Modern hotel dining chairs

A modern chair keeps its lines simple, so a room set with forty of them looks orderly from the doorway. This group holds 64 chairs in metal, wood, and metal or aluminum finished to look like wood. Settle first between an upholstered seat and a plain wood or metal one, since more than half come with upholstery options.

Shapes within the modern line

Upholstered backs and curved backs lead, with 27 and 20 chairs. Bucket shells, slat backs, cane and a pair of ladder backs fill out the group. A curved back softens a long row at a banquet table; a bucket shell feels more enclosed at a table for two near the window. Compare the bucket chair at $144 with the ladder-back aluminum dining chair at $258 to see how wide the range runs.

Metal, wood or wood-look aluminum

Thirty-three frames are metal and 19 are wood. Sixteen more are metal or aluminum finished like wood, which brings a wood tone into the room on a metal frame. Vinyl covers 50 seats, 25 seats are wood and 22 come in fabric, and ten chairs have arms.

Fifty-four carry an indoor listing, and not one in this group carries a patio listing. For terrace or poolside dining, go to outdoor seating and choose a chair listed for the weather. The modern line works best where the room itself is plain: pale walls, simple lighting, tables laid with very little. There, a single repeated chair does most of the design work, and the guest's first look across the restaurant lands on clean rows rather than clutter.

Height, price and a calm room

Seat heights fall between 17 3/4 and 20 inches, for tables of standard dining height. Single chairs start around $86 and reach $340, and the metal dining chair at $89 sits near the low end. A modern chair pairs well with plain rounds and square tops, and it can match the stools in modern bar stools when the lobby bar shares the restaurant's look. For a classic shape, turn to traditional chairs, where wood frames and familiar backs lead the group.

Plan the restaurant, the lobby cafe and the breakfast room as separate rooms in one property plan, with the same chair or a different one in each. When a second property opens with the same concept, copy the plan and change only the counts.