Ordering leisure chairs for more than one store is mostly a matter of deciding three numbers and then refusing to let anyone change them quietly. Here is what those numbers are, and where the specification usually slips between the drawing and the fortieth store.
The four numbers that decide the fit
The drawing for leisure chairs carries a dozen dimensions. Four of them decide whether the piece works in a store: 420 to 450 mm seat, with a lower back and a deeper seat than a dining chair.
The rest — radius, taper, grain direction, stitch spacing — are manufacturing detail. They matter to the workshop and to the price, but they cannot rescue a piece that is the wrong height for the table it stands beside.
Seat height is a programme decision, not a preference
The working gap between a table top and a seat is 300 mm, with a usable band of 250 to 350 mm. Outside that band the guest compensates: compressing the thigh below it, lifting the shoulder above it. Neither shows in a photograph, and both shorten the second round.
Settle the height once for the whole wave and record it on the drawing every store is built from. The height therefore has to be fixed before the frame is chosen: once the seat height is set, the structure has to deliver it, and no footrest; the arm is what the guest uses to push up out of the seat. Changing it later moves the table, the plinth and the back panel with it.
The numbers quotations leave out
Three figures rarely appear on a quotation for leisure chairs. The first is the load case: a 150 kg static load, plus an arm load applied at the end of the arm. The second is the finished weight, which decides what a delivery costs to move through a store door and up a stair. The third is the packing footprint per unit, which decides how many stores one container covers.
Ask for all three in writing, on the first order and again on the fifth. The factory answering from a measured product replies the same way twice; one quoting from a catalogue photo gives two different answers, and the difference shows at installation.
Reading the drawing against the store
Take the finished floor level, not the slab. Tile, screed and underlay can move a floor by 20 mm, and that 20 mm lands directly in the gap between seat and table.
Then check the overhang where seating tucks under a counter. With 250 mm of overhang the geometry works; with none, the guest leans forward and the correct seat height stops being enough on its own. Both checks belong on the {{a:specification sheet}} issued to every store in the wave, not in a conversation with one franchisee.
What goes on the purchase order
Write the test rather than the number: whole-unit static load, applied to the seat and back assembly, with a stated pass criterion. Write the seat height in millimetres, not the product category, because category names vary between factories.
Our own drawing set for leisure chairs carries these figures as standard, and the quality control are quoted against the room rather than against a stock size.
Where these figures can be checked
Every figure above can be checked before an order is placed. The leisure chairs pages carry the dimensions, including custom heights, and the finish range is set out under specification sheet.
Load and material reports sit alongside each other in quality control rather than in separate documents, and the route from approved drawing to packed crate is described in multi-unit furniture programme.
Where a store mixes heights, the chain tables are usually the piece specified last and fitting worst, so settle them in the same drawing round.
Ordering for a programme rather than a single store changes the arithmetic on per-store packing: every unit is identified to a store number before it is packed.
Questions buyers ask
Which dimension should I confirm first?
The seat height, because everything else follows from it. 420 to 450 mm seat, with a lower back and a deeper seat than a dining chair
Is the load rating on a quotation comparable between suppliers?
Only if both state the same test. a 150 kg static load, plus an arm load applied at the end of the arm — a seat-only figure and a whole-unit figure are not competing numbers.
Do I need the finished weight before ordering?
Yes, for two reasons: handling in store and the freight calculation. It is rarely on a quotation and always available from a factory that has measured its own product.