Custom Leather Ping Pong Table Net

This beautiful Ping Pong table net was commissioned by my client, Sarah. Sarah had a beautiful custom ping pong table made out of various exotic woods and wanted a net that complimented the beauty of her luxurious table.

Of course, with such a beautiful ping-pong table, she didn't want to go out and buy just "any" old ping-pong net. So, she gave us a call and we designed one just for her.

Prior to building this project, we had not seen Sarah's ping-pong table. We provided instructions on how she should take measurements and send them to us. We talked with Sarah about her room, her style, and the "rustic but classy" look she was going for. Of course - we had never made a leather ping-pong table net before - we've never even seen one! So, we got to work designing and drafting drawings for Sara to look at. Once we came up with a plan and Sarah agreed - we got right to work. Luckily, our communication was flawless on both side and we ended up with this gorgeous product.
	Our custom, hand-made leather ping pong table net was crafted from a side of full-grain, Oil tanned pull-up leather from our good friends at Springfield Leather Company. This is a beautiful leather with rich pull-up qualities. This particular hide was a rich, dark brown and it complimented Sara's table beautifully. With the pull-up tones, it matched many of the woods found in this exotic table. Of course, we had to make the leather ping pong net regulation size, so the net measures 60″w x 6″h. For added strength and some rigidity, we hand-crafted gussets to facilitate mounting over her custom net bracket hardware.
To make Sara's custom leather ping pong table net a bit lighter, we designed a hole pattern and hand-punched 49 holes - each at 1" diameter. This allowed us to stretch the net across the table without getting any sag in the middle. We stitched the gussets on using (our favorite) "natural" color #277 bonded nylon thread from The Leather Machine Company. Next, we finished off the gussets with hand-set #9 copper burr rivets for added style, strength and durability.
	Having designed and crafted the net with the table sight-unseen, we really had to communicate effectively with Sarah on measurements, etc. All things being transparent - I was pretty nervous when we did the test fitting. However, once we slipped this custom leather ping pong table net over the net bracket hardware, it was an absolutely PERFECT fit! WHEW!! We learned some lessons in the making of this project, so we'll improve on those areas in the next one we build.

Hope you love it, Sarah!!