CSS3's border-radius property and border-collapse:collapse don't mix. How can I use border-radius to create a collapsed table with rounded corners?

I figured it out. You just have to use some special selectors.

The problem with rounding the corners of the table was that the td elements didn't also become rounded. You can solve that by doing something like this:

table tr:last-child td:first-child {
    border-bottom-left-radius: 10px;
}

table tr:last-child td:last-child {
    border-bottom-right-radius: 10px;
}

Now everything rounds properly, except that there's still the issue of border-collapse: collapse breaking everything.

A workaround is to add border-spacing: 0 and leave the default border-collapse: separate on the table.


The following method works (tested in Chrome) by using a box-shadow with a spread of 1px instead of a "real" border.

    table {
        border-collapse: collapse;
        border-radius: 30px;
        border-style: hidden; /* hide standard table (collapsed) border */
        box-shadow: 0 0 0 1px #666; /* this draws the table border  */ 
    }

    td {
        border: 1px solid #ccc;
    }
<table>
  <thead>
    <tr>
      <th>Foo</th>
      <th>Bar</th>
    </tr>
  </thead>
  <tbody>
    <tr>
      <td>Baz</td>
      <td>Qux</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>Life is short</td>
      <td rowspan="3">and</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>Love</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>is always over</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>In the</td>
      <td>Morning</td>
    </tr>
  </tbody>
</table>


If you want a CSS-only solution (no need to set cellspacing=0 in the HTML) that allows for 1px borders (which you can't do with the border-spacing: 0 solution), I prefer to do the following:

  • Set a border-right and border-bottom for your table cells (td and th)
  • Give the cells in the first row a border-top
  • Give the cells in the first column a border-left
  • Using the first-child and last-child selectors, round the appropriate corners for the table cells in the four corners.

See a demo here.

Given the following HTML:

SEE example below:

   

 .custom-table{margin:30px;}
    table {
        border-collapse: separate;
        border-spacing: 0;
        min-width: 350px;
        
    }
    table tr th,
    table tr td {
        border-right: 1px solid #bbb;
        border-bottom: 1px solid #bbb;
        padding: 5px;
    }
    table tr th:first-child, table tr th:last-child{
    border-top:solid 1px      #bbb;}
    table tr th:first-child,
    table tr td:first-child {
        border-left: 1px solid #bbb;
        
    }
    table tr th:first-child,
    table tr td:first-child {
        border-left: 1px solid #bbb;
    }
    table tr th {
        background: #eee;
        text-align: left;
    }
    
    table.Info tr th,
    table.Info tr:first-child td
    {
        border-top: 1px solid #bbb;
    }
    
    /* top-left border-radius */
    table tr:first-child th:first-child,
    table.Info tr:first-child td:first-child {
        border-top-left-radius: 6px;
    }
    
    /* top-right border-radius */
    table tr:first-child th:last-child,
    table.Info tr:first-child td:last-child {
        border-top-right-radius: 6px;
    }
    
    /* bottom-left border-radius */
    table tr:last-child td:first-child {
        border-bottom-left-radius: 6px;
    }
    
    /* bottom-right border-radius */
    table tr:last-child td:last-child {
        border-bottom-right-radius: 6px;
    }
         
<div class="custom-table">
    <table>
        <tr>
            <th>item1</th>
            <th>item2</th>
        </tr>
        <tr>
            <td>item1</td>
            <td>item2</td>
        </tr>
        <tr>
            <td>item1</td>
            <td>item2</td>
        </tr>
        <tr>
            <td>item1</td>
            <td>item2</td>
        </tr>
    </table>
</div>