Restaurant chairs with or without arms: comfort, space, and whether they slide under the table

The short answer

• Choose arms where guests sit long (fine dining, hotel restaurants, lounges) and where guests need help standing up (care homes, older guests).
• Choose chairs without arms where space is tight, tables are pushed together, or covers per square metre matter.
• Or mix them: armchairs at the ends of the table, chairs along the sides. A UK furniture retailer calls this layout "extremely common" (source 1).

What arms give you

• Comfort. Source 1: "Chairs with arms generally provide more support and a more relaxed sitting position."
• Help to stand up. Armrests "provide leverage when sitting down and standing up", which helps older guests and people with reduced mobility (source 1). For care homes, see our guide to seat height and armrests.
• A more generous look. Armchairs at the head positions "create visual structure" (source 1).

What arms cost you

Width. Source 1 gives armless dining chairs as about 45–50 cm wide and armchairs as about 55–75 cm, "usually 10–25cm wider". Our own range shows the same (source 2):

	Models	Width	Usual (median)
Chairs	100	37–69 cm	46 cm
Armchairs	66	47–68 cm	56.5 cm

Seats. Restaurant designers plan about 60 cm of table edge per guest in a casual restaurant and at least 75 cm in fine dining (source 3). A 46 cm chair fits easily in 60 cm. A 56.5 cm armchair leaves almost nothing between guests. Source 1 warns that armchairs "can unintentionally reduce the practical seating capacity of the table by one or two places".

Sliding under the table. "The arm height must clear the underside of the table apron", or "the chair will not push fully underneath the table" (source 1). In a restaurant this matters twice: at night, when chairs are pushed in for cleaning, and during service, when pushed-out chairs block the aisle.

The under-table check, with real numbers

Most dining tables are 74–76 cm high (source 3). The underside is lower: subtract the thickness of the top, and the frame (apron) if there is one.

Here is how many of our armchairs have arms no higher than a given underside (60 armchairs with a published arm height, source 2):

Underside of the table	Our armchairs that can slide in
65 cm (table with a deep frame)	15 of 60
68 cm	47 of 60
70 cm	58 of 60
72 cm (thin top, no frame)	60 of 60

Arms exactly at the underside will touch it. Leave a centimetre or two.

The armchairs with the lowest arms in our range are Sunny 1 (62 cm), Sunny 3 and Harmony Excellent (63 cm), and Brita, Elena, Harmony Lux, Quorum, Quorum 2 and Sunny 2 (64 cm).

How to check before you order:

1. Measure from the floor to the lowest point under your table (top or frame).
2. Compare with the arm height on the chair's spec sheet.
3. If you also use seat pads, remember they do not change the arm height, but they do raise the guest.

Where RikoStyle fits

We make 100 chairs and 66 armchairs on solid beech and oak frames, and every model page lists its width, seat height and, for armchairs, the arm height (source 2). 30 of our designs come as both a chair and an armchair of the same name, so a mixed table can still look like one family.

We offer this range to restaurant and hotel owners, interior designers, furniture retailers and importers, and care homes, and we are looking for long-term partners in each of these groups.

Sources

1. Lakeland Furniture, Shannon Taylor, Should Dining Chairs Have Arms or Be Armless? (updated 22 June 2026): https://www.lakeland-furniture.co.uk/blog/dining-chair-arms-armless/
2. Dimensions as published on each model's page on rikostyle.com, November 2026.
3. Grand Rapids Chair, Things Designers Know: Restaurant Chair Height, Table and Chair Distance & More: https://grandrapidschair.com/inspiration/blog/things-designers-know-restaurant-chair-height-table-and-chair-distance-more/. Inches converted to cm and rounded.