Hotels and Restaurants could benefit from Stacking Chairs and Folding Tables

Commercial interior space is at a premium, more nowadays than ever before. The cost of a hotel or restaurant property has risen to the point that every square foot must be utilised to the maximum, bringing in as much revenue as possible. One way of helping this process is to be thoughtful in the kind of furniture purchased. Big items of upholstered furniture like sofas or tub chairs are very comfortable and fine for keeping customers seated a long time but do not allow the proprietor to be flexible in the use of his or her interior space as they are heavy and cumbersome making them difficult to move. With a more considered choice of restaurant chairs or hotel chairs and tables one room can serve more than one function and can make the process of cleaning the room much easier for the staff. For example the room can be used for dining during the week with one type of stacking chair and if, for example a customer wants to rent the room for a wedding or private party then those chairs can be stacked away in a small space and the room can be left clear for dancing or other more suitable chairs can be brought in. A good choice is to use stacking chairs combined with either fixed leg or folding tables. Only a few years ago the choice of stacking chairs was very limited, and nearly all of the choices comprised steel frames with either a steel or plastic seat and back. The 'Polyprop' chair, designed in the early 1960's by Robin Day for Hille International is the most famous of these early stacking chairs and was a very attractive simple design that had the main benefit of being extremely space efficient, being stackable vertically up to 15 high without a problem. These stacking chairs have sold in millions since their inception and many halls, conference centres and cafes still rely on them for their customer's daily use. However, as a restaurant chair or hotel chair their plain style make them an unsuitable choice. Thankfully in recent years hotel and restaurant furniture suppliers have realised that many of their customers need to use their rooms for different purposes at different times and so have incorporated many modern designs of stacking chairs and stacking tables into their programme. One of the most economical of these designs uses a steel frame in square section steel with welded frame and a choice of back designs in either square or rounded shape. These chairs are predominantly coated with either a gold, black or silver painted finish and have upholstered seat and backrest. Previously these chair frames were manufactured in the UK but in the last decade imported frames have become available very cheaply and with better and better quality.

Some UK suppliers still upholster the chairs in house though, which means that they can offer a much wider range of upholstery colours and patterns and can use UK manufactured foam fillings which tend to be of a higher quality than imported ones. Another reason to buy stacking chairs that have been upholstered in the UK is that the UK has the most stringent fire retardancy regulation for foam and fillings of upholstered chairs. A manufacturer in China or Malaysia will supply chairs worldwide and while the buyer can specify that the foam and fabric are treated to be fire retardant, their foam filling's fire resistance is made to a lower level than British made foam, being targeted at the U.S. home furniture market and is not usually suitable for contract use. Therefore, if buying stacking chairs that have been upholstered abroad make absolutely sure you have sight of the FR certification first.

In recent years many of the most stylish wooden chairs have been designed to be stackable. Traditional gilt wooden decorative backed wedding style chairs can now be purchased that are stackable to 8 or 10 high. Again these usually have an upholstered seat which can be specified to be removable so by buying chairs with extra seats in other colours, one chair can be offered with different seat colours to blend in with the bride and groom's choice of wedding decorations. Another stacking chair that can perform the function of a wedding or restaurant chair are the aluminium framed stacking chairs which while being very similar in construction to the steel stacking chairs, have a visual advantage that come from the way the tubular aluminium is made. While tubular steel starts as flat steel and then is bent longitudinally and welded along the seam resulting in a plain square tube, the aluminium tube is made by the extrusion process where the aluminium, in a semi molten state, is forced through a shaped form that means that the tube can be made with a decorative design running along it's length. When this type of tube is made into a stacking chair frame and painted bright gold it really looks very attractive indeed. These aluminium stacking chairs also have upholstered seats and backs and again it is wise to choose a chair supplier that upholsters them in their own factory premises.

Many bar and hotel furniture suppliers offer copies of famous 1950's and 60's stacking chair designs with simple formed plywood back and seat units on chrome round tubular steel frames. The famous Danish designer Arne Jackobsen's series 7 chair is widely produced now in the Far East and can be purchased in quantity from under £20. These chairs are light and attractive although without upholstery they are only comfortable for sitting a limited time. Other stacking chairs manufactured in very modern designs are made by the injection moulding process where molten plastic is fired under great pressure into a steel mould to form the design. The cost of making the original mould is huge and is a serious investment to a manufacturer but once the mould has been created many tens of thousands of chairs can be made at little cost. With a worldwide market available, factories in China are now using their own or sometimes European designers to create truly beautiful stacking chair designs that can be marketed cheaply because of the huge sales they can achieve. If you decide to choose one of these injection moulded stacking chairs it is imperative to ask the supplier for certification as to its suitability in a contract environment because if it is to be used as a restaurant chair or hotel chair it will receive far tougher treatment than in a home environment. The best certification comes from U.K. testing laboratories for example FIRA (The Furniture Industry Research Association). These people have specialist machinery that give the chairs the kind of stresses and pressures that they would receive in a commercial setting and test the chairs to destruction so that a real understanding of their suitability for contract used can be achieved.