Plan a small dining room, one seat at a time

Start with the number nobody wants to measure: the square feet of dining floor you actually have. Count only where guests sit. Leave out the counter, the queue lane, the restrooms and the back room. Then divide.

Everything below is a planning range for early layouts. Local code sets the real occupancy limit and comes first, and your architect or designer checks the building, fire and accessibility codes before anything gets built or bought.

Square feet per seat

A cafe or fast casual room works in the range of 11 to 14 square feet per seat, and where you land inside it depends on how many strollers, laptop bags and winter coats the room has to hold. Other kinds of rooms stretch or shrink that figure. A full-service dining room needs 12 to 15. Fine dining spreads out to 18 to 20. A bar or lounge lands around 10 to 12, and a banquet or event room packs down to 10 to 11.

A 660-square-foot cafe, worked out

Say the dining floor measures 660 square feet. At 12 square feet per seat, that's 55 seats. At 14 it's 47, and at 11 it's 60. Run the same floor like a full-service room at 15 and it seats 44.

Take the 55 and turn it into a shopping list. Twelve two-tops seat 24. Six four-tops seat 24. A 14-foot window ledge is 168 inches, which fits 7 stools at 24 inches apart. That adds up to 55. The list becomes 48 chairs, 7 stools, 18 table tops and 18 bases, plus a spare chair or two. Write each table size and height as its own line so the count traces back to the drawing, and remember the order minimum of eight pieces of tables and chairs, any mix. This room clears it many times over.

Table sizes by party

A couple can share 24 by 24 inches if the plates are small. Give them 24 by 30 and they relax; 30 by 30 lets the plates breathe. Four guests make a compact fit at 30 by 30 and a comfortable one at 36 by 36. A 30 by 48 rectangle works if the room runs long. Rounds: 36 inches for a snug four, 42 to 48 for four to six, 60 for a party of eight. Each diner claims about two feet of table edge, and 18 inches is the floor. In a narrow shop, a 24-inch round can be the difference between a table by the window and a table in the aisle. The coffee shop tables are a good place to look for small tops.

Two-tops that become a four-top

Push two 24 by 30 tops together along their 30-inch edges and you get 48 by 30, the same footprint as the 30 by 48 rectangle for four. That is how a laptop corner turns into a family table on a Saturday morning, and why the example above leans on two-tops. Keep the aisle in mind when you slide them: a table that grows into the walkway has stopped being a table and become a hurdle.

Heights that go together

For dining, think 29 to 30 inches of table over 17 to 19 inches of seat. Counter height, 34 to 36 inches, calls for a stool seat of 24 to 26. Bar height, 40 to 42 inches, calls for 29 to 31. Whatever the height, a gap of 10 to 12 inches should separate seat from tabletop. Measure the window ledge before you choose stools.

Aisles, the queue and the stroller

Draw the queue before you draw a table. It forms where the counter and the pickup shelf pull it, and a rearranged table won't move it. Behind each chair, leave 18 to 24 inches for pulling out. A service aisle runs about 36 inches wide. A folded stroller and a full one need different lanes, so hold a tape measure to the real thing.

Window ledges and counters

Set stools between 24 and 30 inches apart, center to center. Seat count is run length over spacing: a 14-foot ledge is 168 inches, so 24 inches apart fits 7 stools and 28 inches fits 6. Stools with backs or arms want the wider end of that range. Counter stools and backless bar stools cover the two heights most shops need.

Round tops and bases

Match a round base to its top with arithmetic: take the top's diameter, multiply by two, divide by three. The answer is the narrowest spread to accept. A 24-inch round gives 16 inches, and a 36-inch round gives 24. Anything narrower tips under a leaning elbow and a loaded tray. Round table bases and X-prong bases are listed separately in the catalog, and each page says whether the base is standard or bar height.

Booths and benches

A bench or booth seat follows the same arithmetic. Give each diner 24 inches along it, so 48 inches seats two and 72 seats three. Measure the actual wall, outlets and trim included, because a drawing forgets what the wall remembers. Cafe booths are exempt from the order minimum, so one run along the window can be a whole order.

Sidewalk tables

Plan the sidewalk on its own sheet. Only pieces listed for patio use go outside, and a table that blocks the door at 8 AM blocks it at noon too. Check local rules for sidewalk seating before you order, then leave room to carry everything in at closing.

Accessibility basics

The 2010 ADA Standards for Accessible Design set the figures below. Read them as general guidance. Your project answers to the current standard and to the code where you build.

• Section 902.3: tabletops and counters used for dining measure 28 to 34 inches from the floor
• Section 306: knee space of 27 inches high or more, 30 wide and 19 deep
• A 30 by 48 inch patch of open floor at each accessible table
• Section 403.5.1: an accessible route 36 inches wide or more
• Section 226.1: 5 percent or more of dining seats at accessible surfaces

Put the layout in a cafe plan

Cafe plans is the planner on this site. Start one plan per zone: counter, window, back room, sidewalk. A plan holds each piece with its options, a count, a note if you want one, and the price saved when you added it. Plans are saved in the browser you're using, for this website alone, and no account is needed. Each browser can hold up to 30. Clear your cookies or switch browsers and they're gone, so download a project sheet from a plan first. Move a plan to the basket and today's catalog prices replace the saved ones. A second shop starts as a duplicate of the first plan, with the quantities edited. For pieces to put in it, start with the cafe collection.