Getting Seating Specification Right

The chair is often the first thing a guest touches, and the first thing to show wear. Getting the specification right at the start means it looks after itself for years; getting it wrong means firefighting from week one.

Seating specification in hospitality is a practical discipline as much as an aesthetic one. It's easy to focus on how a chair looks in the room, but the decisions that really matter — the ones that affect cost, lead time and how the space performs day to day — are usually the ones that go unnoticed until they've been missed.

Fire Safety & Crib 5

Fire safety sits at the top of that list. Wherever possible, choose a fabric that's already available to Crib 5 standard. It's tempting to fall in love with a fabric first and think about compliance later, but selecting one that needs additional treatment to meet Crib 5 can significantly increase costs and extend lead times and those timings are often difficult to guarantee. Specifying Crib 5 from the start avoids that problem altogether.

Beyond compliance

The practicalities of a working dining room shape the brief just as much. An open-back chair is a small detail that makes a real difference in F&B environments. It makes it easier for staff to clear crumbs and food debris, and it reduces the visual bulk around larger dining tables. It's not essential, but it improves both maintenance and how the space feels.

Materials need to be chosen for the environment they'll live in. For example, real leather has a wonderful quality, but it can stain, crack and demands a level of ongoing care that's difficult to manage in a busy restaurant. Faux leather is often the more practical choice for hospitality settings and where polyurethane isn't right for the project, silicone and plant-based alternatives now offer a more practical, easy-care option without compromising on look or feel.

It's a detail easy to overlook, but the glider fitted to the base of a chair leg matters more than its size suggests. These small protective feet help furniture move smoothly, protect flooring, and reduce noise. Nylon gliders work well on carpet and timber floors, helping chairs slide easily and reduce friction. On tiled or stone floors, felt is often the better choice. It helps reduce noise, and unlike nylon, which can wear more quickly against hard stone — felt pads are easy and inexpensive to replace once worn. Learn more about gliders here.

It comes back to the same principle underpinning every good specification: think about the room in five years' time, not just on opening day. Getting it right early doesn't just keep a project on track; it keeps a space looking good for longer and that's the real measure of a successful specification.