How to choose cafe chairs that last

Recently I visited Bekka restaurant. A hospitality interior design project I completed in 2018. I spoke to the owner who reminder me that it has been seven years since I completed this project. We talked about how well the space is ‘holding up’. Both aesthetically and the durability of the furniture. Here’s how to choose café chairs that last.

The café chair base for hospitality interior design longevity

Furniture for hospitality spaces requires some thought. I often see pieces such as chairs from Ikea in a café and think it’s a waste of money. Primarily, because residential furniture isn’t built for commercial purposes.

These are the components of a chair I consider when I specify for a hospitality interior design project; base, material, seat height, back height, depth, base shape, colour, seat shape and so on.

With the base you want it stable. For chairs, an important benefit for commercial spaces such as in hospitality interior design is the stability of the base. Are the legs going to get loose over time?

Given how often cafe chairs are pushed and pulled and moved around, the base needs to be solid. Legs that start to wobble after a short period are a waste of money and don’t fill your customer’s with confidence.

Another thing to think about with the base is if there are any grips pads, or sound pads. If for example your seat has a metal base, the scraping sound it makes when being pushed and pulled could diminish the ambience in the space. Making your café extra noisy, unnecessarily.

A good base material for café chairs is metal, wood or plastic. But the shape of the base is important too. For example the base of the chair needs to fit neatly into the base the table. Most cafes, bars and restaurant tables are supplied in two pieces.

A table top and a table base. So if for example your table base has a cross base you need to make sure the width and shape of the cafe chair base fits within this cross.

For the actual seat, comfort is really important. The ideal seat height for a café, bar or restaurant chair is 45cm. If you decide to go slightly lower or slightly higher then this impacts the ideal height of the table. So there’s no need to alter standards heights.

The café chair seat for hospitality interior design longevity

Another factor to choose cafe chairs that lasts is the material. The material of the chair is also important. I’ve seen chairs in cafés, bars and restaurants that are upholstered in a pastel colour and stained soon after opening.

Of course an upholstered chair adds value to a hospitality interior design space by added warmth, texture and comfort. But it needs to be a commercially suitable fabric.

A fabric, that is easy to clean, has a good rub count and works with the aesthetic vision of the overall hospitality interior design.

Good fabrics or materials for a café chairs, include, durable faux leather, timber, metal, and plastic.

There are also beautiful indoor/outdoor fabrics that are easy to clean that can be used in a range for seat formats such as booth seating.

Given the table top is usually occupied by plates, menus, glasses, cutlery and so on. The durability of a table top is equally important as is its finish to ensure cohesion with the overall hospitality interior design vision.

However, other the wall surface in a hospitality interior design project, the chair is the next most impactful design piece. Primarily due to the quantity of chairs, they’re usually the first or second thing customers notice and the comfort aspect.

Once I sat in a café chair with a thud because it was lower than expected and I kind of fell into it. Again not an ideal customer experience. That’s why it’s important to ensure you choose cafe chairs that last seven plus years to get a good return on your investment, communicate the hospitality interior design story and make sure your customers have a good experience based on ergonomic comfort.