In a restaurant, a chair is moved, stacked and cleaned thousands of times. It has to stay stable, comfortable for a whole meal and good-looking for years. Here are the criteria that make a good hotel chair.
Exposed wood or upholstered?
| Type | Strengths | What to watch |
|---|---|---|
| Exposed wood | Cleans in seconds, ages well, warm | Less comfortable for long meals |
| Upholstered seat | Comfort, colour, better room acoustics | Choose a washable, hard-wearing fabric |
| Fully upholstered | Maximum comfort, a refined feel | Fabric care, fire rating |
A good compromise for many hotels: a wooden frame with an upholstered seat, in an easy-care contract fabric. Our range of chairs brings together solid wood collections and fully upholstered chairs on around ten different bases.
The base
The base changes everything: style, stability and upkeep.
- Four wooden legs: warm and classic, they go with any decor.
- Metal legs: slimmer and lighter-looking, very robust.
- Sled base: stable on any floor, doesn’t mark parquet, often stackable.
- Pedestal base: elegant, but best kept for rooms where chairs aren’t moved around much.
On our product pages, thumbnails show every available base, so you can choose the version that suits your dining room visually.
Stackable or not?
For breakfast, seminar or banqueting rooms, a stackable chair clears the space in minutes and makes cleaning easier. For an à la carte restaurant, you may prefer a non-stackable chair with a more enveloping shape.
Dimensions
- Seat height: 45 to 47 cm for a table of 73 to 75 cm.
- Space between seat and top: 27 to 30 cm.
- Width: 45 to 50 cm for a chair, 55 to 60 cm for a dining armchair.
- Space per cover: allow about 60 cm of table width per person, and a comfortable walkway behind the chairs.
Every product page gives the dimensions (height, width, depth, seat and armrest height).
The fabric
Restaurant upholstery has to cope with friction, stains and frequent cleaning. Choose:
- high abrasion resistance (Martindale test);
- a stain-resistant treatment or an easy-to-clean faux leather;
- a suitable fire rating if your property is a building open to the public.
Our contract fabric collection offers fabrics, velvets and faux leathers with their fire ratings. See also our guide to fire-rated fabrics.
Chair or dining armchair?
A dining armchair, with armrests, keeps guests at the table longer and gives the room a fine-dining feel. It takes up a little more space: check that the armrests fit under the top so it can be pushed in against the table. Many of our models come as a chair, an armchair and a bar stool under the same name, so the restaurant, the bar and the rooms can share one style.
Matching the tables
Choose the chair together with the table: height, wood colour, style of base. Our tables are built from a base + a top, to match the chairs. See how to choose a restaurant table.
Mistakes to avoid
- Choosing from a photo without checking the dimensions of the room.
- Using a domestic fabric that wears out within months.
- Forgetting glides: they protect the floor and reduce noise.
- Ordering too few: plan a few spare chairs.
In short
- A wooden frame and an upholstered seat: the right compromise.
- A base suited to your floor and your use.
- Stackable for flexible rooms.
- A hard-wearing, fire-rated contract fabric.
Lead time: 4 to 6 weeks. Add the models to your selection with your number of covers: quote within one working day.
