You’d be amazed at how much of a difference good quality furniture can make in your restaurant. Not only will it provide your patrons with a dining experience that is undeniably memorably, but it would also give you some great marketing options if you were to take pictures of your tables and chairs. Stylish pictures of your restaurant’s dining area can make it far more likely that potential customers would be willing to give your new eatery a try, so this is clearly a decision that you should weigh carefully by analyzing all of the relevant factors.
source: mydecorative.com
The thing is, unless you have opened a restaurant before, you probably wouldn’t know the first thing about restaurant tables or chairs. Don’t worry if that’s the case, though, because we’re going to make it as easy as a walk in the park. In fact, much of the advice that we’re about to give you will seem almost like common sense once you ingratiate it into your thinking process, so without further ado let’s get started with our very first tip which involves informing you about two of the most important factors to consider while making this purchase.
These two factors are functionality and comfort. Looks matter too, but you’d be far better off if you had a set of ugly chairs that were incredibly comfortable than if things were the other way around. Hence, aesthetics should be lower on your list, and you should instead prioritize things like how comfortable your chairs would be to sit in especially if you want your patrons sticking around for a long period of time. This well make them order numerous things off of your menu which can be a great way to maximize revenue from each individual customer.
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As far as functionality is concerned, the kind of space that your restaurant will occupy tends to impact this. If you have a relatively small location, larger pieces of furniture just won’t be all that functional for you. Similarly, if your restaurant is large enough to cater to vast quantities of customers at any given point in time, buying small furniture wouldn’t make a lot of sense. Larger spaces require you to fill them out, and big tables and chairs can help you do that whereas more compact pieces might result in the space seeming forlorn and empty.
Smaller restaurants are easier to furnish, though, so if you haven’t already decided on a location or layout you might want to opt for something of this sort. The bigger your restaurant is, the more furniture you would need and if you haven’t already established yourself in the culinary world starting a massive eatery wouldn’t do you much good.
Whatever size restaurant you decide to open up, just make sure you buy furniture that will complement it. Square tables can be a highly versatile option because they can be lined up to facilitate large groups and they can also be spread out if your clientele mostly consists of couples and smaller groups. If you feel like a larger space would be more manageable for you, try to use rectangular tables instead. They can be kept where they are so that parties of five or more customers can be seated without delay.
source: modernrestaurantmanagement.com
The second tip that we would like to give you is that you should never sacrifice quality in the interests of shaving some dollars off of your initial expenses. There’s nothing wrong with buying affordable furniture for your restaurant, but you should try to opt for quality instead of quantity whenever that is possible. What we mean by this is that you should consider buying fewer pieces of furniture if they are a bit pricier than you had in mind instead of getting a large quantity just because they are cheap.
Slightly pricier furniture has a much greater chance of lasting in the long run, which means that buying fewer pieces is actually quite sensible. You wouldn’t need a surplus of chairs if you’re confident that the ones you do have wouldn’t give you any trouble by suddenly breaking down. What’s more is that buying too much furniture would require you to set aside additional storage space just for these items. More space means more rent, and when you couple this with the added running costs of cheaper furniture it’s easy to say how spending more from the get go and buying higher quality products can actually save you from unnecessary expenses later on.
source: thebalancesmb.com
Another consideration to make is whether you want your furniture to be fixed or versatile. That means choosing between booths and tables, although there’s no law stopping you from getting both. Booths are useful because they can be placed in a certain area after which you wouldn’t need to move them constantly. Tables and chairs are exactly the opposite, but that can be a good thing because you can keep changing your layout to meet the needs of your patrons.
Perhaps more important than all of this is starting out with a budget in mind and coming up with a theme. Both of these are things that can influence what furniture you eventually end up buying, and they are relatively easy choices to make before you move on to other things. Your budget should be simply enough to figure out because you can just subtract real estate costs, ingredients expenses and staff salaries and spend whatever is left over on furniture. As for the theme, that has more to do with your personal preferences although there are prevailing furniture trends that you might also want to be cognizant of.
