How to Buy the Right Restaurant Furniture

Some simple tips can save you time and money, both better spent on your restaurant venture!

Image: affordableseating.net

(SALEM, Ore.) - If you are already a successful restaurant owner or working to become one, you will know that you have to look for ways in which you can make tasks as simple for yourself as possible.

The more time you waste making decisions, the less chance you will have to boost profitability in the future as you will, instead, be busy struggling to manage your many responsibilities.

A major task that any restaurateur must fulfill is the purchasing of furniture. No one wants to go to a restaurant that doesn’t have any furniture in it after all, so it’s better to get this out of the way sooner rather than later.

Now, this doesn’t mean that you should go out and purchase furniture in bulk with no considerations about quality or quantity. Mismatched furniture is often worse than no furniture at all. Just imagine seeing restaurant booths next to aluminum chairs and you will realize that what we are saying is true.

It is critical in the initial stages of your planning to ensure that all of your furniture matches, since changing the layout later on will be difficult. It will require you to cease your operations for several hours which would quickly result in a serious hit to your profitability.

A quick tip that can help save time while buying furniture but still ensure a matching layout is to decide on a theme. Nautical themes, forest themes and ethnic themes are all viable options that are used pretty frequently.

They don’t necessarily have to have an impact on shapes and layout, instead they can be used as rough guidelines that can help you decide what colors you’d prefer using.

There’s no rule that says that themes have to be followed to the letter after all, and many times doing so might just make your restaurant look gimmicky.

Color matching can create a very consistent aesthetic in your restaurant, and it will narrow down your furniture options too. One problem that you might be facing would be sorting through the vast quantity of options that are at your disposal.

This surplus of options can be a bit exhausting to deal with, especially if you have a number of other things that you need to get to at some point.

Having fewer furniture offerings to select from due to a restricted color palette can make your job easier without compromising on aesthetic integrity in your design philosophy.

You should realize that this goes beyond just color too. The kind of furniture that you have should be consistent. Like we have stated previously, booths and aluminum tables just don’t go together.

They can create a confusing atmosphere that most customers might not even know what to make of, a situation that should be avoided at any cost.

Aluminum is usually suitable for outdoor use, so if you have such a space you can use it here, but don’t use it indoors if you also have booths. You can only use one or the other if you desire consistency above all else.

This shouldn’t lead to you being one dimensional in your choices, though. This can sound somewhat contradictory, but no one piece of furniture can satisfy the diverse needs of all of your customers.

Your choices should depend on the kind of clientele you are hoping to attract, while at the same time leaving the proverbial door open for other demographics that might just be looking to try something new.

For example, if you are looking to create a family friendly eatery then booths are the way to go. They are spacious enough to facilitate large groups of people, are incredibly comfortable and also give a bit of seclusion to these groups that make eating in peace and quiet a reality.

You can’t rely on these groups forever, though. At some point you will need to make your indoor space conducive to the stray walk in that might just want a cup of coffee or a quick lunch.

There is real money to be earned from such customers, so it can be useful to have a few tables and chairs set up that can be used by such individuals. They wouldn’t want an entire booth to themselves, and giving them one would be wasteful since it could go towards a greater number of customers.

It would be terrible form to make a customer change seats if they are seated in a booth and a family walks in that might need the booth. Keeping tables and chairs handy means that you will be capable of welcoming anyone that wants to try out your offerings.

Again, the choice of material in these tables and chairs is crucial. Generally speaking, wood tends to go well with booths. Since booths are generally not considered high end seating arrangements, you can forego luxury wood for the tables too and opt for softwoods that would be cheaper and would not clash with the booth aesthetic.

Painted wood is an option that goes surprisingly well with booths, since they give you greater control over the colors and don’t restrict you to warmer tones that are harmonious with wood based color palettes.

Wood tends to be an expensive option though, and many restaurateurs would be unable to afford it in such trying economic times. For such individuals, plastic can work perfectly well too.

It is far more durable than wood, easier to clean and while it may look somewhat cheap most patrons will not fault you for trying to save money.

The cheap price tag means that replacing these tables and chairs with higher quality wood furniture would not hurt your wallet all that much.

Interim measures are acceptable when you have a business to run, and when this business is only just starting to reopen in a world that is vastly different to the one that it was used to such measures might even be deemed mandatory.

These bits of furniture buying wisdom should help save you time and money, while bringing the professionalism and style your restaurant deserves.

Source: Salem-News.com Special Features Dept.