Contract FurnitureManufactured to Crib 5Norfolk & UK-wide
Contract-grade seating, tables and joinery built to survive full covers, back-to-back events and clinical use. Designed, manufactured and installed by our Norwich workshop and delivered anywhere in the UK.
Contract furniture that earns its keep
Contract furniture is the seating, tables, banquettes, headboards and fixed joinery that operate at commercial intensity: restaurants doing 200 covers a night, hotels turning rooms weekly, pubs on match day, healthcare settings in constant use. It has to look considered on day one and still look considered three years and 50,000 sits later.
Red Kite Furniture manufactures contract furniture to Crib 5 standard for hospitality operators, healthcare providers, and the interior designers, architects and fit-out contractors specifying them. Around 90% of our workshop output is contract work, so the same team makes it every week. The joinery, the frame, the foam spec, the upholstery and the finish are all handled under one roof.
That end-to-end control is why our furniture holds up. When a designer specifies a curved banquette in a particular fabric with a specific seat height, we don't hand it to three different suppliers and hope. We build it, we upholster it, we deliver it, we install it.
What happens when contract furniture isn't specified properly
Contract-grade specification exists because domestic furniture fails fast in commercial use. Frames loosen. Foam collapses. Upholstery pills, tears or fails fire regulations. The venue looks tired inside a season, and the replacement cost lands on your P&L before the original was properly depreciated.
The bigger risk is compliance. Hospitality and healthcare seating must meet Crib 5 for combustibility. Non-compliant furniture invalidates insurance and puts guests, patients and staff in danger. Choosing on price alone, or using a workshop that treats commercial like glorified domestic, is where operators get caught out.
Buying domestic-standard sofas and chairs for public-facing spaces
Assuming a fabric is contract-grade because a supplier said so, without documentation
Under-specifying foam density, so seats bottom-out inside 12 months
Splitting design, manufacture and install across suppliers who then blame each other
Using customer-supplied fabric without confirming fire retardancy responsibility
Simple to start. Precise to finish.
Enquiry & Brief
Send us drawings, mood boards, a fabric spec or a rough sketch. We respond quickly with the questions we need answered.
Design & Free Quote
We work up the specification with you or your designer (dimensions, materials, fabric, finish) and issue a free, itemised quote.
Site Survey
Once the order is confirmed, we visit to measure, template curves and confirm access. The survey cost is included in the final quote.
Manufacture & Upholstery
Frames, foams and upholstery are made in our Norwich workshop to Crib 5 standard using contract fabrics or your specified material.
Delivery, Install & Guarantee
Our team delivers and installs UK-wide. Every piece is guaranteed, with terms confirmed at time of order.
Concrete benefits, not brochure copy.
Crib 5 Compliant
Every contract piece manufactured to Crib 5 standard for hospitality and healthcare use.
£5M Public Liability
Fully insured with £5M public liability and £5M employer's liability on every job.
18 Years Craft
Nearly two decades of hospitality contract manufacturing, no learning curve on your project.
Single Point of Contact
Design, manufacture, upholstery, delivery and install handled by one team. No supplier blame games.
Built for Longevity
Contract-density foams, hardwood frames and heavy-duty stitching engineered for years of daily use.
Whole-Venue Capability
From a single reupholstered banquette to a full restaurant fit-out, we scale to the project.
Materials, methods and where contract furniture works
Contract furniture is a specification discipline as much as it is a craft. Below is how we build it, what we build it from, and the settings where it belongs.
Frames & Structure
We use hardwood frames, typically beech, joined with corner blocks, glued and screwed, not stapled. Structural joints are dowelled or mortise-and-tenoned where load demands it. Metal underframes are used for cantilever or fixed-plinth designs where a slimmer profile is specified.
Foams & Fillings
Contract-density CMHR (Combustion Modified High Resilience) foams are the default for public seating, layered where a softer seat is required and topped with feather-fibre wraps for restaurant lounge seating. All foams meet the required BS 5852 crib source ignition tests.
Fabrics & COM/COL
We work with all major contract fabric houses and specify only fabrics documented to Crib 5 for public and hospitality settings. We're happy to upholster in Customer's Own Material or Leather (COM/COL), but cannot take responsibility for the fire retardancy of customer-supplied fabrics; that specification sits with the client.
Where it lives
Restaurants and gastro-pubs (dining chairs, banquettes, booths, bar stools), hotels (lobby seating, bedroom armchairs, headboards, corridor benches), bars and clubs (booth seating, DJ enclosures), healthcare and dental (waiting-room seating built for wipe-down cleaning), and workplace lounges where public-density durability is needed.
Commercial vs domestic manufacture
Domestic furniture is built for a handful of sits a day. Contract furniture is built for hundreds. The difference shows up in foam density, frame joinery, stitch counts and fabric abrasion ratings (Martindale). For domestic clients who want that same longevity in a home context, we build to the same standards, match and cigarette test compliant for residential use.
A closer look at contract furniture we have delivered.
Straight answers, before you enquire.
Do you manufacture to Crib 5?+
Yes. All contract work is manufactured to Crib 5 standard. For domestic residential work we build to match and cigarette test compliance.
How much does contract furniture cost?+
Every project is priced individually because specification (fabric, foam, frame, joinery, quantity) drives cost. Quotes are free and itemised. A site survey is chargeable when required, but its cost is folded into the final quote.
What is the lead time?+
Lead times depend entirely on scope, fabric availability and installation windows. We'll confirm timings when we discuss your enquiry rather than publish generic figures that don't apply to your project.
Do you work directly with designers and fit-out contractors?+
Yes, a significant proportion of our work comes through interior designers, architects and fit-out contractors, alongside direct-to-operator projects. We can slot into an existing design team or provide design support ourselves.
Can we specify our own fabric?+
Yes. We work with Customer's Own Material and Customer's Own Leather (COM/COL) and with all major contract fabric houses. For customer-supplied fabrics, responsibility for fire-retardancy documentation stays with the client.
Do you deliver and install nationwide?+
Yes. We manufacture in Norwich and deliver and install across the whole of the UK using our own team, so the people who built the furniture are the people who put it in.
Is your work guaranteed?+
Yes. All furniture is guaranteed, with terms specific to the project confirmed at the time of order rather than published as a fixed policy that may not fit your specification.
Do you offer commercial account terms?+
Yes, commercial clients can apply for invoice/account terms after their first order. We accept bank transfer and card payments.
Banquette Seating
Fixed banquette and booth seating designed to your venue's exact geometry (curves, corners, radii, tricky returns) and manufactured to survive service after service in contract-grade fabric.
On-Site Reupholstery
We come to your venue and reupholster fixed seating, banquettes and loose furniture in place, so your restaurant, hotel, gym or clinic keeps trading while the work happens.
Furniture Delivery & Installation
Whole-venue fit-outs, multi-room hotel roll-outs and single pieces delivered and installed across the UK by our own team, so the people who built it are the people who put it in.
Ready to specify contract furniture that lasts?
Send us your brief, drawings or a photo of what you'd like made or refurbished. Free quote. No obligation.