Planning seats, tables and booths for an evening room

A dining room gets planned twice. First on paper, by the square foot, to learn how many guests it holds. Then from a guest's chair, by the inch, to learn whether they will stay. This page covers the first pass and points toward the second.

Every figure below is a planning range for early work. Local building, fire and accessibility codes set the real occupancy limit, and those limits come first. Your architect or designer checks the final drawing against them.

Begin with the floor each guest needs

Net dining area, divided by the floor one guest needs, gives a first seat count. The tightest rooms come first in this list and the most generous last, and every figure counts the dining area alone:

• Event or banquet space: 10 to 11 square feet for each seat
• Lounge or bar: about 10 to 12
• Counter-service and fast-casual rooms: 11 to 14
• Full-service dining room: 12 to 15
• Fine dining: 18 to 20

Choose the figure by how the room runs at its fullest, not at five o'clock on a Tuesday. A room built around long dinners sits near the generous end of its range, and a room that turns tables sits near the tight end. Say the dining area measures 1,800 square feet and you plan at 15 square feet per seat. That is 120 seats.

From seat count to purchase list

A seat count turns into a purchase list once it is divided among table types. Stay with the 120 seats. Ten booths of four hold 40 of them. Twelve tables 36 inches square, four guests each, hold 48. Sixteen tables 30 inches square, two guests each, hold the last 32. Forty, 48 and 32 make 120.

The list reads: ten booths with their booth tables, 80 chairs, and 28 free-standing tables, each a top and a base. Write every table type as its own line, with the top size, the base, the height and the finish, and the quantities trace back to the plan. Add a few spare chairs for the night a party arrives larger than booked.

Table sizes by party

For two guests, a top of 24 by 24 inches is the least that works, 24 by 30 is standard, and 30 by 30 gives the plates room. For four, choose 30 by 30 when space is short, 36 by 36 for comfort, or a 30 by 48 rectangle. Rounds are generous with the numbers: a 36-inch round seats four if the room is tight, a 42 or 48 inch round seats four to six, and eight need 60 inches.

Under all of these sits one rule for the edge: about 24 inches of table per diner, and 18 at the tightest. A round top wants a base that spans two thirds or more of its diameter, or the edge feels unsteady when a guest leans on it. Tables that can be pushed together keep the room flexible for the party of six that the book said was four.

Heights: the seat, the top and the gap between

Three heights run most rooms, and every chair or stool belongs to one of them. Dining tables of 29 to 30 inches go with seats of 17 to 19. Counters of 34 to 36 inches go with stools of 24 to 26. Bars of 40 to 42 inches go with stools of 29 to 31. Whatever the pairing, 10 to 12 inches should separate the seat from the top above it. A bar-height table needs a bar-height base beneath it, so check the pairing before the quantities go on a list.

Room to move

Leave 18 to 24 inches behind each table edge, so a guest can push a chair back and stand. Service aisles run about 36 inches wide. Draw the fixed things first: columns, the host stand, service stations and door swings. Then place tables around them, and keep the paths to the restrooms and the kitchen door open.

The bar and the counter

Measure stool spacing from center to center, at 24 to 30 inches. Backless stools can sit toward the low end, while stools with arms or swivel seats need the high end. The count is the length of the run divided by the spacing. An 18-foot counter is 216 inches, and at 27 inches on center it seats 8. Behind the stools, keep an aisle of service width, about 36 inches, so a server and a seated guest are not in each other's way.

Booths and banquettes

A bench takes the same 24 inches per guest as a table edge: 48 inches seats two, and 72 inches seats three. The table has to meet the bench halfway. Set it too far back and a guest reaches for the plate; set it too far forward and nobody can slide in. Where a corner leaves one guest wedged against the wall, a curved run, such as a half-circle booth, makes that corner a fair seat.

Booths are built to order from the options listed, so the wall decides the length. Take the length from the wall itself, not from the drawing, and subtract whatever is fixed to it: trim, outlets, a heater. Confirm the dimensions and the upholstery before you order, because a booth in production cannot be changed.

Banquet and event rooms

These rooms run at the tightest density, since every guest sits down at once and for the same course. A 60-inch round holds eight. A room that swings between dining and events does best with tops and bases that separate and store easily. Give chair storage its floor space before you fix the seat count, or the count shrinks later.

Accessibility

The 2010 ADA Standards for Accessible Design are the usual starting point. In outline, they ask for:

• Dining surfaces: 28 to 34 inches high (section 902.3)
• Knee space under a table, as height by width by depth: 27 by 30 by 19 inches at the least (section 306)
• Floor space: a clear area of 30 by 48 inches at the table
• An accessible route no narrower than 36 inches (section 403.5.1)
• Seating at accessible surfaces: 5 percent of the dining total, as a floor (section 226.1)

Read these as orientation, not as a code review: the standard in force and your local code decide, and your architect confirms the numbers for your room.

Put the plan into a seating plan

The seating plans tool lays a room out section by section: the booth run, the center tables, the bar. Open a booth or a table, choose Save to seating plan, and the configured item goes in with its quantity and a note. A plan holds items, quantities, notes and saved prices. Plans are stored in the browser you are using, for this website only, and there is no account to open. Each browser holds as many as 30. Lose the browser's cookies or move to another, and the plans don't come with you, so download the project sheet once the numbers are settled. Prices saved in a plan are worked out again from the current catalog when you move it to the basket. For the next location, duplicate the plan and adjust the quantities.

Stuck on a booth run that turns a corner? Book a call and bring the wall measurements.