So, you’re looking to replace or add chairs to your restaurant but you’re wary of what the venture will cost you. You’ve come to the right place! Deciding on restaurant chairs can be a daunting task, that’s why we’ve put together a pricing guide for you on what you can expect when it comes to buying your restaurant chairs.
Does the Material of Restaurant Chairs affect the Price?
When you set about choosing your new chairs, the materials that your chairs are made from greatly affects the price you’ll pay. Choosing from the timber or upholstered range will increase the price you pay, while choosing from the polypropylene range will lead you more towards the lower end of the scale. Metal chairs will meet you somewhere in the middle.
Timber Chairs
Timber chairs in themselves are not all the same price bracket. Depending on the timber that is used, timber chairs can range from as low as $90 up to as much as $500.
European Beech is the preferred hardwood that is strong, inexpensive and has been used for furniture since the 1800s. European Beechwood is a hardwood that can be steam bent to create chair components effortlessly without the joins. The idea was pioneered in the mid-1800s by Michael Thonet in Vienna and revolutionised the concept of timber furniture – the process is still widely used around the world today. European Beech timber is a slow growing tree with a short grain – making it strong and stable, and therefore ideal for furniture.
More inexpensive timber chairs will often be made from Rubberwood or Chinese Oak, which is fast growing but not as strong. These timbers are easier to produce, which brings the price of the chair down.
Upholstered Chairs
Upholstered chairs are bound to turn heads and bring in the classic comfort of soft upholstery. However, they are also more towards the higher end of the scale of pricing.
Priced anywhere between $90 and $1000 a chair, these chairs are the most diverse in pricing. The reason for this lies in the framing of the chair. Some chairs are framed with steel, others with timber. Not only do the materials vary the pricing, but the craftsmanship does as well. Popular chairs that are rolled off a factory line tend towards the lower end of the scale, while chairs crafted individually tend to hitch the price up. The manufacturer may change between RHS (Rectangle Hollow Steel) or CHS (Circular Hollow Steel), depending on the style and this also affects the price of the product. How much the steel is bent and moulded to the shape of the chair is another feature that affects the price of the chair. Sometimes timber is used as a frame for the chair. This is where pricing tends to increase as the materials used to create the chair do cost more and therefore the finished product has a price tag to match its brilliance.
Polypropylene Chairs
Polypropylene chairs vary in price from $50 to $250 depending on the design and style of the chair.
Polypropylene chairs are injection moulded; therefore, more complex designed chairs require more complex moulds – sometimes more than one mould for each chair. With these designs, the sections of chair also need to be joined together. Another cost for injection moulding is the finishing off – often after a chair has been pulled from the mould, a razor needs to be run around the edges of the chair to ensure that they are smooth, and no sharp edges are left.
Different countries have different levels of standards and therefore chairs that originate from countries with lower standards will be cheaper due to the lesser costs with manpower and the quality of the moulds and polypropylene used.
Metal Chairs
The term Metal chairs loosely defines chairs made entirely of any metal material. These chairs can be made from mild steel, aluminium and sometimes, although rarely, from stainless steel. As with almost any chair, the more details on the chair, the more the chair will cost. Finishes such as chroming, galvanising and powder coating all add to the price of the chair. A chair that is polished, rather than chromed or powder coated will be a lesser cost that those using the latter finishes. Each new weld adds not only strength but cost to the chair, and the more complex the design of the chair, the more welding there is on the chair.
Do the manufacture origins affect the price of Restaurant Chairs?
The biggest difference you will see across the industry with pricing will relate to the origin of the chair. Different countries use different methods of production and often have varying standards of quality, which all affect the price that you will pay for the chairs.
Often Restaurant chairs of Asian origin come at a lower cost due to being mass-produced in a factory with minimal costs and lower standards of quality. These warehouses produce masses of chairs daily with little attention paid to the quality of the products produced. The chairs are produced at a lower cost and therefore are often further towards the lower end of the pricing spectrum.
European (Turkish, Italian, Bulgarian) manufacturers maintain tight quality control and therefore produce less products at a higher quality and, therefore, cost. Typically, European manufacturers come from a line of craftsmen who take pride in their work and pass their tricks of the trade down through their families. They’re experienced craftsmen whose workmanship is that of hand-crafted quality.
Why do some brands of Restaurant Chairs cost more than others?
Across the industry there is almost a hierarchy of furniture brands. A great analogy to use is the idea of cars. Cars range from the inexpensive, lesser quality brands that spit cars out like paper, right up to the brands that are great quality and come with the badge to make you the envy of your friends.
Restaurant chairs are the same.
There are the replica chairs that are dime-a-dozen and created expressly to sell quickly with little thought as to the quality of the chair itself. The standard of these chairs are low and unfortunately, they mostly need to be replaced far too quickly. As they are created to a lesser standard, these chairs can be replaced without outlaying too much cost. The question is: do you want to invest in quality furniture or would you rather buy something you can easily replace?
Then there are the middle range chairs, that offer quality, comfort, and style – all within a fair price range. These are like the middle range cars – Toyota, Holden, Ford. These mid-range chairs tend to be the option that most go for. These chairs offer us the reliability we want from a restaurant chair, withstanding the environment they’re placed in. They also offer comfort and style to the venues they grace, at a very reasonable price. You pay that much more for far better quality and reliability.
The Mercedes of the chairs is much like the cars – brilliant quality and style, however you aren’t only paying for the craftsmanship, but the badge as well. The top of the range chairs are amazing – they look and feel amazing. The chairs are crafted with care and its easy to see why they’re the best. However, its always good to remember, like most branded items, you are paying for the designer badge that comes on the chair. Designer chairs have royalties paid out of them and can demand a higher price due to the name attached to the chair.
The choice is yours – are you looking for something affordable but replaceable, something made to last or something premium to add to your venue?
