Most Popular Restaurant Chairs in the World – The Bentwood Chair

Get to Know the Most Popular Restaurant Chairs in the World – The Bentwood Chair

The classic Bentwood chair is a hospitality staple and found in restaurants, cafes and bars across the globe. The simple yet elegant designs have stood the test of time owing to its popularity to its sturdiness, structure and beauty, which make it one of the best restaurant chairs in the world. As one of our most requested styles at BESeating, you won’t have to search for long to see this timeless chair in a venue near you.
Often dubbed the Bentwood chair gets its modern name from the process of its manufacture. By the mid-1830s, Thonet had perfected the process of crafting furniture out of a combination of bent and glued wooden slats. The chairs were bent into graceful curves using lightweight yet durable wood and a steaming method be bent into graceful curves, which created very different styles from anything else available at the time.
The technique used to create the chairs hasn’t changed much over time ensuring the durability of the Bentwood chair isn’t compromised. Beech, a deciduous tree that’s commonly found throughout Europe, is a popular choice of material for the Bentwood chair due to its hardness and strength.

Sustainably farmed, the trees are cut into logs so the production of plywood can begin. The logs are plasticised in large soaking tanks before a peeling machine creates large, thin sheets to be later glued together in layers. The number of layers used depends on the desired thickness of the plywood.
The drying of the wood is the next important step where it is left to reach humidity levels of around eight to 10 per cent. Then, the wood is steamed using extremely high-pressure steaming equipment that reaches temperatures of well over 100 degrees Celsius. The steaming process makes the wood plastic and therefore able to be bent and curved into an unusual shape. The bending process is often done manually by skilled crafters who are well-trained in the art, using a steel strip and metal moulds and forms to shape the wood. The bent wood stays within the moulds during a drying process, which is when the shape of the wood becomes fixed.
After being assembled, the furniture can be stained, lacquered or painted a number of colours, giving you the flexibility to create a variety of moods in your hospitality environment.
Cane or woven rattan was used for furniture through in 17th and in the 18th century but for the first use of cane for modern or early modern furniture probably best-known are the bentwood chairs from the second half of the 19th century and then the use of woven cane for the seats and backs of chairs by designers from in Germany in the 1920s.
More than 80 million Bentwood chairs have been sold worldwide, and the design has been responsible for changing the furniture industry completely. The introduction of the smooth, curved lines revolutionised the interior design of hospitality spaces at the time and can do the same for your space today.
Why are bentwood chairs so popular in restaurant and bars interior design?
They’re popular for all of the reason above and have a pleasant traditional look which appeals to many bar and cafe owners. They’re comfortable to sit on which means customers stay for longer and because they’re made by bending wood rather than joining it, there’s less to go wrong.
We have a vast range of Bentwood chairs like the Bentwood Crossback commercial chair with cane seat or Bentwood Restaurant Chair with plywood seat. Another choice is our Bentwood Bistro round back commercial dining chair, or you might like more vintage look and chose the BENTWOOD CANE SEAT BISTRO RESTAURANT CHAIR. Many of the styles we keep in stock in our NJ-based warehouse making it easy for us to furnish your space without lengthy wait times. We ensure all of our furniture is of the highest quality as BESeating continues to supply iconic furniture designs to clients across the United States.
Bentwood Stools and Bar stools.
A timeless icon of classic modern furniture, Bentwood Upholstered Backless Commercial Bar Stool Palm P, embodies the elegant simplicity of bentwood design, utilising traditional methods of European hand-craftsmanship and precision.

Strong and durable with a timeless aesthetic, BENTWOOD ANTIQUE BISTRO STYLE PALM COMMERCIAL BACKLESS BAR STOOL is suitable for a variety of applications including cafes, restaurants and residential dining.