Choosing the right furniture for your restaurant dining space is no small task. The chosen pieces will add to the style and atmosphere of your restaurant. The right furniture layout will offer a serene place to put customers at ease while feeling relaxed and comfortable while dining.
There are a number of important factors to keep in mind while choosing your dining space furniture. First and foremost it should be about the customers who come to dine and enhancing their experience as much as possible.
#1 – Easy to maintain
One of the first boxes to check off when going through your selection process, is ‘are the pieces of furniture easy to clean’?
This means choosing furniture that does not entail intricate designs and that will be easily cleaned and renewed by restaurant staff between customers. Tables must be easy to wipe down and chairs should be, if upholstered, treated with a stain resister. Contract Furniture Solutions standard options for fabrics and vinyls used on upholstered goods include stain resistant treatments.
The chosen furniture should also be able to withstand a couple immense professional cleans, preferably twice a year, where they are thoroughly washed and re-introduced good-as-new to the dining area.
For tables, we recommend considering Synthatops; our alternative to solid wood table tops for restaurant and dining applications.
#2 – Suitable for environment
Ensure that the furniture chosen does not clash with the style of dining.
What do we mean by this? Well, in certain restaurants a fair amount of noise is expected and actually adds to the atmosphere, such as ones with bars and stools on tile floors. However, if it is a fine dining situation, then chairs that do not create noise when moved across the floor would be best.
If you do happen to encounter more noise than you expected, you can add an area rug to each table that will dilute noise.
All standard seating from Contract Furniture Solutions include multi-surface glides to optimize flexibility and protect flooring surfaces.
#3 – Comfortable and functional
As earlier mentioned, the furniture has to allow guests to be comfortable as well as being aesthetically pleasing. However, there is a point of diminishing returns when it comes to aesthetics.
Do not compromise comfort for an expensive chair or piece of furniture that simply is not great to spend time in.
Pieces should be both functional and comfortable, as well as look the part to a certain degree.
#4 – Versatile and flexible
Often times restaurants need to adapt their current furniture to new layouts and as such, restaurant furniture should be versatile and flexible.
Simply meaning that restaurant furniture is best when it can be moved, re-organized, and shuffled to accommodate the changing situations that will be encountered. Sometimes using chairs that can be folded and stowed away is the right choice, and other times it’s a more luxurious piece that can be picked up and moved to accommodate customer wishes.
With tables, flexibility can mean integrating two person tables throughout the venue that can be added to a four person table; thus creating a six person table. Similarly, groups of two person tables can be joined together to offer the same versatility. This is something to consider and keep in mind when planning your layout. Ask yourself, “how can space be optimized to yield the best return during busy periods?”
#5 – Stay on theme and style
Perhaps the most important component to selecting the proper furniture for your restaurant is remaining with the style of the restaurant.
There are many overall styles of restaurant and we will discuss the specifics of several here.
- Fast-food restaurant – Very casual, modern and functional.
- Casual dining restaurant – Comfortable, enjoyable atmosphere and inviting to families.
- Cafe – variety of seating options, including bar stools and sofas to create a warm atmosphere.
- Bar – Durable, wooden or metal pieces of furniture that will last under heavy use.
Keep in mind that all seating supplied by Contract Furniture Solutions is intended to be used in a commercial application; engineered for use as restaurant chairs or restaurant barstools.
Of course there is almost an infinite number of restaurant styles, but when choosing your furniture you must remain on style and theme so as to create a cohesive dining experience for your customers.
Choosing the right furniture for your restaurant will add to the comfort, atmosphere and style of the space giving diners the experience they are looking for when they enter the establishment.
