Pretty vs Practical – The Guidelines For Choosing Great Cafe Seating

Whether you’re opening a new cafè establishment or alternatively are looking to revamp your existing place, one of the hardest factors to get right is your cafe seating. Get it wrong and you’ll inevitably loose customers and in your industry where competition is rife, it can very quickly kill your business. So just how do you chose the right seating for your establishment? The answer? You combine the pretty with the practical.

Firstly the pretty stuff

Your cafè seating should blend in seamlessly with the theme, style, or design you’re trying to portray. So if you’re going for a retro 70’s theme for example, then contemporary industrial style furniture won’t cut it. Even though you might think it’s okay because it’s a bargain, this is the kind of stuff that customers notice.

Secondly, don’t simply limit yourself to standard chairs. For example. Look at splitting areas up with loungers, booths, and even Ottomans to appeal to a wider audience. How about bean bags for that laid back funky edge? Then of course there’s materials and colour. Timber, polypropylene, composites, polycarbonate, wood or upholstery, can all add to an overall theme or design. What about colours? Do you want to go bright and vivid, or do you want to keep it simplistic and white?

With so much to choose from it’s worth getting your theme sorted first and narrowing your seating down to match. Pinterest is a great online tool for making a seating shortlist. It allows you to create a mood board and add furniture that’s inspired or matches in with your overall vision.

Now the practical stuff

When people enter a cafê it’s usually different from frequenting a quick service restaurant because people tend to linger longer, enjoy their skinny latte, and take the weight off their feet. For this reason the comfort of your seating matters! After all, you don’t want an excuse to drive customers away, so you really need to test it out for yourself.

The other factor you might want to look at from a practical perspective is ease of cleaning. Your cafê furniture needs to be able to be wiped down easily without causing any unsightly stains or water marks. Seating should also be rugged enough to withstand the rigours of a busy restaurant because let’s face it, you’ll be spending a good amount of your budget on seating, so you need it to maintain its look and be built to last.

What about your flooring? It’s no good laying an expensive wooden floor if the chairs you buy are going to scratch it. You might want to ensure they have scratch resistant feet or at the very least that the chairs you buy won’t mark your floor.

Finally are your chairs stackable? Stackable chairs are important because you might need to store chairs away during the off season and clearly, chairs that stack allow you to do exactly that. Some even contain stoppers to allow you to stack neatly without damaging the chair.

As you can see, selecting the right cafe seating for your needs is all about striking the balance between the pretty and the practical. Get this right and chances are, you’ll be on to a winner.

To help you strike that balance, here at Cafe Chairs Sydney we supply a wide range of commercial grade cafe seating at great value-for-money prices. Why not contact us on 02 9576 3919 or browse our online store to see for yourself. Alternatively if you’re in the Wetherill Park area of Sydney, you can always visit our showroom and take a look at what we have to offer. Whatever you decide, we’re here to assist.