4 Reasons To Always Buy Commercial Furniture For Your Cafe

If you’re in the midst of opening a new cafe then you’re probably feeling overwhelmed by the amount of information and the level of planning that’s required to get your new venture up and running. There’s a million and one things to do including planning a menu, purchasing your equipment, and selecting the right furniture. What you may not realise is that there is a big difference between furniture for home use and furniture for establishments such as cafes and restaurants. This blog is about the importance of purchasing commercial furniture and 4 reasons why it makes sense to do so.

Design

If you’re buying a new dining table and chairs for your home then the main criteria is usually whether it fits the space and whether it looks good. So surely that applies when purchasing furniture for your cafe? Well actually, no! Think about when you enter a cafe or restaurant and there are multiple sets of tables and chairs or bar stools. Although a single set may look great in your dining room at home, if used in multiple amounts in your cafe, they’re likely to look pretty awful. You see commercial furniture is designed in a different way to create an overall look that is good. Cafe chairs are generally lower than those that you’d use at home, so that you don’t see a mass of chair backs when you enter a venue. The width of chairs, height of tables, and style of table base, are all key elements that go into designing commercial furniture.

Durability

Typically, domestic furniture isn’t as sturdy as commercial furniture, and in most cases that’s fine. At most a domestic dining table and chairs is only going to be used two or three times a day, whereas commercial grade furniture may be used all day long by a variety of diners. Usually a home owner who has purchased a dining room table and chairs will take the trouble to clean and maintain it, whereas a busy cafe owner will prefer a dining table that needs minimal maintenance. So where a home patio set might be bolted together, a commercial patio set is likely to be welded together or in the case of polypropylene furniture, moulded all from one piece.

Materials

Home dining sets are likely to be produced with velvet covered seats or bold cotton prints, whereas neither of these would fair well in a commercial environment. Instead, vinyl is more commonly used as this can be wiped clean in an instance and is easy to maintain. Table tops are more likely to have a weatherproof coating and be UV protected as well as heat and stain resistant, whereas a home dining set wouldn’t necessarily have any of these features. Better materials are usually found in commercial furniture in order to prevent ongoing maintenance.

Budget

A homeowner often plans and saves for their furniture and consequently their budget and needs may differ widely from those of a cafe owner. A home owner’s main requirement is that their new dining set provides enough seating for a set amount of diners and suits their personal taste. A cafe owner on the other hand has to consider his target audience and his décor, and buy accordingly. He may also purchase different types of seating in order to cater for a broader section of the market. Not only will his new furniture need to complement the theme or décor of his cafe but it has to meet with the approval of his customers, or they may not be back. Commercial furniture may cost more than domestic furniture, but the cafe owner doesn’t want to be replacing it six months down the line.

Whether you’re opening a new cafe or looking to upgrade, at Cafe Furniture Melbourne we stock a wide range of commercial furniture to suit all tastes. We’re also holding an EOFY sale for the whole of June, so it’s a great time to grab yourself a bargain. If you need any advice or information on any of our products then don’t hesitate to give us a call on 03 9357 9688.