Dining Chair Height & Size Calculator

How to use the dining chair calculator

1. Measure the table: floor to the top, and floor to the bottom of the apron (the rail under the top) if it has one. Add its length and width to count chairs.
2. Pick side or arm chairs. If you have the chairs, add their seat height, width and the height of the arms; if not, the calculator uses the makers’ typical sizes.
3. You get the seat height that fits, the room from seat to top and to the apron, whether arm chairs slide under, how many chairs fit, and the ADA’s checks for a wheelchair seat, drawn from the side to scale.

Choosing the table itself? The dining table size calculator sizes it for your room and your guests. Counter or bar height? The bar and counter stool calculator sizes the stools.

The rules, and where they come from

Seat to top, about 12″. DutchCrafters: “Most dining tables are about 30” high and there’s usually 18” from the floor to the chair seat, leaving a space of about 12” between the chair seat and the table top.”

What makers sell together. IKEA prints every table’s and chair’s height. Its tables stand 29⅛″ (MÖRBYLÅNGA, SKOGSTA, LISABO) or 29½″ (TONSTAD, NORDVIKEN, VOXLÖV and others), and its chairs’ seats run from 16⅞″ (ODGER) to 18⅞″ (NÄSINGE). Any of its chairs at any of its tables leaves 10¼ to 12⅝″.

Arms under the apron. DutchCrafters: “Arm height should be about 25″ from the floor to the top of the arm with about 1 3/4″ from the chair arm to the bottom edge of the table apron.” Its own two numbers need 26¾″ under the apron, though it also says arm chairs are unlikely to fit only below 25″; the calculator holds to the 1¾″.

Chair width. DutchCrafters: “The average dining chair is 16” to 20” wide. Arm chairs will add about 6” to the width of a dining chair. You can add 5″ to 6” to the overall width of the chair to provide plenty of space between chairs.” IKEA’s dining chairs are 16½–18⅞″ across the seat.

A wheelchair seat. The 2010 ADA Standards put dining surfaces at “28 inches (710 mm) minimum and 34 inches (865 mm) maximum above the finish floor” (902.3), and count the space from 9 to 27 inches under them as knee clearance (306.3.1), so the underside, apron included, should be 27″ or higher.

Seat height for each table height

Chairs along a table

Each chair takes its width plus 5–6″; the lower count leaves 6″ a chair, the higher 5″.

Worked examples

An 18″ seat for a 30″ table: the common case, 12″ from seat to top.

Your 20½″ seat is too high for a 30″ table: 9½″ between seat and top, tighter than any IKEA chair at an IKEA table. Counter-height chairs and thick cushions do this.

Arm chairs at a 30″ table whose apron is 26″ off the floor: An 18″ seat for a 30″ table, but arms of 25″ meet the apron, which allows 24¼″. Put arm chairs at the ends, or choose lower arms.

A 17½″ seat for a 29½″ table: IKEA’s TONSTAD, NORDVIKEN and VOXLÖV tables stand 29½″.

Common mistakes

• Measuring to the top, not the apron. Knees and arms meet the lowest edge under the table. DutchCrafters: “Measure from the floor to the lowest part of the table.”
• Buying arm chairs for every seat. They add about 6″ each and often can’t slide under the apron. For a small dining room DutchCrafters suggests “all side chairs to save space or dining benches that slide right under the dining table”.
• Forgetting the cushion. A seat pad raises the seat and shrinks the gap to the top.
• Mixing a counter chair with a dining table. Counter seats are for 34″-plus tops.

More on dining rooms at Dreamy Home Style

• Dining room layout: the clearances that make a table work
• Upholstered dining chair ideas
• Round table dining room ideas
• Dining nook ideas
• Small living room and dining room combos

Planning the room? Draw it to scale in the free 2D floor planner.