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Choosing a Design for your Dining Metal or Wood Chairs

Casual dining furniture setting

Opening a new restaurant is an endeavor that possess many challenges for enthusiastic restaurateurs-to-be. Apart from determining a brand name, formulating marketing strategies, and selecting a niche, shopping for commercial chairs can be just as stressful especially if you don’t know what to look for. Hence, selecting the restaurant chair design that synchronizes with your seating layout is an important and difficult decision to make because of the endless combinations and styles that people may find dizzying. Regardless of how your venue is set up, you can narrow down your options and decide on a dining chair design that works best for your décor.

What You Should Know Before Buying Chairs

Diner furniture setting

Understandably, metal and wood dining chairs alike are perhaps one of the most frustrating restaurant furniture to buy. When they are purchased new individually, they are astronomically expensive. And once you have your restaurant chairs, what will you now do with them? You may want to usher in as many guests as possible in order to recover from your deficit after making an expensive purchase. Fortunately, the most recent trends provide you with more options for restaurant seating because they don’t require you to buy a set of 12 antique dining chairs.


Before you buy a restaurant chair, or even a bar stool for that matter, you need to consider the quality, style, and comfort of this item. Comfort comes into play because a dining table, is where patrons gather around to eat, socialize, and work. Fashion plays a role in a steel chair design and wood chair design because you want it to look nice and reflect on your style. You also need to consider that you need to choose from an overwhelming variety of materials, styles, colors, and brands. But when it actually comes down to selecting and purchasing the dining chair of your choice, it only boils down to a few factors. Once you have a good idea what you are looking for in a dining chair, it’s easy to pick out the one that meets your specifications. Durability in restaurant seating is an important business aspect. Constantly having to replace chairs is one the biggest headaches owners of high traffic establishments can do without. The longevity of chairs is confirmed by the quality of materials used to build them. Restaurant seating is constructed with the purpose of withstanding heavy use for long periods of time. All you need to do is to find trustworthy and reputable commercial grade furniture distributor that produces the furniture made for rigorous environments.

The Rule of Thumb

Much how we like to coordinate the style of our clothing with the accessories we wear be it jewelry, footwear, hats, scarves, sunglasses, makeup and whatnot, a lot of restaurateurs can be particular about harmonizing the styles of both the chairs and dining tables. But nowadays, it is more fashionable to have chairs that complement the tables rather than matching together. To have an idea of which metal or wood chair design highlights your décor the most, you first need to decide on a dining table. When done correctly, contrasting styles in chairs and tables can exude casual charm. To achieve a cohesive look, the chairs should display some character. For instance, different wood chairs should be painted in the same color or the finishes on the various steel chair design should match. You can pair an antique looking table with patio chairs or a traditional table with upholstered chairs.


You should also have an estimate of how many guests you will seat at your venue on a regular basis and how many people your table can hold. Take note on where the table bases or legs are located and how many chairs you are able to fit around the table. You should also ask yourself whether you are going to have enough seating to max out your table or do you have enough chairs that will seat people for everyday meals and plan on using other restaurant seating options such as booths.

Keeping a Distance

Most tables that are standard height will work together with standard height dining chairs, leaving you with one less thing to worry about. Unfortunately, dimensions are neglected because it is seen as the least glamorous part of commercial furniture shopping. You need to determine the right size for your chair before buying it. For this, you should measure the size of your dining space and the room around your table. If you are looking to purchase armchairs, it is essential that they fit all the way underneath your table. There should be a 7 inches distance between the top of the seat and the vertical rail that runs under the table top and 10 inches if you want your guests to comfortably sit with their legs crossed.


The width of the average dining chair measures 16-20 inches. If dining chairs are placed too closely to each other leaving very little to no space in between them, guests will bump elbows while eating. This can create a very uncomfortable dining experience for them as a certain amount of personal space is crucial which has now been negated due to a poorly thought-out seating layout. Therefore adding 6 inches to each of the chair’s width will accommodate the spaces between them. You should also make sure that there is enough room behind your chairs for people to slide out easily.

Bending the Rules

Fine dining interior design

Not everything is set in stone when it comes to the rules of a restaurant chair design. In fact, there is ample room for flexibility. When styles of both the table and chairs clash with each other, an exception can be made when the pairing works. If you pair a sleek contemporary looking dining table with a set of vintage style wood chairs, this mix will confuse your guests who will conclude that you lack taste and sense of what is appropriate. However, you pair that same table with a set of carved and gilded chairs; it will give the look of your décor that is deliberate and avant-garde. You may get some raise eyebrows from your more provincial customers at first. But fashion forward visitors will be amazed and impressed by this coordination.

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