Centimetres before china

The Table

How much table a guest needs, how far apart the chairs go, what a cover contains and why a table of twenty four seats twenty in comfort.

Everything about a table is arithmetic before it is taste. A guest needs 70 centimetres of edge to eat a four course dinner without touching a neighbour, and 60 is the point at which people start apologising to each other. Multiply by the number of guests, add the two ends, and you have the length of table you actually need. A dinner for twenty at one table means seven metres of table and a room of at least nine and a half, because the chairs and the service lane are not optional.

What a cover contains

A cover is the space and the equipment for one guest: a charger or a place plate, cutlery for every course set outside in, a bread plate to the upper left, glasses to the upper right, a napkin, a place card and, at a formal dinner, a printed menu. The rule that saves an evening is three pieces of cutlery a side; above that, cutlery is brought with the course, because a place setting that looks like a workshop makes guests anxious.

The centre

The centre run belongs to candles, low flowers and, at a long table, the platters. Nothing in the middle may be higher than 25 centimetres or wider than 30, or your table becomes two tables that cannot see each other. For a long table, plan the centre as a rhythm: candle, low bowl, candle, at roughly one metre intervals, so the light is even from end to end.

Rounds or a long table

A long table is more beautiful and more sociable up to about twenty four guests. Above that, conversation dies at the ends and rounds of eight or ten are better, because every guest has nine neighbours rather than three. For a banquet, mixing one long top table with rounds is the traditional compromise and it works, as long as the rounds are not larger than 180 centimetres.

The table and seating planner does this arithmetic for your room, including the service lane and the linen sizes you will need to hire.

The numbers

Cover width: 70 cm per guest for a comfortable dinner, 60 cm as the absolute minimum, 75 to 80 cm for a long dinner with four glasses.
Table depth: 90 to 100 cm wide for a long table with a centre run of candles and platters; 75 cm only if nothing sits in the middle.
Behind the chair: 90 cm of clear space for a guest to leave the table, 120 cm where a waiter must pass behind seated guests.
Round tables: 150 cm diameter seats 6 to 8, 180 cm seats 8 to 10, 200 cm seats 10 to 12. Anything above 200 cm makes conversation across it impossible.
Linen drop: 30 to 40 cm over the edge for a dinner, floor length for a banquet. Anything between looks like a mistake.
Cutlery: Outside in, one set per course, a maximum of three on each side. Dessert cutlery above the plate or brought with the course.

Mistakes

What goes wrong

Seating twelve at a table sized for ten, which removes every elbow and doubles the noise
A centrepiece above eye level, which cuts the table in two socially
Napkins folded into shapes, which have been handled four times by then
No place cards above ten guests, which produces two minutes of shuffling and one unhappy pairing

Checklist

Table length calculated at 70 cm per guest
90 cm clear behind every chair, 120 where staff pass
Nothing in the centre above 25 cm
Place cards from ten guests upwards
Linen measured with the drop included
Cutlery per course, three a side maximum

Questions hosts ask

How much space does each guest need?

70 cm of table edge for a comfortable dinner, 60 cm minimum, and 90 cm of clear floor behind the chair.

How many people fit at a 200 cm round table?

Ten in comfort, twelve at a squeeze, and at twelve nobody can talk across it.

Planners

The arithmetic for this

Does it fit?

Table and Seating Planner

Room size, table shape and guest count turned into the table length you need, the seats that actually fit, the service lane, the linen sizes and the candle count..

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