Turning a restaurant floor plan into a furniture schedule you can order from

A floor plan shows where things go. A furniture schedule tells a supplier what to ship. Between the two sits a run of decisions, and when they're made out of order, the same schedule gets written twice.

This checklist follows the sequence we'd work at a desk with the measured plan in front of us. Set the seat target and give each seat its slice of table edge. Assign a height to every zone, hang the booths on the walls, and add spares. Only then convert the plan into quantities and a ship date. Every step uses a number you check against the drawing.

Set the seat target, then give each seat its edge

Write one seat count at the top of the page. Every later line answers to it. Start from the room planning page once the plan is measured. Then test the number against how the room will work, a question taken up in seating capacity and room use.

Count the seats the drawing really holds, not the seats you hoped for. If the plan draws 56 against a target of 60, the gap of 4 becomes a decision, and it's better to see it now than at the reorder.

Each diner needs roughly 24 inches along the table edge. The minimum is 18 inches, and it feels tight once plates arrive. A two-top therefore needs 48 inches of edge at 24 inches per diner and 36 inches at the minimum. One 36-inch round top takes four diners, which makes it the quickest unit to count: one top, one base, four seats.

Behind each seat, hold 18 to 24 inches for pull-out. Where two tables sit back to back, the two allowances add up to 36 to 48 inches. That figure is the combined room for sliding chairs back, not an aisle width, and it comes before any server's route is counted.

Check local rules for aisle widths and for the seat count the room may hold. Then draw both allowances on the plan before you place a table. They separate a count that works on paper from one that works at a full Saturday service.

Give every zone one height and its matching seat

Heights come in three families, and each has a seat that goes with it:

• Dining zone: tops at 29 to 30 inches, chair seats at 17 to 19 inches.
• Counter zone: a table or counter surface at 36 inches, stool seats at 24 to 26 inches.
• Bar zone: a surface at 41 to 42 inches, stool seats at 29 to 31 inches.

In each zone, measure seat to the underside of the surface: the answer should land at 10 to 12 inches. Try it three ways. A 42-inch bar top over a 30-inch seat leaves 12 inches. A 36-inch counter over a 24-inch seat gives 12 again, while a 26-inch seat leaves 10. A 30-inch dining top over an 18-inch seat also leaves 12. Repeat the sums for every zone in the plan.

If the zone is an existing counter, take the measurement on site and don't read it off the drawings. The stool follows the counter, never the reverse. Read the seat height on each counter stool listing, and if a listing doesn't print one, ask on the callback form. Taller zones start from the bar-height tables, and dining chairs belong to the lowest family.

One height per zone keeps the schedule readable. A zone line then carries four things: the room label, the height, the seat pairing, and the quantity.

Hang the booths on the walls first

Booths take the walls before anything else. A wall run is the least flexible thing in the room, and the floor tables can move around it. Draw each bay against its wall, count the seats it gives, and subtract that number from the seat target before you fill the floor.

Each bay becomes a booth line with a table line behind it, because a booth is sold apart from its table. The booth carries no piece minimum, though the booth tables still count toward the 8-piece pool. Booth lines differ from chair lines in quantity, wall run, and table pairing, and the restaurant booth seating guide takes each of the six types in turn. Once the walls are drawn, browse the full booth range.

Turn the plan into a worked schedule

Here's a worked schedule for a 60-seat room. The counts belong to the example, so swap in your own.

• Booth wall: 3 bays of 4 seats, 12 seats, written as 3 booth lines and 3 table lines.
• Dining floor: 8 round tops at 4 seats each, 32 seats, 32 chairs.
• Two-tops: 4 tables at 2 seats each, 8 seats, 8 chairs.
• Counter: 8 stools along a 36-inch counter, 8 seats.

Add the seats: 12 plus 32 plus 8 plus 8 makes 60, which matches the target. Now the chairs. The dining floor and the two-tops need 32 plus 8, or 40 chairs. Add a few spares for the room, enough to cover a repair or a later addition, and three brings the chairs to 43 in this example. The booths seat their own guests, so they add no chairs.

Tables come to 15: 8 rounds, 4 two-tops, and 3 booth tables. A complete-table listing is a single line. Otherwise you buy a table top and a table base separately and match them in height. The counter needs no table, only the 8 stools, with seats at 24 to 26 inches.

Revisions are where a schedule pays for itself. Take out one booth bay and the room falls to 56 seats. One more round top closes the gap. That adds 4 seats and 4 chairs, so the chair total moves from 43 to 47 and the booth lines drop from 3 to 2. Tables stay at 15.

Count back from the opening date

The order minimum is 8 pieces, and tables and chairs pool in any proportion, with stools counted alongside the chairs. For the count, a top and a base are separate pieces, and booths are exempt. The chair and stool lines in the worked schedule clear the minimum well on their own, so the 3 booth lines order as written.

Every line carries a lead time of 14 to 21 business days, with the carrier's transit added after that. A line with chosen upholstery or a special finish can run up to 8 weeks instead. Work backward from the opening date: subtract setup time in the room, subtract freight transit, then subtract the lead time of the slowest line. If one booth carries chosen upholstery, that line sets the order date for the whole schedule.

Plan on LTL freight, with the truck stopping at a dock or at the curb. Liftgate and inside delivery are extra charges that have to be requested at order time, so the receiving point gets its own line on the schedule. The delivery page lays out the terms, and another full schedule is worked through in the sample room schedule post.

The schedule that survives a second location

Sooner or later a second location or a reorder shows up, and a schedule built in this order carries over. The seat target, the zone heights, the booth bays, and the spares are all still there, so you change the room labels instead of redoing the thinking. Save the lines to a project list and the next location starts from the same counts.

Moving from a measured plan to configured room lists picks up where this checklist stops. If the arithmetic won't close, say with a seat target the edge allowance can't reach, a specialist can look at it through the callback form before anything goes in the basket.