diff --git a/crates/nu-command/src/formats/to/nuon.rs b/crates/nu-command/src/formats/to/nuon.rs
index 7717732178..7d0cf5bc25 100644
--- a/crates/nu-command/src/formats/to/nuon.rs
+++ b/crates/nu-command/src/formats/to/nuon.rs
@@ -102,6 +102,10 @@ fn value_to_string(v: &Value, span: Span) -> Result<String, ShellError> {
             let headers = get_columns(vals);
             if !headers.is_empty() && vals.iter().all(|x| x.columns() == headers) {
                 // Table output
+                let headers: Vec<String> = headers
+                    .iter()
+                    .map(|string| format!("\"{}\"", string))
+                    .collect();
                 let headers_output = headers.join(", ");
 
                 let mut table_output = vec![];
diff --git a/crates/nu-command/tests/format_conversions/nuon.rs b/crates/nu-command/tests/format_conversions/nuon.rs
index eac8d3d04a..d987513231 100644
--- a/crates/nu-command/tests/format_conversions/nuon.rs
+++ b/crates/nu-command/tests/format_conversions/nuon.rs
@@ -238,3 +238,14 @@ fn float_nan_parsed_properly() {
 
     assert_eq!(actual.out, "NaN")
 }
+
+#[test]
+fn to_nuon_converts_columns_with_spaces() {
+    let actual = nu!(
+        cwd: "tests/fixtures/formats", pipeline(
+            r#"
+    let test = [[a, b, "c d"]; [1 2 3] [4 5 6]]; $test | to nuon | from nuon
+    "#
+    ));
+    assert!(actual.err.is_empty());
+}