Furniture · Seating
Restaurant and beach club seating, made to order
Restaurant chairs are bought by the dozen and judged one at a time, which is why commercial seating is specified differently from residential seating even when the two look alike. A dining chair in a working restaurant is sat in several times an evening, dragged rather than lifted, and stacked or moved at close. The workshop produces dining chairs, bar stools, banquettes and rattan lounge sets in A-grade plantation teak and natural rattan, made to order rather than drawn from a catalogue. This page sets out the typical ranges, the material choices and what the workshop needs in order to quote. Every piece is made to size.
Typical use
Restaurant
Dining chairs and banquettes specified together so seat heights agree across the room. Banquettes are drawn to the wall run rather than assembled from standard modules, which is what lets an awkward corner become covers instead of dead space. Where a room mixes loose chairs and fixed seating, both are drawn from the same table height.
Beach club
The hardest duty case: chairs on sand or timber deck, in salt air, moved every day and stacked at close. Frame joints and stacking behaviour matter more than the profile does, and rattan is specified only where the seating is genuinely covered rather than nominally shaded.
Hotel
Restaurant, bar and lounge seating for a property ordered as one package with the guest room furniture, in the same container. A hotel ordering both usually specifies a lighter chair for the breakfast room and a heavier one for the bar, drawn on the same frame language so the property reads as one house.
Specification
Typical ranges, all pieces made to size.
The figures below describe what the workshop typically works within. They are not a list of available formats and not a statement of capacity: every piece is cut to the dimensions on your drawings.
| Dining chair, seat height | Typical 450 to 470 mm, set against your table height |
|---|---|
| Dining chair, overall height | Typical 800 to 950 mm to the top of the backrest |
| Seat width | Typical 420 to 500 mm, narrower where covers per metre matter |
| Bar stool, seat height | Typical 650 to 760 mm, specified from your counter height |
| Counter clearance | Typical 250 to 300 mm between seat and underside of counter |
| Stacking | Available on selected frame designs, typical 4 to 6 high |
| Banquette | Drawn to the wall run, typical seat depth 500 to 650 mm |
| Banquette back height | Typical 900 to 1,200 mm, higher where it divides a room |
| Rattan lounge chair | Typical width 700 to 900 mm, typical seat height 350 to 420 mm |
| Upholstery | Seat pads or full upholstery, fabric sourced on request |
Dimensioned schematic
Indicative only. The dimensions shown are typical ranges, not a drawing of a specific piece, and they do not describe a workshop capacity. Your own drawings govern.
Materials and finishes
Frames for anything exposed to weather or heavy daily handling. FSC chain-of-custody documentation travels with the timber.
Seats, backs and lounge frames in covered positions. A phytosanitary certificate may be required for natural fibre goods.
Specified for bar fronts and banquette facings rather than for chair frames. Zero-harvest declarations travel with the timber.
Finishes
- Oiled
- The usual interior choice. Holds the tone and takes a touch-up locally.
- Natural
- For exposed terrace and deck seating, where weathering is the intended look.
- Stained
- Matched to a sample you supply.
Hardware
Solid brass fixings on frames, glides and stacking bumpers, and brass or stainless fixings on banquette carcasses depending on position. The fixing schedule matters more on commercial seating than anywhere else in the range, because a chair that loosens at the joint after a season is a chair that gets thrown out.
Order details
- Minimum order
- Quoted per project rather than per piece. Hospitality projects start from €25,000, typically one 20ft container, which a full dining room and bar seating package normally reaches. Private residence projects start from €10,000.
- Lead time
- The workshop's typical production time is 8 to 10 weeks from the moment drawings and finishes are signed off. Door to door, the typical timing is 12 to 20 weeks depending on destination.
- Packing
- Each piece is wrapped in protective material and crated or blanket-wrapped for container loading. Packing, quality control before loading and the sea freight booking are the workshop's, through its freight forwarders. HS classification is confirmed with the freight forwarder before each shipment leaves Bali.
- To quote, the workshop needs
- Dimensioned drawings or a measured schedule, quantities by type, and the delivery country. An indicative customs cost estimate can be prepared at quotation stage once the destination is known.
Notes on specification
Commercial seating is specified from two figures: the table height and the number of covers the room has to hold. Everything else follows. Seat height is set from table height, not chosen; seat width is traded against covers per metre; backrest height is decided by whether the chair has to divide a space or disappear into it.
The frame is where commercial and residential seating genuinely part company. A chair used at home is lifted; a chair in a restaurant is dragged sideways across a floor with a guest’s weight still partly on it, which loads the joints in the direction they are weakest. That single behaviour is what the frame section and the joint type are specified against, and it is why a profile copied from a residential chair tends to fail early in a commercial room.
Questions
Can a chair be made to a sample or a reference image?
A reference is a starting point, not a specification. From a photograph the workshop can read the profile and the material but not the frame section, the joint type or the seat height, and those decide whether the chair survives commercial use. Send references at brief stage, receive a dimensioned drawing back, sign that off. Copying a protected design from another maker is not something the workshop undertakes.
Is rattan suitable for a beach club?
Only under genuine cover. Natural rattan performs well on a shaded terrace, in a cabana or inside a lounge, and poorly in direct sun and salt spray, where it dries out and loses its tension. The distinction that matters is between covered and merely shaded: a pergola with open sides is not cover. For exposed positions the answer is A-grade plantation teak, or rattan on a teak frame that can be re-wrapped later without replacing the piece.
How is seating packed, and does it stack in the container?
Each piece is wrapped in protective material and loaded so that frames do not bear on each other's finished surfaces. Whether chairs stack in the container depends on the frame design, and it is worth raising at brief stage because it changes the piece count per container and therefore the shipping cost per chair. Packing, quality control before loading and the sea freight booking through the workshop's freight forwarders are the workshop's.
What does the workshop need to quote a seating order?
Quantities by type, your table and counter heights, the room or deck the seating is going into, the destination country, and any reference images. Table height is the figure most often left out and the one that sets seat height, so a quotation without it is provisional. For banquettes, a dimensioned plan of the wall run is needed rather than a length, because the corners are where the drawing work is.
Start a project.
Send the drawings, the quantities and the delivery country. A reply follows within 48 hours by email.
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