnut, Smoked hickory, and Dark walnut. We chose the first.

So far, we’ve only added one panel to the table to make it fit six people, but that took us all but three minutes. To extend both the table and the bench, all you have to do is pull the sides apart to make space for the extra panels on the telescopic steel rails, then push the sides back together and secure the panels with the safety locks underneath. The most complicated part of that experience for us was maneuvering the panel out from under our bed, which only has a foot or two of space from the wall on each side, without scratching it or the hardwood floor beneath it.

There are small, visible gaps between the leaves of the table and bench when the panels are secured together. The spaces are maybe slightly more visible than some of the marketing images would suggest, but that look doesn’t bother me much. With the bench, however, the central gap between the panels actually did cause us some trouble. Even with the safety locks secured underneath, the gap wasn’t totally taut, and the pieces would often pinch our legs when we moved slightly on the seating. Our solution for this was to buy stick-on child-safety strap locks from Home Depot to add next to the existing safety locks under the bench panels, fastening the bench leaves more tightly. (You can’t see them from eye level.) This did the job, though I do think any piece of furniture that retails for four digits should be sufficiently surprise-pinch-proof without extra assistance from adhesive latches.

My favorite part of the Transformer Round dining table, somewhat surprisingly to me, is the hidden storage built into the fluted base on two sides. From the company’s furniture offerings, the feature is unique to the round dining table. I didn’t anticipate how much we’d use the tucked-away cabinets: In Bobby Berk’s video, that’s where he keeps his wine glasses, but we use the shelves to store away random things that we use pretty regularly but don’t want on display, like a lint brush or bags for compost. That extra storage has actually become invaluable to us; it’s a feature of the table we rely on much more frequently than its ability to seat more people.

The verdict

In the few months since we’ve moved into our 700-square-foot apartment, the Transformer Round dining table is the piece of furniture we’ve gotten the most compliments on. Most people comment on how it looks and ask where it’s from before we even tell them it’s extendable. I do, admittedly, usually anticipate that their enthusiasm will dim when I tell them the price tag. (And it usually does.)

What I tell them, though, is that while the pieces are definitely on the higher end of what’s out there on the market for extendable furniture that’s also design-forward (though a little less so right now during the company’s 35-percent site-wide Black Friday sale), I would probably buy the table in the future, even for a larger apartment. Though I understand if they’re still a bit skeptical.

Buy the table

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