One of the biggest challenges that an aspiring restaurateur can face when they are looking to set up a new eatery that will have some cultural significance has to do with the sheer volume of decisions that they need to make. Decision fatigue is a very real problem that several new business owners have to contend with, so it’s important to start off by narrowing some of these decisions down so that they can become easier to parse and make sense of.
When it comes to setting up your restaurant, furniture can be a factor that could make or break your chances of future success. Such a heavyweight lying on this decision is bound to make it a difficult one for would-be restaurant owners, but there are a few ways in which they can whittle their options down. First things first, wood furniture is where you should be starting off your journey. It’s a classy material that is undeniably practical to boot, and it has the potential to transform your restaurant into a place that everyone would want to come and eat at when they have the time.
This notion will make your decision easier, but there are still several options to comb through because there are countless variations of wood furniture. There are two specific wood types that we feel are worth looking into, namely walnut and beech. Now, there are multiple other kinds of wood that you can have your restaurant chairs made out of as well, but remember that we are trying to simplify things here. Our basis for narrowing down your options to these two kinds of wood is that they provide an adequate amount of diversity with respect to their features, and choosing between two will obviously be simpler than choosing between many.
If we were to first look at walnut, one thing to note is that it is a somewhat uncommon material for furniture used in restaurants. That’s not because it’s a low-quality wood, though. Rather, it is because woods like maple and oak have become so widespread that restaurant owners fail to consider options beyond these two. Walnut is a type of wood that should get some attention, too, not least because it’s a highly durable wood that offers a smooth and sleek design on top of everything else.
It can be difficult to find wood furniture that combines modern designs with warmer wood tones. A lot of the wood furniture that you might have seen so far would be either modern with paler and more sanitized color tones, or they would offer darker wood tones but would be too roughly hewn to look modern in the slightest. That’s why walnut deserves a lot more attention because it manages to give you the smooth and sleek look that you might be after whilst simultaneously letting you take advantage of the coziness that its natural colors offer up as well.
Darker wood tones can be a great way to make your restaurant seem more inviting to your patrons. That’s not to say that pale tones such as maple are not worthwhile, though. All that we’re saying is that some restaurants are better served with deep walnut browns as opposed to blonde or light wood colors, so if that applies to you, you might want to give walnut a shot. It’s also a very light wood, so you can potentially get solid walnut tables made without them being too heavy to move around, and its deep, multifaceted grain only increases its aesthetic appeal.
Now it is time for us to move on to beech. There are a couple of reasons why beech is a fairly popular choice for restaurant owners that are out looking for furniture. For one thing, beech has a pretty straight and uniform grain which means that you can maintain stylistic consistency across all of your tables and chairs. It also doesn’t hurt that beech is a truly affordable type of wood due to its prevalence in nature, proximity to lumber industry sites, and the ease with which the trees can be regrown, so these are all things that are worth considering.
If you don’t like the straight grain that beech tables generally tend to have, you’d be glad to know that they are surprisingly easy to stain too. The wood absorbs color quite readily, so you can change how it looks until it fits your needs. The natural look for beech wood is pretty practical if you want to offer outdoor seating. It has an appearance that gets highly improved when sunlight hits it, so you can make your outdoor seating look quite appealing to potential customers that are walking by if your chairs and tables are made with beech.
On the off chance that these two options are still somewhat overwhelming for you, there’s nothing wrong with opting for both. You can try using walnut chairs indoors to make your atmosphere seem warm and friendly, and beech can be used outside because its affordability makes it easier to replace if it gets damaged by the elements. There’s also nothing stopping you from switching things up if your locale tends to see great weather because walnut furniture can look truly gorgeous outdoors as long as it’s not overcast or cloudy.
You can also widen your search to include other wood types, but it’s still important to know the pros and cons of each individual species of tree that might be used to create furniture for you. Both walnut and beech are options that can serve you quite well in your quest for culinary greatness.