Matching custom booth dimensions and room fit to the wall you have measured twice

Walls are not built in multiples of anything. A back wall of 13 feet 10 inches between a door casing and a column will not divide into neat booths. What is left over is either a strip of bare paint that the eye finds first or a booth that stops short of the corner. Dimensions you can set yourself are the cure for that strip, which is the reason to measure before you choose a style.

Two meanings of custom deserve separating. Setting a length, a back height and a base from the listed choices is configuring, and the booth is built to order from what you picked. Going past the listed range, with a length beyond what the model allows or a shape outside the standard range, is custom work. It takes longer, and once it is confirmed it can be neither cancelled nor returned. Most walls never need the second kind.

What the listing lets you set

The numbers differ by model, so read the page of the booth you want. These are the ranges the current listings carry.

• Length: 24 to 72 inches in one-inch steps on many configurable booths, 48 to 72 on some, and 54 to 78 on others.
• Back height: 36, 42 or 48 inches on most; 42 and 48 on a few.
• Bar-height booth: a 30-inch seat with a back of 48, 54 or 60 inches, found among the bar-height booths.
• Shape and base: single, double and the deuce shapes; a black kick base, legs in wood or metal, or a reclaimed-style laminate base.

Some booths also offer a power package of two outlets, a USB port and a USB-C port, which makes the wall behind the booth part of the plan: note where the nearest wall outlet sits. Booths with fixed lengths, such as the metal-legged booth with a wood back at 48, 60 and 72 inches, ask more of the wall. A plain-back custom booth that sets to the inch asks more of the person holding the tape.

A 166-inch wall, fitted two ways

Say the wall between the door casing and the column measures 166 inches, 13 feet 10 inches. Take a model with fixed lengths of 48, 60 and 72. The best fit under 166 is 48 plus 48 plus 60, which is 156 inches and leaves 10 inches of bare wall. Two 72-inch booths leave 22. Either way the wall seats six along its length.

Now take a booth that sets to the inch. Hold back one inch for a wall that is not quite true and divide the remaining 165 by three: three booths of 55 inches, no bare wall, and six seats along the wall again. Each booth seats two guests at 24 inches apiece, with 7 inches to spare. The longer range did not add a seat. It bought a wall that is filled from door casing to column, with the same width of booth at every table.

The rule that keeps the arithmetic honest: measure the wall at the floor, at seat height and at the height of the back, and work from the shortest of the three.

Back height and the window sill

A booth back reads from across the room, so its height is part of the wall. Suppose the window beside the booth has a sill 38 inches off the floor. A 36-inch back stays 2 inches under the glass. A 42-inch back climbs 4 inches into it, and that stripe of upholstery is what the street sees. A 48-inch back covers 10 inches of glass and turns the booth into a screen. Choose a back that ends well below a sill or well above the line of sight, not a few inches into either.

The article on high-back booths and privacy takes the tall option on its own terms: what a guest behind it cannot see, and what a server can.

Depth, aisle and the door

Depth and aisle decide whether the length you chose is usable. The metal-legged booth with a wood back lists 23 3/4 inches for a single and 43 1/2 for a double; confirm the depth of any other model before you commit. Keep about 36 inches of aisle beyond the table for service. That is also the width the accessibility standard sets for an accessible route, so confirm it against the standard as it now reads and the code that governs your building before you narrow it.

The mistake that tape cannot catch is a booth that fits the wall and not the building. Booths arrive palletized on LTL freight, at the dock or the tailgate. The driver does not carry freight up or down stairs, moving the furniture inside is your crew's job, and unpacking and assembly are never included. Measure the path from the curb to the wall: the door, the turn, the stair, the elevator. Each of them has to let a booth through, and a long run may be 72 inches.

Where a size becomes custom work

The listed ranges cover more walls than buyers expect. When yours is longer than the model allows, curved, or cut on an angle, the booth is custom, a size or shape outside the standard range. Custom items take up to about eight weeks, against the 14 to 21 business days that standard items take, with transit time added to either. Budget a 40% deposit on a custom order, with the rest paid ahead of delivery.

Since a confirmed custom item stays confirmed, settle the sizes with a specialist before you submit the order, not after. What the extra length does to the price belongs to the booth project costs article, which lays out the components. The point here is narrower: use the listed range until a wall proves it cannot hold the booth you need.

What to write down at the wall

Stand at the wall with a tape and write five numbers. Three are lengths: at the floor, at seat height and at the height of the back. The other two are the height of the sill or first obstruction and the width of the narrowest door on the way in. Work from the smallest length, and put the width of the aisle beside it.

Then open the booth page, set the shape and length, and save the result in a seating plan with the five numbers in its note. The guide to measuring for custom booths covers the rest of the survey. When the figures on the plan match the figures on the wall, order.