Pub furniture: sitting pretty

Sofas have become de rigueur in pubs, but fixed furniture is a far more efficient use of space. Either way, comfort is key, says Ian Boughton.

There are two big trends in pub furniture: fixed furniture, and old furniture — even if it is new furniture that's made to look that way.

Fixed or built-in, made-to-measure seating has come to be seen as the pub owner's most practical option, says Barry Revell, of Breachview Interiors. It may be more expensive than loose furniture, but is the better business choice.

"Fixed furniture is less flexible, but in a way it's a much better option. It will seat more people, because it uses all the available space — a length of wall with tables and chairs has too many unused gaps. And fixed furniture always looks more comfortable."

Comfort is a big word in pub furnishing. All licensees want their customers to stay, but there are right strategies and wrong ones. All furniture companies now offer sofas,

which have come to be more commonly seen in pubs, but not all are sure they are the right choice.

"I am not a lover of sofas," says Revell. "Comfortable as they may be, if one person sits down on a sofa, nobody else will sit next to them.

"It is strange, but on a bench seat, people are more likely to sit next to someone they don't know. So, on a 12-seat bench you may well seat a dozen people — on 12 sofa seats, you may have six people and the rest is wasted."

If you put fixed furniture, benches and upholstery together, he adds, you get another modern trend — the booth, which is, of course, a very old American style.

"Booths have become a little trend. This is where you have fixed seats either side of a table, facing each other. It's the American style, and in Britain, JD Wetherspoon did a lot of work with it. It has turned out to be a very good system in pubs where people go to eat."

If fixed furniture is desirable, isn't it also more expensive than loose furniture? It is a question of formula and strategy, says Neil Bettson, of Drakes Bar Furniture.

"The average cost per foot for loose furniture is probably around £25, whereas the average cost per foot for fixed furniture is probably around £45; a standard guide would be to allow 2ft per person.

However, the advantage of fixed furniture is that you can create shapes — too much loose furniture makes a pub look like a canteen, but fixed furniture allows you to

create your shapes, mood areas and privacy areas."

This is far more space efficient than sofas, he says. "Sofas can give you a poor use of space. The downside of sofas is a lack of bums on seats.

"People are reluctant to join anyone else on a sofa, and pubs do not want a two-seater holding just one person. For older people, they're not so comfortable — they don't like low seating. It's not a practical height, and you get too much beer slopped around.

"The fact is that, just like a retail shop, every foot of space must earn its keep, and sofas may not do that. You have to think how to use every foot — and that means even using 'lazy corners', maybe with a 'poseur barrel'."

A "poseur barrel" is a Drakes speciality. These are reclaimed hogsheads, turned into tables. Part of Drakes' work is to refurbish these old barrels, some of which still bear the original brewers' identities.

"These are 'previously enjoyed' barrels, and they're getting rare — you see very few of them available these days, but we have an arrangement direct with a cooper.

"They're sealed when we get them, so we sandblast the outside, and then pick out the black bands with paint. These are now 'real' furniture, and we use them a lot for poseur tables — they're about £110."

An old barrel is a genuine old barrel. But a Drakes pew or settle may not be quite as authentic as it looks.

"We make everything. These are very popular because they are very functional, and because you can have both traditional and contemporary settles — the traditional one would be darker, with turned legs.

"But because we make them ourselves, we can make you a new settle, or an 'old' one! The 'innkeeper' style of pub finds new furniture too clinical, so a wooden settle can often be seen as more homely.

"This is also more interesting for our workshop people, because to make an 'old' piece of furniture, they first have to make a new one, then 'distress' it. The workshop people don't mind this, because 'distressing' a piece of new furniture they have just made allows them to put their own creative flair into it. No two distressed settles are the same."

If old furniture may really be new, then the smart new furniture supplied by Pubstuff may really be old.

"What used to be thought of as second-hand is now trendy," says Pubstuff's Sally Huband. "It's now called 'recycled'."

There is a vast amount of used pub furniture available. However, Pubstuff takes its refurbishment work very seriously, and refuses to enter into the liquidation market.

"There is a lot of bankrupt stock around from the pub trade, and there's a big second-hand market — but we don't touch it.

"All the furniture we bring in for refurbishing is taken from managed houses, which means that it was better quality in the first place. Managed houses refurbish more frequently than privately-owned pubs, so we know the likely age of the furniture, and we also know it was good stock that came from the top end of the market to start with.

"The managed houses like turning over their old furniture to us, because we take on the job of working out what can be salvaged, so we take everything out and give their builders a nice empty space to work on. And, generally speaking, most of what we take out can be refurbished."

Curiously, Pubstuff does not refurbish old stock and then show it off in its smart new state — pub customers get to see it as it was removed. This means the new pub manager can specify their own fabric for the refurbishment.

"For the customer to see the old furniture in its untouched state does have some strange results," says Huband. "This means they do see some furniture in weird and wonderful designs, such as leopard skin print — we think 'what on earth are we going to do with that?' and quite often the next customer in says: 'That's what I want'."

Huband adds: "But generally, having made sure the integrity of the furniture is intact, which may be just renewing some joints, we refurbish to order — and make very good use of end-of-roll fabrics."

The balance in refurbishment is often between comfort and an old-style look. "We're very good at the eclectic end. A lot of people want the old country look, but don't know how to bring it together — we do. That's not 'theming', which is now passé unless you just happen to be called the Harbourside, on a harbour, in which case a fishing net is OK — but, generally, theming is over.

"If there is a trend in pub furniture, it's towards comfort — we see far more soft seating, either designed into one area, or liberally scattered around a pub. There is not so much demand for plain wooden seats, because everyone is looking for comfortable upholstered seating, to keep the customers longer."

This includes pews and settles for the old-style pub look.

"Our settles also come from managed houses," says Huband. "We haven't quite got around to ransacking churches for them yet."

Make your tables pay​

One of the most interesting trends that could hit pub furnishing is the practical use of tables — not just for holding things, but for communicating and advertising. It is something that has already been seen in certain parts of the café trade, and Greg Davies, of Group Davies Bespoke Tables, has now brought it to the pub sector.

"This is virtually an untouched area," he says. "We will create any logo, image, or effect on treated wood, to any size. The design then becomes a solid surface. Nobody else offers anything like this to pubs.

"This has several interesting possibilities — typically, the private pub owner could sell space on his tabletops to his suppliers. At the moment, we are working f