Size Charts & Information

Formal vs family dining situations

When purchasing your dining table you will want to consider how the table will be used throughout the year. Special occasions might call for a more formal dining environment. While family gatherings — think: large holiday feasts or a casual jeans and t-shirt dinner party — are more relaxed. These unique dining situations, appropriately named “Formal Dining” and “Family Dining”, will affect the amount of spacing between guests and how many chairs a table can accommodate. 

Formal dining seating: You should allow approximately 30” spacing between each chair. 

Family-style and everyday dining seating: You should allow approximately 24” spacing between each chair. 

Now that you know the spacing rules, it’s simple to transition from everyday informal to special occasion formal dining, when necessary. 

Space for children vs adults at the table

Since children take up less space than adults, it’s appropriate to seat them closer together for both formal and family dining situations. For dining environments with children, we recommend utilizing bench seating instead of chairs. With bench seating, you can allow 18”-24” spacing between each child. 

Seating capacity by table shape

Dining table shape greatly affects how easy it is to seat and accommodate diners. In order of most efficient to least efficient seating capacity, rectangular tables reign supreme. Followed by oval, round, and lastly, square. Below, we provide the seating capacities for various table shapes and sizes.

Seating capacity for rectangular tables

Rectangular tables are the most efficient at seating diners for their size, particularly at larger dimensions. Room can be left for table service in the middle of a rectangular table, if desired. And there is minimal wasted space on the tabletop.

The following seating capacities provide both formal and family style recommended seating guidelines for rectangular shaped dining tables based on a 19” dining chair width.

Formal dining (30” chair spacing) for rectangular tables:

A 54” long rectangular table can seat up to 4 adults

A 60” to 72” long rectangular table can seat up to 6 adults

An 84” to 96” long rectangular table can seat up to 8 adults

A 108” to 120” long rectangular table can seat up to 10 adults

Family dining (24” chair spacing) for rectangular tables:

A 54” to 66” long rectangular table can seat up to 6 adults

A 72” - 84” long rectangular table can seat up to 10 adults, depending on table width

A 96” - 108” long rectangular table can seat up to 12 adults, depending on table width

A 120” - 132" long rectangular table can seat up to 14 adults, depending on table width