Cafe and restaurant chairs

Counter-service rooms plan on 11 to 14 square feet per seat, and the chair is the biggest piece of that number. These 465 chairs come in metal, wood, aluminum, and resin, with vinyl, fabric, wood, or woven seats. Pick the material first, then decide whether you need stacking, arms, or a patio listing.

Start with the frame, then the seat

Metal leads: 183 frames are metal and 18 are steel. Aluminum accounts for 64, and another 36 are aluminum finished to look like wood. Wood frames come to 115, resin to 21. Each material has its own page, starting with metal chairs and wood chairs.

The seat is what your customer actually meets. Vinyl seats number 286, fabric seats 205, and wood seats 122, while the rest are metal, faux rattan, or plastic teak. If the same regular sits for two hours with a laptop, look at padded backs first. 137 chairs here have one.

Stack, arms, or neither

At 7 AM the chairs come down; at closing they go back up. Of the 465 chairs, 133 are listed as stackable, and the stacking chairs page gathers them. Arms are on 118. They're comfortable, but they widen the chair, so read the listed width before you count how many fit along a wall. Four chairs swivel.

Listed seat heights cluster between 17 3/4 and 19 1/2 inches. Under a tabletop at 29 to 30 inches, that leaves the 10 to 12 inch gap above the thigh that people expect.

Back shapes tell you how it looks from the door

Upholstered backs lead with 146 chairs. Curved backs follow with 38, then tolix-style frames with 29, banquet chairs with 20, vertical slats with 15, and bucket shapes with 14. Open frames let daylight through a small room, and a padded back fills the view behind a table. Neither is wrong. Pick the one that matches how much of the floor you want the chair to hide.

Chairs for the sidewalk

124 chairs are listed for patio use and 394 for indoor use, and some carry both. Five are for a covered patio only. Outside, stick to chairs whose listing says patio use. Weather ruins wood frames and cushioned seats by fading, swelling, or rusting them, and the warranty skips that damage. Anything bound for the curb starts at patio chairs.

Each diner needs roughly two feet of table edge, or 18 inches in a squeeze. Hold back another 18 to 24 inches of floor behind the chair for pulling out, and keep the service aisle near 36 inches. Single chairs range from $26 to $566, so the budget and the floor plan tend to settle the choice together.

Sketch a draft in cafe plans before you count anything twice. A metal dining chair listed at 20 1/4 inches wide, 22 1/4 deep, and 33 high makes a good test piece to draw against the footprint you have.