Restaurant Interior Design & FF&E.
Dining rooms, bars, and patios furnished with contract-grade Italian design — specified, imported, and installed. Showrooms in Metro Detroit. Projects nationwide. Since 1985.
What does a restaurant interior designer do?
A plain answer, then the part that makes restaurants unlike any other commercial space.
Restaurant interior design turns a floor plan into covers: seating layouts, banquettes, bar ergonomics, lighting, and acoustics that survive nightly service. A restaurant FF&E partner specifies every furniture piece to commercial grade, then manages ordering, freight, and installation so the dining room opens on schedule — and still looks right years in.
FF&E is the trade term for that package: furniture, fixtures, and equipment — chairs and commercial-grade bar stools, restaurant booths and tables, banquette runs, decorative lighting, and patio seating, bought as one contract package on the construction schedule rather than piece by piece. It sits inside commercial interior design as its own discipline, because no other sector turns its furniture over as hard.
We work both ends of it. Italcasa draws the dining room and then supplies it — direct from the Italian and European houses, imported and warehoused by us, installed by the same team that drew the plan. That is the difference between a firm that hands you a spec book and one standing in the room on install day.
What Makes Restaurant Interior Design Different.
Restaurant furniture is sat in, dragged, wiped down, and spilled on hundreds of times a week, in a room measured in covers and judged on the date it opens. Six constraints shape every specification we write.
- Covers
The plan is measured in covers.
Seat count is the number the whole project answers to. We plan chair and banquette footprints, table sizes, and aisle widths to hit your cover target without the room feeling packed — then confirm it against occupancy load before anything is ordered.
- Turnover
Chairs get moved a hundred times a night.
Restaurant seating fails at the joints and the glides, not the fabric. We specify welded or through-bolted frames, replaceable glides that won't chew your floor, and stacking or nesting where the room has to convert for private events.
- Cleanability
Everything gets wiped, nightly.
Bleach-cleanable and solution-dyed textiles, closed-cell foam, sealed wood, and seams placed where crumbs don't collect. Banquettes get removable, replaceable seat and back panels so a single tear isn't a whole-run reupholstery.
- Booths & Banquettes
Restaurant booths and tables work as one.
Booth pitch, table depth, and banquette height have to be drawn together or guests can't get in and servers can't reach the far seat. We set the dimensions on the plan, then coordinate the millworker's build against the tables we're specifying.
- Acoustics
A loud room shortens the check.
Hard surfaces and high ceilings read well in photos and ruin conversation. We balance upholstered seating, banquette mass, and acoustic treatment so guests stay for a second course instead of shouting through the first.
- Bar Stools
Commercial-grade bar stools are their own problem.
Stool heights matched to counter and bar tops, footrests at the right rise, backs where guests linger and backless where they don't, swivels rated for the traffic, and rail dimensions that let a bartender work the well without reaching over a guest.
- Codes & Standards
What we specify against.
Every seat, table, and finish on the spec is checked against these before it is ordered.
- Occupancy load and egress width — the cover count has to survive plan review
- CAL 117 flammability for upholstered seating; CAL 133 where public-occupancy assemblies require it
- NFPA 260 / 261 cigarette-ignition classification on upholstery components
- ADA accessible routes, table clearances, and a compliant share of seating
- Health-department finish requirements — cleanable, non-porous surfaces and coved base
Specified, Sourced, and Installed by One Team.
Most restaurant projects lose time in the gap between the design and the delivery. We close that gap by doing both — which is why the seating plan and the room that opens match.
Seating plans & cover counts
Layouts drawn to your target covers, with circulation and server paths tested before the furniture is chosen.
Restaurant FF&E specification
Chairs, stools, table tops and bases, banquettes, decorative lighting, and outdoor seating, specified line by line with performance textiles.
Custom banquettes & millwork coordination
Banquette runs and bar fronts drawn to the room and built to spec, coordinated with your millworker and GC.
COM & custom upholstery programs
Your fabric on our frames, or a house textile matched to your abrasion and cleanability requirements.
Architect & GC coordination
Shop drawings, lighting plans, and finish schedules reviewed by us; deliveries sequenced to land after the trades are clear.
Freight, warehousing & phased install
Factory orders, ocean and domestic freight, customs, local warehousing, white-glove install, and a punch list closed before you open.
Every seat is checked for flammability rating, abrasion cycles, and stacking or nesting before it goes on the spec.
Back-Timed From Your Opening Date.
Restaurants have the least forgiving schedule in commercial work: a lease clock, a build-out, a health inspection, and a soft-open date already on the calendar. We start at that date and work backwards.
- 01Week 1
Walkthrough & Cover Target
We walk the space with you and the GC, confirm concept, cover target, service style, and the opening date the whole schedule works back from.
- 02Weeks 2–4
Seating Plan & Concept
Layout options tested against covers, circulation, and occupancy load, with a material and lighting direction to sign off on.
- 03Weeks 4–6
FF&E Specification
Line-by-line specification with finish and textile samples in hand, long-lead items flagged, and the package priced against your actual quantities.
- 04Weeks 6–20
Production & Coordination
Factory orders placed and tracked, shop drawings reviewed, freight and clearance managed, and delivery sequenced against the construction schedule.
- 05Pre-opening
Staged Delivery & Install
Delivery staged around your certificate of occupancy and health-department inspection, then phased white-glove installation, room set to plan, and the punch list closed before friends-and-family night.
Imported contract seating typically runs 12–16 weeks in production before freight and clearance; domestic lines are faster. We flag every long-lead item at the first meeting, while substituting is still cheap.
Italian Restaurant Furniture, From the Houses That Build It.
We hold direct relationships with the top Italian and European contract houses, and we specify from them by what the room actually has to withstand — not by what a catalog is pushing.
Chairs & commercial-grade bar stools
Where restaurant projects live or die.
- Emeco
Recycled-aluminum chairs — the Navy chair among them — that take decades of nightly service and can be refinished rather than replaced.
- LaPalma
The LEM stool and its siblings: swivel and fixed bar heights with footrests that actually suit a working bar.
- Connubia
Contract-rated stacking and nesting seating for rooms that convert between service and private events.
Restaurant booths, tables & dining
Tops, bases, and banquette-side pieces.
- Calligaris
Table bases and tops in sizes that let us hit a cover target without crowding the aisle.
- Bontempi
Metal and stone dining programs for rooms that want weight and a hard-wearing edge detail.
- Mater
Certified-sustainable dining chairs for concepts where material provenance is part of the story on the menu.
Restaurant patio furniture & lighting
The terrace, the rooftop, and the light above the table.
- Vondom
Rotomolded polyethylene seating and planters that hose clean and survive a Michigan winter in storage.
- Talenti
Outdoor dining and lounge collections that read like interior furniture on a patio or rooftop.
- Flos & Marset
Decorative lighting specified to the level a menu is read by, and dimmable through the shift from lunch to late service.
Your Restaurant Doesn't Have to Be in Michigan.
We furnish restaurants across the country from Royal Oak. The specification work happens the same way it always has — the difference is that the site visits are video and the samples come to you.
Video walkthrough and plan review
You walk us through the space on camera, or send the architect's drawings. We work from the same plan set your GC has.
Digital specification package
Seating plan, spec book, and renderings delivered digitally, with revisions handled in video sessions on your schedule and time zone.
Physical samples shipped to you
Finish, textile, and wood samples go out by courier so the sign-off you make is on material you've handled — not a screen.
Freight and install coordinated in any state
We manage the factory order, freight, and clearance, then coordinate local white-glove installation and walk the punch list remotely with your PM.
Restaurant Interior Design, Detroit to Ann Arbor.
Bring your plan into either showroom and sit in the chairs. Our contract library is on site, which means finish sign-offs happen in one afternoon instead of three sample shipments.
Restaurant furniture & design questions.
The questions operators actually open with. If yours isn't here, ask us directly — we answer specifics, not generalities.
What does a restaurant interior designer do?
A restaurant interior designer turns a floor plan into covers: seating layouts, banquettes, bar ergonomics, lighting, and acoustics that survive nightly service. The work covers space planning and capacity, occupancy and ADA compliance, contract-grade material selection, and the full FF&E specification, coordinated with the architect and general contractor through construction and installation. On our projects it also covers ordering, freight, and install — the designer who drew the room is the one who sets it.
How much does restaurant interior design cost?
Cost is driven by the specification rather than square footage. The variables that move it are cover count and how much of the seating repeats, how much of the package is custom banquette and millwork versus catalog pieces, whether upholstery is a house textile or your own COM, how much decorative lighting is in scope, whether a patio is included, and how phased the installation has to be around an operating business. Imported and domestic lines also price differently. We quote every project against your actual quantities after a plan review, so the number reflects your room rather than an average — send us the plan and we'll scope it.
How long does it take to furnish a restaurant?
Imported Italian and European contract seating typically runs 12–16 weeks in production, plus ocean freight and customs clearance; domestic contract lines are usually faster, and custom banquettes run on the millworker's schedule. We map those windows against your opening date at the first meeting and flag every long-lead item while substituting is still inexpensive. If a date can't move, we specify around it.
What is FF&E in a restaurant project?
FF&E stands for furniture, fixtures, and equipment — the package a dining room needs to open: chairs and bar stools, restaurant booths and tables, table bases, banquettes, decorative lighting, and outdoor seating. It is specified as one contract package, rated for commercial use, and scheduled against construction so everything lands before the health inspection. Commercial grade is what separates it from residential furniture: welded or through-bolted frames, abrasion-tested upholstery, CAL 117 flammability classification, and a warranty written for contract service.
What brands of restaurant furniture do you carry?
We specify from the top Italian and European contract houses, including Emeco, LaPalma, Connubia, Calligaris, Bontempi, and Mater for seating and dining; Vondom and Talenti for patio and rooftop; and Flos and Marset for decorative lighting. Which houses we bring to your project depends on the concept, the service style, and the durability the room demands — the selection follows the specification, not a preferred-vendor list.
Do you work on restaurants outside Michigan?
Yes. Our showrooms are in Metro Detroit and we run restaurant projects nationwide. Remote projects work from the same plan set: video walkthroughs and design sessions, a digital specification package, physical finish and textile samples couriered to you for sign-off, and import, freight, clearance, and local white-glove installation coordinated by our team in whichever state you're opening in.
Let’s Design
Tell Us the Concept and the Date.
Send the floor plan, the cover target, and the day you intend to open. We come back with a seating plan and a specification you can build a budget on.
- Contract-grade restaurant FF&E, specified to code
- Direct manufacturer sourcing and warranty
- Freight, warehousing, and phased install in-house
Birmingham · Royal Oak · Ferndale · Troy · Rochester Hills · Ann Arbor — and restaurants in any state.