This year sees the opening of Dutch branded vodka Ketel open their new bar in London, Ketel One. When looking at the bar itself, you can’t help but be “wowed” by the bars appearance. The reason is that nearly every single part of the bar and the handmade bar stools are completely covered in copper.
You may think this metal bar look is just another of Christopher Jenner’s unusually crafted pieces; however the use of copper has a reason for being used. During the17th century Ketel used copper stills in order to produce their vodka. Jenner decided to use this in order to represent his design for Ketel.
“Normally we use multiple techniques, materials and manufacturing processes to deliver our work,” says Jenner “but on this occasion we decided to commit to a single material.”
Constructing the actual bar and the barstools was a straight forward design process, however implementing the manufacturing processes was, as Jenner points out, tricky.
“From a manufacturing and realisation point, we were totally in the dark. The way in which we constructed the pieces was unprecedented and this meant we had to develop new manufacturing processes.”
First of all the bar and bar stools had to be made using wood and metal skeletons to create the shape. The copper was then heated to make it malleable and vertical strips were riveted to the wooden skeleton. Finally the stool was finished with a covering sheet of copper, which is then double-riveted to create a seamless copper surface.
To complete this project more than 1000kg of copper was used however looking at the finished project, it seems that this design has set a standard in café furniture, bar furniture and restaurant furniture.

This year’s Hotelympia in London’s Excel building saw furniture manufacturers of outdoor furniture, café furniture and a wide range of other products from food items to catering equipment, show there products to the trade and consumers. Being suppliers of café furniture we felt it was imperative to visit and see what these manufacturers had to offer.

One thing that was noticeable when looking around the trade show the amount of synthetic rattan furniture that was on the market. Rattan has always been used as outdoor furniture as it is strong and able to withstand heavy weather conditions, making it perfect for commercial and domestic use.

There was not only the standard synthetic rattan furniture available such as rattan chairs, but there also featured furniture items such as sun loungers, gazebos, sofas even day beds made from rattan furniture.

Other outdoor furniture such as plastic furniture was also on display. Much like rattan furniture, plastic chairs and plastic tables are available in a wide range of colours and can also withstand a wide range of weather conditions. One of the great things about plastic furniture is that it is easy clean and doesn’t fade over time in the sun.

Another product that seemed to be quite popular amongst the ranges of outdoor furniture was the Werzalit table tops. One major advantage to these is that they are suitable for use indoors and outdoors so you can create two spaces that match. Werzalit table tops are scratch and heat resistant to the point that you can stub a cigarette on them and they won’t mark. Available a huge range of colours and designs as well as bespoke logos, these table tops are a fantastic choice for any café or restaurant.

For more information on any of our outdoor products or to purchase, please click here.

Plastic café furniture is becoming ever more popular as more and more restaurant or café owners are deciding to replace their outdoor furniture with plastic instead of the standard aluminium. Plastic is available in a wide range of colours, very resistant to all types of weather and is usually made as one piece so can last a lot longer over time compared to aluminium furniture.

The design of plastic furniture is more versatile than other materials use and in a saturated industry, this is very important. Furniture design is very important in eateries as this can help create an atmosphere and also a huge part of the look.

There is a new range of café furniture that has been manufactured in Italy and offers a unique take on the plastic bar stool and poseur table. The range is called Armillaria and has been designed by Odorado Fioravanti and manufactured by Plust Collection. These funky plastic furniture items are based around a mushroom style with the table base and base of the chairs fitting together and forming a sprout at the bottom.

The word Armillaria is the scientific name for a common species of fungi. This mushroom can be found in areas such as woods and the project is a reflection on vegetal shapes, in particularly their structure and how they look.

There are so many ranges of café furniture including café tables and café chairs that you can be easily confused as to what type to buy. Café furniture is often the biggest investment you can make and you will always want some that will look great in your café/bistro as well as stand the test of time. A question that you firstly need to ask yourself is how you make use of the space you have. If you don’t include enough café tables and café chars then your business might suffer and you won’t get as many covers as you might be able to get. Have too many café tables and you will find that your restaurant is too crowded and the ambiance will be compromised.

If you have an outdoor area this can be equally challenging as you may find it not only hard to get the quantities of the café furniture right, but finding outdoor furniture that suits the décor of your café may be just as hard. We at Online Reality Ltd would recommend that you take a look at Werzalit table tops for your outdoor and indoor needs. The advantage of this is that you can match the tables inside your café with the outside without having to worry about your café table tops getting damaged by the outdoor elements.

Werzalit table tops are available in a wide range of finishes from solid colours and wood effect finishes to picture and custom made designs that can include your company logo. Werzalit table tops are not only built to withstand all weather conditions, they also have a joint less surface that is bonded to the core. The table tops are also scratch and heat resistant and are insensitive to hot cigarette ash. The tops are easy to clean and very hygienic as well as very robust, so if you are looking to furnish your café then we would recommend you take a look at these.

The title of this blog may seem odd to your but in North America during the 19^th century, they actually did. Over the course of several years, trees were shaped until the shape resembled a chair then it was used, usually as a dining chair. Ronan and Erwan Bouroullec were fascinated by this concept and that’s how they came up with the Vegetal chair. Much like the plants and trees that it was originally designed on, the chair itself to a long time from the idea to manufacturing, 4 years to be precise.

The cafe chair itself is made from fibre-reinforced polyamide and has an irregular circle shape for the seat. The seat is made up of interweaving branches that are asymmetrical and random like the branches of a tree.

The chair can be an outdoor chair as it is made from polyamide; however will still look great as a café chair or dining chair. Not only this but the chairs are light weight so can be moved around easily and they are stackable chairs so they can be efficiently stored away.

It may seem like these chairs are actually made from a single mould, but you would be wrong. They have been carefully construct because due to its asymmetrical shape, it is very hard to judge how much weight it can take and the chairs true strength.

In the making process the brothers had a hard time creating the dining chair, firstly there were problems the structure, but once this was overcome, they then had problems with the comfort of the chair. The legs to the outdoor chair where also a problem as they needed to be integrated into the design of the chair as well as being strong. However after 4 years, the Vegetal chair was born.

When you think of a nest, when I say this I mean bird’s nests, I am pretty sure that you wouldn’t think of a café. There is a designer who has and newly opened this year is a café based on it in Kiev Ukraine. Designer Sergey Makhno created the café called Twister is based on a nest in a rainy tree. The café is unique right down to the café furniture. The sofas and armchairs present although look uncomfortable due to the odd pyramid style texture, are actually very comfy and helps to give the impression of a cosy birds nest.

To further enhance the look of the restaurant the walls have been covered in sticks which give an impression of the interior of a nest. The restaurant also has a bar area as well with bar furniture, much like the restaurant furniture has been made to suit the rest of the cafes look and appeal.

The restaurant is on two levels with the second level having separate pod like areas that you can dine in that is supposed to represent ponds and lakes that further add to this café and restaurants unique design. Just above this are the lights that have been shaped like drops to represent the rain that is falling from the sky. The colours have all been chosen to help the diner feel more relaxed whilst seated in the restaurant where as the bar has little natural light which also emphasizes the feeling of a cosy surrounding.

It was the Eames brothers that first began experimenting with ply wood, and in particular how they can manipulate the wood to follow the contours of the body. You can see how successful they were with this by looking at some of the chairs that they designed over 50 years ago, that are still sold on the market today. A typical example of this is the Lounge chair originally crafted in 1956 and is a design that can still be seen around the world today. Even though this chair is heavily padded, you can see that detail of the frame and that it has been moulded into its unique design. It is not just domestic furniture that the Eames brothers were interested in. They also made café furniture and office furniture also.

It is no wonder then that these to extraordinary designers help to shape the way that we design furniture today. Designer Alfredo Haberli has obviously been inspired by the Eames brothers and you can see this in his latest creation, the Jill chair.

Is it a café chair or dining chair? The answer is both, the Jill chair has been designed to appeal to both commercial and domestic environments. The chair itself can be put alongside café tables or other restaurant furniture or can be used in a dining room; it will not look out of place. The chair comes in 3 different wood finishes, black beech, oak and walnut and also 5 different coloured frames as well. The frame itself has an intricate wire detail that can be resembled to the Wire chair by the Eames brothers. Not only has this but Alfredo has made use of state of the art plywood moulding technology to produce a contemporary and flexible wooden seat. All in all, this chair is a great modern piece of furniture inspired by the great Charles and Ray Eames.

I don’t know about you, but when I think about canteen furniture, I think back to when I was at school and everyone piled into the assembly hall for lunch. We had bog standard polypropylene chairs that were dark grey in colour and standard folding tables with a metal rim that I am sure everyone will remember. The furniture didn’t match or have anything to do with the décor. Nowadays you really can buy canteen furniture that looks great without spending a fortune.

Cafe Reality has a huge range of canteen chairs that will appeal to any environment, whether it be a school hall, exam hall, office canteen or even in a prison canteen, there will be something to suit everyone. Plastic chairs are the most common form of chair that is used within canteens. The reason for this are that they are easy to clean as you just need to wipe them, tamper proof and hard wearing as the chances are they will get a lot of use. A further requirement is that they stack; the reason for this is that usually the canteen space is sometimes used for other things so need to be stored away efficiently. There are huge ranges of bright colours available with these chairs, from orange to blue and yellow to white, so the aesthetics of the room do not need to be compromised.

Tables are also the other main piece of café furniture in a canteen. These tables are usually light weight and can fold away in order to be stored more efficiently. There are now wide ranges of folding tables that are suitable for the canteen. Not only are there a wide range of finish options with different coloured frames as well, but you can actually use a lot of them outdoors for outdoor events and fetes.

For all your canteen furniture needs click here

Whenever there is a party or an event, furniture is needed. Now you could go down the route of buying or hiring some café tables and café chairs, or if the event is outdoors perhaps some aluminium furniture or some rattan chairs and tables. There is another option however that will definitely get your guests talking and will almost certainly be the highlight of the party and that is illuminated furniture.

The most sophisticated furniture currently available in this department is manufactured by Illuminated Event Hire in Australia. They offer a huge range of furniture that has 16 different colour options along with 4 different strobe settings all controlled by an infrared remote. Battery powered that lasts up to anywhere between 12 and 20 hours, these items range from modular bar units, ottomans, cubes, bench seats, even café tables and banquet tables.

Unfortunately this is manufactured in Australia and only available for hire in Australia. As the technology progresses I am sure that such complex and technical furniture will be available in the UK soon and we at Café Reality will be there to welcome this with open arms.

For those that are looking for something similar but can’t afford to spend a small fortune on this type of party piece furniture, we do have some budget cubes that cantain led technology available to you.

The first are the light up stools. These are powered by mains electricity and available in white, red, blue or green. These are for use indoors or outdoors and are available for delivery within 7-10 working days from order.

The second option is the multi coloured light up stools. These are battery powered and include a remote control and has 4 different colour options.

The hotel and hospitality industry isn’t the easiest of sectors to ‘make it’ in. There is a lot of competition in this area and in order to stand out you have to provide a service and area that gives the customer a positive lasting memory and ensures that their stay is pleasurable as you want them to return in future.

First impressions can be a deciding factor on this, as in some cases bad first impressions can cause a customer to cancel or perhaps cut short their stay. It is for this reason that the décor is up to standard in the reception and bar areas. Purchasing the right furniture is hugely important as it is just as important as the service

The reception area is the first place your customers will see and having a professional reception counter or reception desk will give your customers the right impression. Not only this but the bar and restaurant area should be well planned out and by spending a little bit extra on aesthetically pleasing comfortable café chairs and tables or restaurant furniture will help the customers to relax as you will want them to stay within the hotel, that way they will spend more money.

Space planning is important as you want to make sure your diners are not too close together but still provide an area that maximises on space. You also want to make sure that your staff can move freely around the restaurant area so make sure that the restaurant tables are at the safe distance away from each other in order to do this.

Finally the colour scheme even down to the colours of the chairs is important. You want to make sure that everything works well together and complements each other. Planning all of this, can be very tricky and there are furniture dealers that will be willing to help you for a small fee, however there are others such as Café Reality that will provide a 3D design and advise you on the right type of furniture for you, for free.