A great restaurant experience is as much a pleasure for your eyes as it is for your appetite. When you welcome diners into your restaurant you want to make sure they enjoy their meal with all of their senses. It can be a big disappointment when you go to sit down at a fine dining restaurant only to see tired and worn-out booth and banquette seating. This problem can actually be a result of success. If your restaurant seating is worn down, it’s likely because your restaurant is quite popular and sees many guests. It also means your restaurant has lasted longer than the 80% of other restaurants that don’t make it past five years. Five years also tends to be the average lifecycle of booth and banquette furniture upholstery. So if your establishment is older than 5 years and feeling like it needs a refresh, keep reading to see how Corn Upholstery can help reupholster and restore your restaurant’s furniture.

reupholstering your restaurant furniture: What are the steps and what to expect?

The process starts simply enough with reaching out for a consultation. We are experts in booth and banquette reupholstering with over 70 years of experience in the industry. We can provide the technical knowledge and expertise for reupholstering your restaurant furniture, but there are some considerations that you may want to put into the project prior to the consultation. You know your establishment’s style better than anyone, so think about the look and feel you are going for beforehand so we can help make it all come to life. Have you selected the new materials and colors you’d like for your furniture? Any changes to your seating’s design? Can your restaurant live without your booth or banquette seating for a period of time? We can help guide you through these questions, but your project will be much more streamlined if you narrow down these details initially.

Not all restaurant booths and banquettes are created equal. Some were built to be repaired and serviced while some were not. It is likely the part of a banquette that will need repair first is the seat. This component takes the most stress from diners who apply pressure when they sit on it, as well as slide in and out, and worst, stand on it! These pressures will eventually wear down the seat material and cause discoloration and tearing. It is likely that the seat back and side material hasn’t sustained nearly as much damage compared to the seats. This is why high-quality seating manufacturers will build their pieces with removable or serviceable seats to help with these eventual repairs. The seat can either be lifted off for repair, or it is built separately from the backs to be able to remove its old material without disturbing the back’s upholstery. If your banquette’s seat and back aren’t built separately, it may be the case that both will need to be reupholstered to achieve the best result.

When you come to Corn Upholstery to have your restaurant furniture refreshed and reupholstered, we take an approach that will help extend your furniture’s lifespan for another one to two lifecycles. We do more than just recover your seating. Included in our reupholstering service is a full examination of the internal frame and support system. We reinforce any weak spots and reconstruct the support system where needed. There are temporary fixes some mobile technicians can perform, but we look to create permanent fixes and only the highest quality solutions. This means that we will need to work on the furniture pieces in our facility to complete the reupholstering with our full array of resources and skilled upholsterers.

This disruption in seating can be the main reason restaurant owners hesitate to have their seating reupholstered. Many decision makers may want to avoid this temporary loss of seating by making quick fixes or using loose covers over the damage. While this approach will cover the wear and tear, it generally trades one unattractive look for another. The loose cover can feel odd to sit on and comes off as looking unfinished. The reality is that the restaurant will need to live without the seating for a period of time, but this inconvenience can be mitigated with temporary table and chairs usually. A moment of temporary pain can have your restaurant looking great for many more years to come. Returning customers will marvel at the new look seating!

Materials for reupholstering your restaurant furniture

Choosing Corn Upholstery to reupholster your booth and banquette seating is the best decision you can make, but the second-best decision is choosing is the right material for your seating. You often get what you pay for when it comes to upholstery fabric, vinyl, and leather. Low cost likely equals low-quality. Also, many materials aren’t made to stand up to commercial use. Choosing the right material is paramount. We are happy to work with the materials you purchase (COM or COL), or in some cases we can help source the material for your project. If you can direct us to your desired color and material type (vinyl, leather, or woven fabric), we can source samples for you to choose from. Our recommendations will consist of the highest quality options made for commercial use that can handle the traffic of a busy establishment (50,000+ double rub count and higher recommended). If you would like more insight into the right materials, follow this link to our article all about upholstery materials.

Our lead times for reupholstering work are variable based on the piece and scope running from 10 working days for smaller jobs to 30 working days for more complex projects. Schedules can be coordinated to have your project occur during your slower times to help alleviates any disruptions.

If you are thinking your establishment needs a refresh or even a full update with brand new furniture, don’t hesitate to reach out for a reupholstering consultation and quote. Head over to our Contact page to get the conversation started.