How much space is needed for a place setting

Unusual seating plans can call for some head-scratching calculations. 95% of the time people will want standard seating arrangements that you’ll have done many times before but just occasionally you get a someone who wants something a bit different. This generally involves unusual shapes or combinations of tables – you may hire them or make them yourself (bolting a custom made top to an existing table is the most common option). Here are some rules to help you plan:

Ideally you want a 2ft (60cm) wide space per person around the table. It can be a bit less if it’s a curved table (as people end up with more space further away from the table)

You also need to allow 2ft (60cm) for chairs around the table but that doesn’t allow space to walk between tables.

As an example take a 20ft/6m wide marquee that you would typically fit two round tables across in any layout. So 5ft round tables would then have an extra 2ft for the chairs, positioning them against the walls leaves a 2ft path down the middle.

Thanks for reading

Spencer

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