The terrace dining table, from the base up, for a hotel dinner service

At half past six the terrace staff carry out the candles. The glasses follow, then the folded napkins, and by seven a breeze off the garden is testing every table on the deck. A terrace dining table has more to hold than the plate: the votive, the wine bucket, the elbows of a guest who leans in to hear the story, and the gust that arrives just as the bread does.

So start underneath. On a terrace the base decides whether the setting stays composed, and the top decides how many guests share it and how quickly the team can rinse it at close. Here is how we would furnish a hotel terrace for dinner, one decision at a time.

Only pieces listed for the terrace

Every table on the deck should carry a patio listing. An indoor table with a wood top swells after the first wet week, and a dining room base can rust where the paint chips. That exposure falls outside our warranty, because indoor furniture used outdoors is one of its exclusions. Read the usage line on each product before it goes into the plan.

The outdoor tables we list are built from aluminum, resin, synthetic teak and stainless or coated steel. You will find them gathered under patio tables, with the faux wood tops in their own group of plastic teak tables.

Sizing for two, four and six

Terrace parties run small early and larger after eight. Plan the sizes around the guests, then count.

A couple dines well at a 24 by 30 top, and a 30-inch square gives them room for a candle between the plates. Four guests sit easily at a 36-inch square or along a 30 by 48 rectangle. Six want a 42 to 48 inch round, and a party of eight needs a top 60 inches across. Give every place setting two feet of edge; 18 inches is the floor, and on a terrace with a view nobody wants the floor.

The black aluminum table with a faux teak top in dark walnut shows how one design can cover most of the deck. It stands 30 inches high on an aluminum base, has an umbrella hole, and its size list runs from a 30-inch square and a 36-inch square to rectangles of 30 by 48 and 30 by 60. Say the terrace manager sets ten tables: four 30-inch squares for couples, four 30 by 48 rectangles for fours, and two 30 by 60 tables pushed together for a party of ten. Four times two is eight, four times four is sixteen, and the pair of long tables gives a run of 120 inches, which at 24 inches a guest seats five on each side. That makes 34 seats in one matching set, and every table can still part again for Thursday's couples.

The base that holds the candle steady

Build a table from a top and a base and you choose two things: the height and the spread.

Height is a sum. Take the dark walnut outdoor resin tabletop with a phenolic edge, which is 1/2 inch thick, and set it on the stainless steel round outdoor base at 28 3/4 inches. Together they put the plates at 29 1/4 inches, a comfortable dining height. That top is listed in squares, rectangles and rounds from 24 inches up to a 48-inch diameter, with an umbrella hole as an option.

Spread is the rule of thumb to carry onto every terrace: a round base needs feet that span two thirds of the top, or wider. The stainless base comes in 17, 22 and 28 inch diameters. Under a 36-inch round you need 24 inches, so the 28 clears it. Under a 42-inch round you need 28, and the 28 meets it exactly. Under a 48-inch round you need 32 inches, and no size of that base gets there.

The easy mistake is one base ordered for every round on the deck because the drawings looked alike. On a terrace it costs more than a wobble, since wind finds the table that sits on too narrow a foot. For the 48s, look through the outdoor table bases for a wider foot. The wood-grain X-prong base carries both patio and indoor on its usage line and comes in a 33 by 33 inch size, which passes the rule. It stands 28 inches, so run the height sum again with the top you choose. Or seat the large parties at rectangles instead.

Umbrellas and the hole in the top

Shade turns a lunch terrace into a dinner terrace on a long summer evening. If any table on the plan will carry an umbrella, the top needs a hole, and the time to decide is before ordering. A top bought without one stays without one.

Some tables list the hole as standard, as the faux teak table above does. Others offer it as a choice in the options, like the resin top. Filter the range down to tables with an umbrella hole, then pick shade from the patio umbrellas and check that the umbrella base and table work together before the season opens.

The rinse at close and the season's end

The last guest leaves, and the terrace team has twenty minutes. Clear the tops, rinse away the wine and the pollen, and tip the water off. Slatted tops drain on their own; solid tops need a wipe so the morning crew finds them dry. Covering or storing the tables at the end of the season belongs on the same list as the rinse.

Care matters for the cover too. Our warranty on patio tables runs 6 months, and it leaves out any outdoor piece that was never looked after. The terms sit on our warranty page, and the care notes for each material are under materials.

Before the terrace opens for the season

Set the deck on paper first. Open a property plan just for the terrace, separate from the restaurant inside, and add each table with its top size, base and umbrella choice as one line. Two finishes of the same table are two lines, so decide the finish once for the whole deck.

Then check the plan against the rest of the property. The commercial round tables guide covers the rounds for the function room, and the hotel dining table guide does the same sizing for the restaurant indoors. For the first seating of the day, the outdoor breakfast table guide sets the same deck for the morning. Allow 14 to 21 business days for standard terrace tables, with transit on top, then count back from opening night, add the freight, and put the order in while there is still frost on the deck.