Planning the seating mix, room by room

Most venues are a mix of rooms, and each has its own density. A fine dining room is spacious on purpose. A banquet room is packed on purpose. A bar is somewhere in between. Planning starts with the floor area, turns into a seat count, and only then into a count of chairs, booths, stools and tables.

Treat the figures below as early planning ranges. The occupancy limit of the room comes before any of them, and the local codes for building, fire and accessibility have the final word where the venue stands; the architect or designer on the job checks the finished plan against those.

How much floor each guest needs

Square feet of dining area per seat, as a starting point:

• Fine dining, where the room is spacious on purpose: 18 to 20 square feet a seat
• A full-service dining room: 12 to 15
• Fast casual or counter service: 11 to 14
• An event or banquet room: 10 to 11
• A bar or a lounge: about 10 to 12

Divide the dining area by the figure for the room's kind of service and you have a working seat count. Use the dining area only, not the kitchen, the restrooms or the host stand.

Table sizes for each party

A table for two can be as small as 24 by 24 inches. Most rooms set twos at 24 by 30; at 30 by 30 a couple has space for shared plates. For four, a 30 by 30 top works in a cramped room, a 36 by 36 sits easily, and a long 30 by 48 rectangle suits a banquette wall. Round tops of 36 inches seat four tightly; from 42 to 48 inches they take four to six guests, and at 60 inches a round takes eight.

Give each diner about 24 inches along the table's edge, and never less than 18. Under a round top, the base's reach should cover two thirds of the diameter at the very least. Anything narrower and the table tips when a guest leans on the rim.

Aisles and space behind the chair

Behind every chair, hold 18 to 24 inches clear, so a guest can draw it back and sit without bumping the next table. A service aisle needs about 36 inches. Plan the routes the servers walk first: kitchen to the far tables, the bar to the floor, the dish return. The tables fill the space that is left.

Heights that pair

A seat of 17 to 19 inches goes with a dining table of about 29 to 30 inches. A counter, at about 34 to 36 inches, goes with stools of 24 to 26; a bar, about 40 to 42 inches high, takes stools at roughly 29 to 31. Whatever the height, the gap from seat to tabletop stays at 10 to 12 inches. Measured center to center, bar stools want 24 to 30 inches each along the rail, the larger number for a stool that has arms or turns.

Accessible seating

As general guidance, the 2010 ADA Standards for Accessible Design put an accessible dining surface at a height between 28 and 34 inches, measured from the floor to its top (section 902.3). Knee space under that surface starts at 27 inches of height, with 30 of width and 19 of depth as the other minimums (section 306). Every accessible seat gets 30 by 48 inches of open floor beside it, which a guest reaches along an accessible route of 36 inches or wider (section 403.5.1). No less than 5 percent of the dining seats belong at accessible surfaces (section 226.1). Before the plan is final, hold it up against the current edition of the standard and the code your town enforces.

From seat count to furniture count

Work from seats to pieces in four moves. First, the seat count from the floor area. Second, the split between booths along the walls, loose tables on the open floor and stools at the bar. Third, the tables, sized by the parties you actually seat. Fourth, the chairs: one for every loose-table seat, plus any spares the private room will borrow on a busy night.

A worked example: a club dining room

Say a club dining room has 1,800 square feet of dining area and runs full service. At 14 square feet per seat that gives about 128 seats.

The house wants booths along two walls. Twelve booth tables, each seating four between two single booths, make 48 seats and need 24 single booths. The open floor takes sixteen 36 by 36 four-tops for 64 seats and eight 24 by 30 two-tops for another 16. That is 128 seats in all.

The furniture count follows: 24 single booths, 36 tables (12 for the booths, 16 four-tops, 8 two-tops), and 80 chairs for the loose tables. The chairs and tables come to 116 pieces, far past the minimum of 8; the booths are exempt from it anyway. Before ordering, check that the 36-inch aisles still run where the servers walk, and drop two of the four-tops if they do not.

Rooms that change

A dining hall or an event room seats a different crowd every day. Plan the busiest layout first and the quietest second, then count the pieces that come and go between them. Stacking chairs and folding tables make the reset faster, and the storage room has to hold whatever is not on the floor. Measure that room before you settle on a count; a stack of chairs that will not fit through its door is a stack that stays in the hall.

The bar beside the dining room

A bar shares its guests with the dining room, so plan the two together. Count the stools from the rail length and the spacing above, then decide how many high tables stand behind them. Keep the path from the bar to the dining room clear of stools pulled out, since that is where a crowd waiting for a table gathers.

Put each room in its own plan

Open a venue plan for every room: the dining room, the bar, the terrace, the private room. Save the pieces with their quantities as you count them, add notes for the designer, and download the project sheet when the plan is ready to share. For a layout you would rather talk through, book a call with a specialist, and browse booths and tables while you wait.