Commercial Kitchen Chairs

Loose chairs for the open floor, because the room can be reconfigured and people can pull a chair to a different table. Bench seating along walls and under windows, because it fits more covers in the same footprint. Stools at counters and window bars for short stays. Folding chairs only where the room is regularly reset.

Most venues end up with two or three of these rather than one. The mix is what makes a floor plan work — all loose chairs wastes the walls, all benches makes a room impossible to change.

Steel is the default for heavy trade use and takes the most knocking about. Aluminium is lighter and the usual choice where the chair goes outside or gets carried a lot. Timber suits dining rooms with a slower pace and looks better doing it, but it is less forgiving of being dragged.

Whatever the material, look for a chair where the fixings can be reached and re-tightened. That is what lets you keep a set tight instead of replacing it.

Vinyl wipes clean and handles spills, which is why it dominates high-turnover rooms. Polypropylene is the easiest to hose off and the usual pick for outdoor and casual areas. Timber and ply seats look warmer and suit slower service, and they want a dry room.

Upholstered fabric is the most comfortable and the most work. It belongs in dining rooms where people stay for a meal, not in a cafe window.

If the room is ever cleared — for a function, a deep clean of the floor, or storing chairs overnight — stackable saves a great deal of time and space. If the layout never changes, stackability costs you nothing but buys you nothing either.

Check the stated stack limit on the product page and do not exceed it. A stack that is too tall is the most common way commercial chairs get damaged, and it is a hazard when someone pulls from the middle.

Measure the clear height under the table, from the floor to the underside of the top or the apron, then compare it with the seat height on the chair's product page. The gap between the seat and the underside of the table is what decides whether people can cross their legs or get a chair in at all.

Counter and bar runs are a separate exercise — a dining chair at a bar is useless and a bar stool at a dining table is worse. Pick the counter height first, then choose from cafe bar stools, and check the top you are pairing it with in cafe table tops.

Only where the product page says the chair is rated for outdoor use. Indoor chairs put outside fail at the joints and the fixings, and upholstered seats are ruined by one wet night.

If the outdoor area is the one you want full, the seating is only part of it. Shade from commercial outdoor umbrellas and warmth from outdoor heaters do more for outdoor covers than the chair does.

Enough to cover breakages without changing the look of the room, which in practice means buying a small margin above your seat count in the same batch. Commercial finishes and coverings change between production runs, and a replacement bought two years later rarely matches exactly.

If budget is tight at fit-out, buy the spares in the same order and store them rather than skipping them. It is cheaper than re-seating a room because one chair broke.

By the material. Vinyl and polypropylene take a damp cloth and a mild detergent and that is the whole job. Timber needs the water kept off it. Upholstered fabric needs a scheduled clean rather than spot work, because it holds what it absorbs.

Get underneath as well. Crumbs and spills collect where the seat meets the frame and under bench seating, which is the real reason to be able to pull furniture out from a wall. Clean floors matter as much — the surface and floor cleaners range covers that side.

Rock each chair, front to back and side to side. Movement means a fixing has loosened or a joint has opened, and the first is a quick fix while the second is the end of the chair. Do the whole set at once, on a schedule, rather than waiting for a complaint.

Also check the feet. A missing or worn foot wobbles, scratches floors and puts the load on one leg. Replacement feet and fixings are in spares and accessories, and we can help identify the right ones if you tell us the model.