How to Choose the Perfect Restaurant Furniture

When it comes to cre­at­ing a styl­ish and wel­com­ing hos­pi­tal­i­ty or restau­rant space, the right fur­ni­ture is essen­tial. It is impor­tant to find a rep­utable man­u­fac­tur­er that can pro­vide you with qual­i­ty restau­rant fur­ni­ture.

We’ve cre­at­ed a guide to assist in the search for the ide­al bal­ance of form and func­tion, so you can nar­row down your options and locate the per­fect pieces for your design. You’ll learn:

• Con­sid­er­a­tions to keep in mind when select­ing restau­rant and hos­pi­tal­i­ty fur­ni­ture
• How to find the best among hos­pi­tal­i­ty and restau­rant fur­ni­ture man­u­fac­tur­ers
• Tips for choos­ing and cus­tomiz­ing hospitality/restaurant fur­ni­ture for your project

What to Look for in Hospitality and Restaurant Furniture

When guests enter a new hos­pi­tal­i­ty space or restau­rant, they might not imme­di­ate­ly con­sid­er the fur­ni­ture — and yet, the fur­ni­ture has a sig­nif­i­cant impact on their expe­ri­ence and sat­is­fac­tion. 

Quality

Fur­ni­ture plays a part in the ambiance of a space, guests’ com­fort lev­el, and even how well staff are able to per­form their essen­tial roles. And although it may seem over­whelm­ing to choose pieces for your space, tak­ing an informed and orga­nized approach will make a world of dif­fer­ence.

When­ev­er pos­si­ble, bud­get for qual­i­ty over quan­ti­ty — because mak­ing a smart, long-term invest­ment is key. There may be options with prices that seem too good to be true, and it can be tempt­ing to try to stretch your bud­get as far as it will go. How­ev­er, the most inex­pen­sive fur­ni­ture pieces are also the ones you’re like­ly to be replac­ing with­in the next year or two.

Instead, opt for pieces that bal­ance afford­abil­i­ty and qual­i­ty con­struc­tion. You may need to make minor adjust­ments to your ini­tial design (for exam­ple, tweaks to mate­r­i­al selec­tions and fin­ish spec­i­fi­ca­tions), but putting qual­i­ty first will always be worth it.

Durability

There’s no ques­tion that qual­i­ty and dura­bil­i­ty are con­nect­ed, but the dura­bil­i­ty of restau­rant and hos­pi­tal­i­ty fur­ni­ture is more than just a bud­get con­cern. In fact, durable, com­mer­cial-qual­i­ty fur­ni­ture pieces are cru­cial for the safe­ty of your guests. The worst-case sce­nario is that a guest is injured when a chair or table breaks, and you end up ful­ly liable because the fur­ni­ture wasn’t intend­ed for com­mer­cial use. It’s a cost­ly mis­take that you want to avoid.

You don’t sim­ply need fur­ni­ture that looks good; it’s equal­ly impor­tant for the fur­ni­ture to be safe to use. This means select­ing pieces that can stand up to the demands of con­stant use, reg­u­lar clean­ing with com­mer­cial prod­ucts, and the like. Fur­ni­ture made for home use will fall short, which is why invest­ing in com­mer­cial-grade options is the bet­ter choice.

Style

Pri­or­i­tiz­ing qual­i­ty and dura­bil­i­ty while bal­anc­ing your bud­get doesn’t mean you have to sac­ri­fice style. While there are plen­ty of com­mer­cial fur­ni­ture man­u­fac­tur­ers that only offer mass-mar­ket, gener­ic prod­ucts, you can absolute­ly find com­pa­nies that are com­mit­ted to style-for­ward design and crafts­man­ship. 

More than like­ly, you have a clear vision in your mind for what your space will look and “feel” like — and you shouldn’t lose sight of that now. Dif­fer­ent mate­ri­als and designs can con­vey dif­fer­ent mes­sages to your guests, and the ambiance of a space can be dra­mat­i­cal­ly shift­ed depend­ing on the fur­ni­ture. Are you aim­ing for a casu­al, laid­back space? Or, are you hop­ing for a space that embod­ies lux­u­ry and ele­gance? Each type of design requires fit­ting fur­ni­ture styles to exe­cute the over­all vision, so choose accord­ing­ly.

Simple Steps to Find Furniture for Your Restaurant or Hospitality Space

Now, you have a basic idea of what to look for in hos­pi­tal­i­ty and restau­rant fur­ni­ture. And whether this is your first or fifti­eth design project, fol­low­ing a series of steps can make the shop­ping process as easy and stress-free as pos­si­ble.

Measure Your Space

Mea­sur­ing the space you’re shop­ping for might sound over­ly obvi­ous, but it’s a step that many peo­ple for­get. Before you begin brows­ing fur­ni­ture styles and prod­ucts, make sure you’ve assem­bled an accu­rate and thor­ough doc­u­men­ta­tion of mea­sure­ments. 

The type and amount of space you’re work­ing with will deter­mine vir­tu­al­ly every char­ac­ter­is­tic of the fur­ni­ture you buy: the size and shape of the tables and chairs, the num­ber of pieces you need, and so on and so forth. You may find that a few inch­es dif­fer­ence com­plete­ly alters your orig­i­nal design plan.

Consider Your Guest Experience

You already know how your guests will be using and mov­ing with­in a space, but have you con­sid­ered that in the con­text of the fur­ni­ture you’ll be buy­ing? For exam­ple, how do you want guests to be able to move from the entry area to their main seat­ing space? Will guests need to be able to eas­i­ly get up to retrieve their food and bev­er­ages, or will servers need to be able to com­fort­ably nav­i­gate the room? Are there zones intend­ed for small or large groups to assem­ble? These are all ques­tions to ask your­self as you explore your fur­ni­ture options.

In most cas­es, the prof­itabil­i­ty of a hos­pi­tal­i­ty or restau­rant space hinges on the opti­mal uti­liza­tion of a space. At the same time, you want to be sure to craft an out­stand­ing expe­ri­ence for each and every guest. So, it’s all about jug­gling your top pri­or­i­ties — and find­ing the right fur­ni­ture pieces allow you to do exact­ly that.

Customize the Space

Above all, cus­tomiz­ing your space is the key to achiev­ing your design vision while also exceed­ing guest expec­ta­tions. No two hos­pi­tal­i­ty spaces or restau­rants are alike, which makes it of para­mount impor­tance to have the flex­i­bil­i­ty to cus­tomize the style and func­tion­al­i­ty of the fur­ni­ture. Some­thing as seem­ing­ly sim­ple as choos­ing round or square tables, or what type of wood is used for your tables, are deci­sions that have a major impact on your space. 

In order for your space to be suc­cess­ful, it should stand out from oth­er, sim­i­lar spaces in your area. Cus­tomiza­tion makes it pos­si­ble to per­fect every last detail, so you can steer clear of gener­ic and set a course straight to a unique, mem­o­rable design. Rather than being lim­it­ed by stan­dard-only options, work­ing with a man­u­fac­tur­er that offers cus­tomiza­tion is imperative.What to Look for in a Hos­pi­tal­i­ty and Restau­rant Fur­ni­ture Man­u­fac­tur­er

There may be no short­age of restau­rant and hos­pi­tal­i­ty fur­ni­ture man­u­fac­tur­ers to choose from, but not all are cre­at­ed equal­ly. You’re choos­ing more than a retail­er; you’re select­ing a part­ner in the design exe­cu­tion process — and the deci­sion is an incred­i­bly impor­tant one.

What to Look for in a Hospitality and Restaurant Furniture Manufacturer

If you’re weigh­ing your options and try­ing to choose between poten­tial man­u­fac­tur­ers and sup­pli­ers, here are a few things to keep in mind.

• Cus­tomer ser­vice: When it comes to nav­i­gat­ing the design process, the last thing you need is a man­u­fac­tur­er that nev­er seems to be avail­able to take your call. Instead, choose a com­pa­ny that makes it a point to pro­vide the high­est qual­i­ty of cus­tomer ser­vice at every stage of the process. For exam­ple, at Old Domin­ion Fur­ni­ture, we have an entire team avail­able dai­ly via phone, so our clients can reach us if and when they  need us. We pro­vide per­son­al­ized ser­vice and sup­port from the first sales con­ver­sa­tion to the final deliv­ery and instal­la­tion, war­ran­ty ser­vice, and beyond.
• Qual­i­ty and crafts­man­ship: What is the manufacturer’s approach to design­ing and build­ing their fur­ni­ture? For exam­ple, do they only offer mass-pro­duced pieces made with cheap mate­ri­als? The best man­u­fac­tur­ers of hos­pi­tal­i­ty and restau­rant fur­ni­ture are those that employ expe­ri­enced, skilled crafts­peo­ple to cre­ate top-qual­i­ty prod­ucts. There can be mas­sive vari­ances in qual­i­ty, so choose a man­u­fac­tur­er that is clear­ly com­mit­ted to craft­ing excep­tion­al pieces.
• Cus­tomiza­tion options: As men­tioned ear­li­er, you don’t want to be “stuck” with lim­it­ed options, espe­cial­ly because stock fur­ni­ture might not fit into your design plan. Even if you aren’t sure if you’ll want to order cus­tom hos­pi­tal­i­ty fur­ni­ture, it’s usu­al­ly wise to part­ner with a man­u­fac­tur­er that offers that as an avail­able option. Cus­tom uphol­stery, fin­ish­es, stains, and sim­i­lar choic­es give you the free­dom to design the per­fect pieces for your space.
• Pric­ing: As the old adage goes, you get what you pay for. How­ev­er, that doesn’t mean you need to over­pay for your fur­ni­ture, either. A good man­u­fac­tur­er pro­vides fair pric­ing that aligns with the qual­i­ty of the prod­uct they are sell­ing. If prices seem too good to be true, they prob­a­bly are — but don’t assume that afford­abil­i­ty is out of reach, either. Ulti­mate­ly, you want to be mak­ing a sol­id invest­ment in your restau­rant or hos­pi­tal­i­ty fur­ni­ture.
• Prod­uct avail­abil­i­ty: Does the man­u­fac­tur­er have all of the pieces you need? It isn’t ide­al to have to shop around to find dif­fer­ent man­u­fac­tur­ers for dif­fer­ent pieces, so you’ll ide­al­ly be able to secure every­thing you need from a sin­gle man­u­fac­tur­er with an excel­lent selec­tion.

Don’t hes­i­tate to request the manufacturer’s port­fo­lio and/or look­book, so you can see more of their designs. In many cas­es, being able to view their pieces “in action” — that is, in a real-life set­ting — can help you decide if they are the right fit for your project.

Select the Right Furniture for You

You’ll have many dif­fer­ent deci­sions to make dur­ing the fur­ni­ture pur­chas­ing process, but care­ful con­sid­er­a­tion and the right man­u­fac­tur­ing part­ner will make it all worth it. A few take­aways to keep at the front of your mind:

• Cus­tomiza­tion and a broad range of options make it much eas­i­er to find the fur­ni­ture that flaw­less­ly fits into your design vision. Don’t for­get to con­sid­er ele­ments such as:
  
  1. Size
  2. Shape  (i.e. round, square, or rec­tan­gu­lar table tops)
  3. Style (booths vs. chairs vs. bar stools)
  4. Fin­ish­es
  5. Woods (oak, wal­nut, mahogany, etc.)
  6. Mate­ri­als
  7. Uphol­stery
  8. Detail­ing
     
• In addi­tion to the fur­ni­ture sta­ples, such as tables and chairs, you may also need oth­er basics, such as high chairs, boost­er seats, and tray stands. Find a man­u­fac­tur­er that offers these essen­tials in styl­ish but func­tion­al designs.
• Qual­i­ty, style, and func­tion can and should be equal­ly pri­or­i­tized. With the right man­u­fac­tur­er, it’s pos­si­ble to get fur­ni­ture that checks all these box­es and more.

By fol­low­ing these tips, you can find the per­fect hos­pi­tal­i­ty and restau­rant fur­ni­ture and man­u­fac­tur­er for your busi­ness.