Restaurant Furniture vs Home Furniture: What’s the Difference?

Restaurant Furniture vs Home Furniture: What’s the Difference?

We all know that restaurant furniture feels different than home furniture. It’s usually heavier and feels sturdier. The single, most important aspect of restaurant furniture is that it is built very strong, for extended commercial use. If you were to bring a dining chair from home and use it in a restaurant, you’d be lucky if it doesn’t fall apart within a month. Restaurant-grade furniture is designed to last much longer, and as such, it has a heavier build and simplistic construction.A lot of restaurant furniture is ANSI/BIFMA certified, which is a certification signed by the Business and Institutional Furniture Manufacturer’s Association. The ANSI/BIFMA Safety and Performance Standards are developed by the BIFMA Engineering Committee. The standards are reviewed every five years according to guidelines established by the American National Standards Institute (ANSI). The standards are intended to provide manufacturers, specifiers, and users with a common basis for evaluating safety, durability, and the structural adequacy of the specified furniture, independent of construction materials. The standards define specific tests, laboratory equipment to be used, the conditions of test, and the minimum acceptance levels to be used in evaluating these products.

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Restaurants-grade furniture manufacturers are constantly finding new and improved methods of creating stronger, simpler, and more stylish barstools, dining tables, dining chairs, etc. Simplicity is key, as the fewer locking joints and moving parts, the less likely something will break. One of my favorite designs is actually the acrylic chair that you can find in yogurt and ice cream parlors, such as the chair shown above. With no joints, this light-weight, affordable chair will last a lifetime, even through hard use at a restaurant.