After all the time and effort I spent building a children's picnic table, one of my friends commented, "You know, they're just going to grow out of it in a few years."
Needless to say, I didn't talk to him for a little bit. But as I was talking it over with my wife, she told me, "What you should have done is made an adjustable table."
Folding Bed Table
That idea never occurred to me before I started making the table. If it had, I probably would have looked through my woodworking plans for adjustable picnic table plans. As it was, I wanted to see what sort of extra effort it would take.
It turns out there are two types of adjustable tables. For one type, you can build a table top like a normal table. The legs take a little more effort to make, but they adjust to make the table higher as the children grow. The benches stay the same size, but I could see how you could adapt the plans to make the legs get taller on those as well. The one thing I didn't like about the benches: they were detached. For kids, I prefer the attached benches.
The other type of adjustable picnic table is one that folds flat. It has multiple height settings, depending on where you place the legs at the bottom. What it most reminds me of is an oversized TV tray. However, I could see that it would work well as an extra table or if you don't have a lot of room. And since it folds flat, it would be easy to transport for picnics at the park or camping trips.
I decided I might just make a folding adjustable picnic table. It would definitely come in handy for the backyard birthday parties, and we could use it while camping. I'll definitely be using my plans for this project though. I don't want it to turn out like my first children's table project!