Before rushing into buying furniture, there is a couple of questions you should ask yourself because wrong choices in furniture can be very costly. At the end of the day contract furniture is an investment in a business and you most likely will want to have a good return on it. Therefore, we would like to help you and give you the below tips and recommendations.  We hope this gives you a good summary and inspiration.

1. Style
   1. Choose the right style that fits your space. A beautiful design does not necessarily mean that the products have to be fancy and complicated. Sometimes simple products in a trendy finish do the job very well. If you don’t feel confident enough to mix and match different chair designs, you could just mix and match different fabrics. Please don’t choose fancy designs over comfort. There should be a clear balance between these two aspects.
2. Layout, quantities and sizes
   1. Planning the layout of a space is not easy and sometimes quite tricky. Calculating correct quantities, good floor layouts and correct sizes for tables and chairs is extremely important. For example the chair width should go with the table width depending on how many people you want to sit on each end, if we are talking about a restaurant.
3. Indoor or Outdoor
   1. Are you planning on putting your furniture outside? If yes, it is important to take the material of the furniture into consideration. You definitely don’t want your space furniture to be spoiled after a couple of months due to the weather effects. Therefore, you should buy furniture that is classified for outdoor use and avoid any wood that has not been treated properly as well as any metal that is not being powder coated and sealed. If you decide to buy outdoor furniture, you should also think about storage in case you would like to lock it away during winter or extremely hot summers. If you want to store them, it is a good idea to order furniture that is stackable.
4. Maintenance
   1. This is the key to get shelf life out of your furniture. All your furnitures should be maintained regularly and inspected for damages. This could mean oiling woods, remove stains from fabrics that could affect them, and fix anything that loosens up immediately. It will tremendously increase the life span of your furnitures and hence the return of the investment you made. If you use wooden outdoor products, it should be clear that they are more maintenance intense than for example aluminum, metal or plastic products. So if you want to keep the maintenance to a minimum, choose the material accordingly.
5. Warranty
   1. Always, always and always buy furniture with a commercial warranty. The last thing you want to worry about is if you are covered in case any problems with your furniture arise. Remember, this is contract furniture and is used more extensively than the furniture you use at home. Also your guests might not treat it as carefully as you would.
6. Delivery Dates
   1. Have realistic expectations about delivery dates of your furniture. Generally, it is advisable to order furniture 6 to 8 weeks prior to delivery. This allows the manufacturer to produce the contract furniture for your restaurant, bar, hotel or café in time and saves you a lot of stress closer to the date. If your delivery date is being pushed back, inform the company you ordered from, and ask them if they can store it in their warehouse before sending it to you. So you don’t have to worry about finding additional storage space.