Booth dimensions for a chain restaurant, in the order they get fixed
Booth dimensions get argued in the wrong order. The drawing usually arrives with the table already placed, and the seat is squeezed into whatever space is left. Reverse that and the layout settles in an afternoon: seat height first, then the gap to the table, then seat depth, then the run length along the wall.
· 8 minute read · Written for Development teams fixing a booth layout across a store programme
01Fix the seat height before anything else
Seat height sits at 450 mm for almost every booth in a chain, measured from the finished floor to the top of the compressed seat, not to the bare frame. The 20 to 30 mm of settlement under a 40 kg/m³ foam cushion has to be inside that figure, which is why a booth quoted at 450 mm from the frame arrives at 470 mm on site and the guest sits higher than the table allows.
Counter seating runs at 750 to 800 mm and takes a different seat height again, so the two zones cannot share a drawing detail. Where a store mixes booth runs with high seating along a counter, settle both heights at the same meeting and record them on one sheet. Changing one afterwards moves the table, the plinth and the back panel with it.
02What the four dimensions actually are
Four numbers describe a booth completely: seat height, seat depth, back height above the floor, and the clear gap between the seat front and the table edge. Everything else on the drawing — radius, stitch line, timber species — is manufacturing detail that cannot rescue a run built to the wrong one of the four.
Seat depth for a fixed bench reads 450 to 500 mm from the front edge to the face of the back, measured at seat level rather than along the back panel. Back height lands at 900 to 1000 mm from the floor, which puts the top of the back roughly 450 to 550 mm above the seat. Shallower than 450 mm and the guest perches; deeper than 520 mm and shorter guests cannot reach the back at all.
03Where the drawing and the wall disagree
Site dimensions beat drawing dimensions every time, and the difference is usually in the wall. Plaster over block is rarely straight along six metres, and a run cut to the drawing length arrives with a 15 mm gap at one end and an interference fit at the other.
Three ways out, in order of cost. Cut the last unit on site from a loose-end panel, which needs the run to be designed with one adjustable end in the first place. Build a scribe filler of 20 to 60 mm that the fitter planes to the wall. Or set the run 40 mm off the wall and close the gap with a back panel, which hides the wander and gives the installer somewhere to work. The filler is the cheapest of the three and the one that gets left out of the drawing most often.
04Volumes that decide guest comfort
The gap between seat front and table edge decides whether a guest can get out without moving the table. For a facing pair of booths it reads 30 to 50 mm at the closest point, with 250 to 300 mm between the seat surface and the table top measured vertically. Below 250 mm the thigh is trapped; above 320 mm the guest leans forward to reach the plate.
Along the run, allow 600 mm of seat width per person for casual seating and 700 mm where the format expects a tray or a laptop. Four-person booths therefore need 1,200 mm of clear seat width, not the 1,100 mm that a nominal four-seat label implies. The difference shows up as shoulder contact at the second round, and it is the complaint that reaches head office rather than the store.
05What goes on the specification sheet
The specification sheet needs the four dimensions with their tolerances, the plinth height and its set-back, the fixing method, and the foam grade. Plinth height runs 100 to 150 mm with a 50 to 75 mm set-back, which is what stops a shoe kicking the panel at every sitting. Fixing method matters more than it looks: a bench bolted through the floor cannot be shimmed once the floor is finished, so levelling has to come from adjustable feet with at least 10 mm of travel.
Foam density belongs on the sheet because it is the number that predicts how the seat looks in year three. 35 kg/m³ compresses visibly within a year under heavy covers; 45 kg/m³ holds its shape through a five-year refurbishment cycle. Neither figure appears on a catalogue page, and both change the price by more than the timber choice does.
06Ordering a run for a store programme
Booth runs are built to the length on the drawing rather than to a stock size, so the unit that leaves the workshop is specific to one store. That makes the rollout schedule the controlling document: runs have to be released store by store, against confirmed site dimensions, not against an average of the prototype.
Where a programme has twenty stores in a wave, hold one measured run as the master and release the rest only after the first installation has been checked. The booth seating pages carry the standard lengths and fixing details; chain restaurant booth seating is where the custom lengths sit. Both get quoted against the room rather than against a stock size, and per-store packing keeps each run identified to its store.
?Questions buyers ask
Which booth dimension should be confirmed first?
Seat height, at 450 mm from the finished floor to the compressed seat top. The table height, the plinth and the back panel all follow from it.
How much gap should there be between the seat and the table?
30 to 50 mm at the closest point, with 250 to 300 mm vertically between the seat surface and the table top. Outside that band the guest compensates by sliding forward or leaning in.
Can a booth run be cut on site if the wall is out?
Only if the run was designed with an adjustable end unit. Otherwise the fitter needs a scribe filler of 20 to 60 mm, which costs far less than remaking a six-metre run.
+Related notes
Chairs per container on a multi-unit order, worked out from the packed volume
Send the store list and the opening dates
Store count, the seat count per unit, the drawing you are working from and the opening dates for the first wave, which is enough to price a schedule and hold a production slot.