Coffee shop notes

Budgeting Cafe Tables Without Rebuilding Later

Four lines carry most of a fit-out. Furniture is the flex line, and where the contingency belongs.

Updated 2026-11-07

Four lines carry 85 percent of a fit-out

Furniture, joinery, mechanical and the floor. Of the four, furniture is the one that can be re-specified late without moving a wall.

That makes it the flex line. When the budget moves, take it out of furniture before taking it out of the floor — a bad floor cannot be fixed later.

What furniture really costs, by seat

A loose chair and a shared table runs cheapest per seat. Booth seating costs more per seat and buys floor efficiency. Counter seating costs least per seat and borrows your joinery.

cafe furniture catalogue is a spread wide enough that the mix, not the unit price, decides the total.

Where the contingency should sit

Ten percent on the whole fit-out, and it is not for furniture. It is for the wall that is not square, the power that is not where the drawing said, and the delivery that lands a week late.

Furniture ordered against a contingency is furniture ordered twice.

Freight, duty and the landed number

Sea freight on furniture is 15–25 percent of order value and it moves with volume, not price. Duty depends on the seat type and the country.

Ask for the landed cost per seat before comparing anything. Two quotes at the same FOB price are rarely the same at the door.

The reupholstery bill nobody budgets

Seats in a busy room need recovering at about year three. Budget for it as a running cost, and buy removable covers so the bill is a cover, not a chair.

Rooms that planned for it look new at year five. Rooms that did not look tired at year three.

What to cut when the number is short

Cut the seat count, not the frame. Cut decorative joinery, not the table base. Cut the spare finishes, not the spare parts.

The order matters: a room with 18 good seats trades better than 24 that wobble.

The three numbers to bring to any supplier

Finished floor to underside of the counter, the longest clear wall, and the width of the door opening. Those three decide what fits before any catalogue is opened.

Add 600–700 mm for two, 800–900 mm for four if the room is on a raised platform. Twenty millimetres of step under a table leg is a wobble that no spec sheet warns about.

Signing off before production

Approve three things on the sample: the finish under your own lighting, the seat height against your table, and the stack height if you plan to stack.

Then put the approval date in writing. Production starts from that date, not from the deposit date, and the difference is often a week.

The parts list that saves year three

Glide type, screw size, upholstery code, finish name. Four lines that turn a reorder from a photo search into an email.

cafe furniture catalogue ships with a parts sheet keyed to the model number, so the list stays valid after the supplier changes their catalogue.

What the staff do with it at close

Stack or nest, wipe the contact points, count. Fifteen minutes a night, and the count is what catches a chair that left the room.

Put the stack where staff pass with a tray, never where guests queue. Stacks behind the door blocks the entrance at the exact hour it matters.

Questions we get asked

What matters most on the sample?

The seat height against your table, the finish under your lighting, and whether the frame rocks on a flat floor.

Can I reorder the same model in two years?

With the finish and upholstery codes on file, yes. Without them, the frame matches and the seat may not.

Where does the budget usually go wrong?

Freight and spares. Volume sets the first and nobody budgets the second. 5 percent of order value in spares is the cheapest line.

Where the rest of it lives

Everything in this note comes from the same catalogue: custom cafe furniture, cafe layout support, cafe furniture projects and cafe furniture quality. Floor plans sent to that desk come back as a seat count and a price, not a brochure.