A bare table is a platform; accessories turn it into a station. The standard catalogue:

1. Undershelves — solid or slatted lower shelves that add a storage tier and, structurally, square and stiffen the leg frame. The first accessory almost every table gets.
2. Overshelves — single or double tiers above the rear of the top, putting boards, seasonings, and pans at eye level without consuming work surface. Wall-mounted versions do the same job from the wall behind.
3. Drawers — under-top units for knives, tools, and smallwares; lockable versions for the expensive ones.
4. Backsplashes and side splashes — bolt-on upstands for tables that started flat but moved against a wall.
5. Pot racks and utensil rails — hanging storage off the overshelf or wall side.
6. Sink bowls and cutting-board inserts — drop-in conversions where a station needs a rinse point or a fixed board.
7. Leg-level upgrades — castor kits to mobilise a fixed table, flanged feet for bolting down, and replacement bullet feet.
8. Undershelf organisers — bin rails, tray slides, and dividers that stop the lower shelf becoming a pile.

The buying rule that prevents disappointment: accessories are dimensioned to table series — leg section, hub pattern, and top size — so match the accessory to the table's brand and size line, or verify hole centres and clamp ranges before ordering generic.

Undershelves are series-specific more than universal — the shelf must match the table's length and depth, and its corner fittings must match the table's leg section and hub design. Within one manufacturer's range that is automatic; across brands, generic shelves fit where leg spacing and diameter align, so measure before assuming: leg centre-to-centre distances, leg outside dimension (round 40 mm and square 38 mm are common but not standard), and the height of any existing hub lugs.

Installation follows one of three patterns. Lug-mount shelves (most common) drop onto plastic or steel collars — 'bullets' — fixed at a set height on each leg: slide the collars to height, seat the shelf's corner cups over them, and tighten the grub screws or wedges. Bolt-through shelves fasten to pre-drilled legs with machine screws — stronger, position fixed by the drilling. Clamp-mount generic shelves grip the legs with bracket clamps at any height — the flexible retrofit answer, worth re-torquing after the first week.

Two installation habits matter. First, fit the undershelf during table assembly if possible, before final leg tightening — the shelf squares the frame, and a frame tightened square stays square. Retrofitting to an assembled table means loosening the legs a half-turn, seating the shelf, then re-tightening evenly. Second, set the height deliberately: low enough for tall bins beneath the top, high enough that the shelf's own contents clear the floor-cleaning path — 250–300 mm off the floor is the common compromise, and hygiene codes in many jurisdictions expect the lowest shelf off the floor by roughly that margin for exactly that reason.

Both store the same pans; they differ in what falls through, what washes off, and what air reaches.

Solid undershelves present a continuous surface: small items, boxed goods, and wrapped product sit anywhere without tipping, and drips from above are caught rather than passed to the floor. The costs of that continuity: spills and flour dust accumulate ON the shelf and must be cleaned off it; the surface hides what slides to the back; and a solid sheet adds a little more weight and cost. Choose solid under prep tables where smallwares, boxes, and containers dominate, and anywhere a caught drip is better than a floor hazard.

Slatted (louvred or wire) undershelves trade surface for airflow and visibility. Air circulates around whatever is stored — the reason slatted is standard under tables storing anything damp, freshly washed, or warm — crumbs and dust fall through to the floor where the nightly clean collects them, and the open structure weighs and costs slightly less. The costs: small items need containers or they topple between slats, and drips pass straight through onto the floor.

The practical assignments that follow: solid under general prep and dry storage; slatted under wash-up-adjacent tables, in bakeries (flour management), and wherever stored items arrive wet. Mixed lines mix shelves per station. Hygiene is a wash on both — solid is easier to wipe, slatted has less to wipe — so let the stored items decide, not the cleaning argument.

Overshelves mount in two ways, and the mounting sets the load honesty.

Table-mounted overshelves bolt to the rear of the tabletop through riser posts — single or double tier, running the table's length. The load path is down the risers into the top, so their capacity is real but modest: typical ratings run 25–50 kg per tier, intended for cutting boards on edge, seasoning containers, pans in daily rotation, and ticket rails — not for bulk stock. Overloading shows as riser flex and, on lighter tables, a top that drums when the line gets busy. Installation is a drill-through or clamp job at the rear edge; through-bolting with backing washers under the top is the rigid method, and the risers should land over or near the legs rather than mid-span.

Wall-mounted shelves above a table carry their load into the wall instead, freeing the tabletop entirely and typically rating higher — but their capacity is only as good as the wall and fixings: masonry with proper anchors happily takes 50 kg+ per bracket pair, while lightweight partition walls need spreader plates or channel and honest expectations. In wash-down areas, stainless brackets and sealed fixing penetrations keep the wall side hygienic.

Loading discipline either way: heaviest items directly above the supports, nothing above safe reach for the station's shortest user (high shelves loaded with heavy pans are how kitchens generate shoulder injuries), and nothing overhanging the front edge into head strike territory. If a station's overshelf keeps filling to its limit, the message is that the station needs a storage rack beside it — not a stronger shelf above the food.

Usually yes — most quality tables share a leg design across their fixed and mobile variants, so a castor conversion kit is a routine retrofit — with three checks before ordering and two honesty notes after.

The checks: thread and section compatibility — castors replace the adjustable feet, threading into the same leg inserts (or replacing the whole leg-end plug), so the kit must match the table series or the leg's insert thread and internal dimension. Height consequence — castors add 100–130 mm where feet added 25–40 mm, raising the top by the difference; a 900 mm table becomes a 960–990 mm one, which may be wrong for the task and wrong under fixed overshelving or hood clearances. Some ranges offer shorter 'castor legs' to compensate; check before the top ends up at elbow height. Rating and brakes — the kit's castors must carry the table plus its realistic load, with total-lock brakes on at least two, exactly as if buying a mobile table outright.

The honesty notes: a converted table is only as mobile as its connections — a table with a bolted backsplash, plumbing, or a fixed equipment run is not a candidate; and conversion inherits the mobile trade-off — slightly less rigidity, brake discipline, castor hygiene — so convert tables whose role genuinely changed, not everything on principle.

The reverse conversion (castors back to feet) is equally routine and worth remembering: fleets change, kitchens settle, and the same leg inserts accept either. Keep the removed feet in the maintenance drawer — future-you re-fits them in ten minutes.

Inspectors read a prep area for cleanability, separation, and floor clearance — and the accessory catalogue answers each directly:

1. Backsplashes close the wall gap where splashes fall and mould blooms — the single most-cited zone behind wet stations. A bolted upstand with sealed fixings converts a flat table for its wall position properly; a bead of silicone behind a splash-less table is the inspection-day improvisation it looks like.
2. Undershelves at compliant height lift storage off the floor (roughly 150–300 mm minimum clearance depending on jurisdiction) so the floor beneath washes fully — the requirement exists to eliminate pest and mop-shadow zones, and a correctly-set undershelf demonstrates it at a glance.
3. Castor kits answer the modern expectation that equipment moves for cleaning: a line that rolls out nightly shows clean wall junctions instead of grease shadows.
4. Drawer units with removable liners turn loose-tool clutter — an inspector's shorthand for poor control — into organised, washable storage; lockable versions also answer knife-control policies.
5. Utensil rails and pot racks get damp tools off the work surface and into ventilated hanging, drying faster than any drawer.
6. Sealed leg feet and closed frame sections remove the open tube ends and crevices that harbour soil — worth checking when upgrading older tables.

The meta-point inspectors reward: accessories that make the daily clean faster get used, and consistently-used routines are what audits actually measure. Fit the station so the right behaviour is the easy behaviour, and the inspection takes care of itself.

Both routes are legitimate; the skill is knowing which accessory tolerates generic and which punishes it.

Where generic works well: clamp-mount undershelves and organiser rails (their clamps span a range of leg sizes by design), utensil hooks and pot rails, drop-on cutting-board inserts sized to the top, and castor sets — provided the thread and leg-insert dimensions are verified against the actual table rather than assumed. Generic here typically costs half the branded price at identical stainless quality, and the fit risk is a measurable, checkable number.

Where matching the series pays: lug-mounted undershelves (the collar heights and corner cups are series-specific — a near-miss fit rattles forever), drawers (runner mounting patterns under the top vary by maker), overshelf risers (their feet want the maker's reinforced bolt positions), and anything structural on heavy-duty or equipment-stand frames, where the rating was tested as a system. A mismatched structural accessory doesn't just fit badly — it quietly voids the load rating everyone still believes in.

The verification ritual for any cross-brand purchase: measure leg section (round/square and outside dimension), leg centre-to-centre spacing both ways, top thickness at the edge, and photograph the underside hub — five minutes that answers 90% of compatibility questions before ordering. Keep the answers in the kitchen's equipment file; every future accessory purchase reuses them.

The fleet-level advice: venues standardising on one table series get the real prize — every accessory, spare foot, and castor interchanges across the whole kitchen, and the parts drawer shrinks to one of each. Mixed-brand kitchens aren't wrong, they just shop with a tape measure.