Cafe and restaurant booths

A booth is the one piece of furniture you can't slide aside at closing, so it earns its spot on the plan first. These 47 booths come in standard, L-shaped, and curved layouts, with upholstered, wood, and channel-back styles. Booths are also exempt from the eight-piece minimum on tables and chairs.

Start with the wall

You can't push a booth around at 10 PM, so the wall comes first. Measure the run in inches, tape it on the floor, and walk the aisle beside it, which should stay near 36 inches. Seat height is standard on 40 listings and bar height on four. Bar-height booths belong beside tables of 40 to 42 inches, never beside a standard one.

If any of your seating is fixed, count it against the accessible-seating math early. The 2010 ADA Standards call for 5 percent or more of dining seats at accessible surfaces, plus a route 36 inches wide. Your designer or building office has the final word, so ask before the layout hardens.

Straight, bent, or curved

L-shaped booth seating takes two walls and turns a dead corner into seats. Half-circle booth seating reaches further into the room than its wall length suggests, so chalk the arc before you commit. A three-quarter circle leaves a single gap for guests to slide in, and that gap should face an aisle.

Two smaller groups are worth a look: two diner booths and seven booths on legs. Four listings are sets of singles and doubles, which helps when a long wall needs a repeating run.

Backs, wood, and upholstery

Plain backs, button-tufted backs, and channel backs all appear here. 38 booths list upholstery options, 29 sit on the upholstered booths page, and nine carry channel backs. Fabric and vinyl color lists change over time, so ask for a swatch at samples before you reorder or match an existing room.

A fabric or vinyl outside the listed choices becomes a custom order. Plan for as much as eight weeks, and treat the confirmation as final: no cancelling and no returns.

Price and layout

Single booths start around $198, and the list reaches $979. Because booths sit outside the order minimum, a single booth can be a sensible first purchase while the rest of the room is still on paper. Lay out the wall in cafe plans and download the project sheet when the numbers settle.