Printed Table Runner Instead of a Tablecloth: Sizing a 120 × 60 cm Event Table

The brief: a 6 ft × 2 ft 6 in tablecloth by 2 September

The enquiry, as it came through the chat handover, was one printed tablecloth at the standard 6 ft × 2 ft 6 in trestle size, full colour, needed by 2–3 September. The artwork supplied was 180 × 80 cm — the logo and the “Refined living. Wearable art for pets” line on white. The quote went out at 13:20, and by mid-afternoon the question had changed from “how much” to “is there a cheaper way to do this”. The honest answer depended on one thing nobody had asked yet: where is the logo meant to sit when the cloth is on the table?

Why a logo on the front needs a 240 × 150 cm tablecloth for a 120 × 60 cm table

The table turned out to be 120 × 60 cm. A printed tablecloth whose logo faces the room has to cover the top and then hang down the front far enough for the logo to clear the table edge and read at eye level. On a 120 × 60 cm table that means at least 60 cm of drop on each side and at least 100 cm towards the front — so the cloth has to be 240 × 150 cm before the logo is anywhere near where the customer imagined it. The 180 × 80 cm artwork would print, but the logo would land on the table top, not the front. We offered to print the full 240 × 150 cm at the figure already quoted; the budget still said no.

The runner: 150 × 60 cm on 260 gsm canvas, logo at one end

A table runner solves the same problem with a fraction of the fabric. It lies along the table and drops over the front edge, so the logo is printed at the bottom of one end and hangs where a front panel would be. The customer’s own suggestion — 60 × 150 cm — became the final size: 150 × 60 cm, one piece, on 260 gsm canvas, printed full colour. Canvas at that weight sits flat, takes a fold without creasing white, and reads as fabric rather than as a banner. A mock-up went across before the file was released; the one question it raised — “can it be shorter, it can’t be seen if it’s too low” — was answered by how it is hung, not by reprinting: the drop over the edge is the customer’s choice at the table.

Same afternoon to next evening: the timeline

Every time below is from our order system, not from memory.

The runner went out a day before the deadline, on the same van as a second, smaller job for the same customer — a set of kiss-cut stickers sized for the back of Instax Mini photos, ordered late the same night.

Delivered to a hotel on Edgware Road, W2

The delivery address was a hotel on Edgware Road, W2 — a guest, not a business, so the courier was asked to call on arrival rather than leave the parcel at a desk. It is a short run for us: the hotels around Paddington are the usual drop for visitors staging an event, and the agencies and showrooms of Marylebone sit a few minutes east along the same road.

What to send when you need a printed table runner or tablecloth fast

• The table size, not the cloth size. 120 × 60 cm is the fact that decided this job. The cloth follows from it.
• Where the logo has to be seen from. Facing the room means a front drop of about a metre and a cloth roughly twice the table width; on the top only means the artwork size is the cloth size.
• How you will hang it. A runner drops over one edge and its length is your choice on the day; a fitted cloth does not.

Send those three with the artwork and a firm figure comes back the same hour — as it did here.