Restaurants’ Options for Affordable Interior Refresh with Furniture Refinishing and Reupholstery

The recent COVID-19 pandemic had a very profound effect on the restaurant business. According to OpenTable’s “State of the Industry” tracker, 90% of California restaurants are currently taking reservations (using 2019 numbers as baseline), while these numbers were well below 70% during some periods. In connection with the ongoing re-openings and the “resetting of the pandemic”, many restaurants are looking to upgrade their furniture and design elements, to welcome guests with a refreshed look.

reupholstered booth at a restaurant

One of our recent projects involved reupholstering the booths for an entire premium restaurant in San Francisco. We helped deliver the project on time, and with results that impressed the management and the customers.

When it comes to working with restaurant owners and managers, at Marinas Crafts we understand many of the challenges faced: keeping costs down for an effective return on investment, working according around the restaurant’s opening hours to keep capacity and traffic as high as possible, and delivering the work on time in order to keep with the often busy events schedules.

One of the first questions that we are asked by restaurants is the cost of the renovation / repair project. While pricing is always determined on a project-by-project basis, in our experience repairing / renovating an existing furniture piece or design element is always more affordable than buying replacements. With the prices of furniture and materials on the rise in the recent year, this has been especially true, as the difference in price between a new furniture piece and renovation has grown even greater. We’ve seen stock shortages for pre-manufactured tables and chairs, as well as low availability of wood for custom slab tables and finish carpentry, all of which have made the option of reupholstering, repairing or refinishing the existing pieces yet more attractive.

At Marina’s Crafts, we make it easy for restaurants to undertake reupholstery or wood furniture repair projects. It all starts with an on-site meeting, after which we provide a quote. Our standard terms include flexibility to work onsite after hours in order to minimize interruptions to the business, and pick-up and drop-off arrangements at a convenient time for the restaurant. When working on refurbishing items that affect the seating capacity (tables, chairs, booths), we work out a batch-by-batch schedule with the management, so as to keep maximum seating capacity at all times.

Our aim is to make projects as simple and convenient as possible, for restaurants of all sizes. Our most common projects involve refinish of wood tables and seats, reupholstery of booths and other upholstered items. However, we are always open to work on any custom projects the restaurant may have, and we also offer custom-made furniture manufacturing

To see examples of our recent project with restaurants, please visit the Commercial section of our website, where we highlight our most recent projects with various businesses.


Marina’s Crafts performs furniture refinishing, reupholstery and repair projects for restaurants of all sizes. We are the premier furniture restoration and manufacturing business, serving the San Francisco peninsula and the larger San Francisco Bay Area. Contact us now to begin work on your next project!