Creature comforts: seating and flooring in your club have a story of quality to tell.

One underground theory about the phenomenal success of Starbucks holds that it isn't really the coffee that has made the ubiquitous cafes so popular--it's their chairs!

The company has given the public a place to sit around in comfort on plush, overstuffed chairs (can you ever find a vacant one?), upholstered benches, and comfortable wooden seats arranged on a sea of beautiful flooring.

The success of the Starbuck's approach is a helpful reminder of how important it is to have comfortable clubhouse chairs and beautiful carpeting.

It's a formula as old as bearskin rugs and tripod seats made of branches and animal skins, but today's flooring and seating are a far cry from their low-tech ancestors. Depending on the room, the volume and type of traffic, your design needs, and the club's style, you can find whatever you need in today's marketplace.

But before deciding what you need, club designer Walter Allen of Ferry, Hayes & Allen Designers in Atlanta, GA, suggests creating a design theme. Whether renovating, building new, or just replacing worn seating and carpets, starting with a theme will focus your vision.

"You've got to create a concept or a story about the club that evolves into a design theme," said Allen, who cautions that it is "a big mistake to begin making choices without one."

A story, or concept, can be based on any number of aspects that are unique to your club. A story can be developed from an old club legend, perhaps, a facet of the region where the club is located, a natural feature of the area, or an historic event.

As an example, Allen cited the Congressional Club in Bethesda, MD, whose history was touched by Woodrow Wilson. Creating a story around presidential involvement, the designers translated their ideas into a working theme. One example of their theme is reflected in the carpeting which has a repeating pattern of the capital dome interwoven with the club's initials. From there, it was easy to extend that theme in a variety of design elements, including color palettes, layouts, and furniture styles--including chairs.

Getting Acquainted

Anne Bowers, an interior designer and vice president of One Design Center, Inc., in Greensboro, NC, said she finds that clubs have usually researched what they want, and convey their ideas to her. Her job is then to help them get the look they want using the materials that will work best.

Designing a brand new club, Bowers will work with club representatives to extrapolate a style from the style of their building, the region, and the type of club.

"I'll look for what's appropriate for the style of the building," said Bowers. "Is it a lodge? Is it Georgian? What is it? What does it look like?" Bowers also encourages club decision makers to show her photographs of interiors they like.

Depending on the size of the club, you'll want to work with an interior designer who is familiar with the wide range of chair and flooring styles available, as well as construction criteria, and can guide you through the decision-making process. First, let's take a look at carpets and floor coverings.

Traffic Signals

Wayne Mahan, national sales manager for carpet manufacturer Burtco Enterprises in Dalton, GA, stresses the importance of determining traffic patterns in all areas where new carpeting is needed.

"This is where the country club or its architect, the floor contractor, and the manufacturer all have to establish performance standards," said Mahan.

Although club professionals said that buying carpet capable of with-standing steel spikes is rarely an issue any more, you must still determine whether the carpet will encounter conventional foot traffic or golf shoes.

Although Mahan acknowledged that budgetary factors contribute to purchasing decisions, he said it is so important to buy carpet with good performance standards that he would wait on other budget items before stinting on quality.

"It'd be better to put off other aspects of your project than buy anything less than a product that meets your performance standards 100 percent," said Mahan. "The wrong carpet will have to be replaced in two to three years."

Clubs generally rely on their interior designer and/or flooring contractor to provide them with specs on particular carpet types. Mahan categorizes traffic as light, medium, heavy, or extra heavy.

Another sound financial argument for choosing a quality carpet appropriate to your needs is that labor costs, i.e., installation, are almost always the same for all carpeting, no matter what it costs.

Again, Mahan is emphatic about the importance of finding a reputable flooring contractor with whom you can establish quality control standards.

"Installation is more important than carpet," said Mahan. "This point has to be driven home. Installing in clubs is not the same as home installation. If the carpet is not bonded to the floor correctly, it becomes a liability."

Burtco sells both nylon and Olefin carpets in an enormous range of colors, styles, and strengths. According to Mahan, Olefin is generally less costly than nylon, and can be a good choice if the specs are right for the location. Top of the line nylon, installed properly and maintained, should last a club about seven years.

Burtco sells only cut pile carpet, which Mahan recommends because of its resistance to being pulled or caught.

Cut pile is one type of tufted carpet which is manufactured by sewing or punching yarn through a primary backing, which is usually made of polypropylene/Olefin, or sometimes jute. The yarn in a cut pile, tufted carpet can be likened to grass, in that each short piece of yarn is a single string. There are many textures available in cut pile carpeting, depending on the gauge of yarn used, how densely it is sewn, how it is cut, and other factors.

An entirely different process creates woven carpet, such as Axminster, than is used in tufted carpet. Woven carpet is just that--the yarns are woven together horizontally, similar to the way wool is woven on a loom. Axminster and other woven carpets do not have a pile at all.

Bowers, who has worked with dozens of country clubs, relies on reputable manufacturers to supply her with the right types of flooring for a particular job. Although she often uses nylon carpeting and likes it, she prefers to use Axminster whenever possible.

"Axminster is great," said Bowers. "It really holds up if it's properly installed. If you have the budget, I love to use it."

According to David Simpson, president of Carpets of Worth in Lafayette, GA, the all-wool Axminster carpets his company makes cost only five to ten percent more than high quality nylon tufted carpet. Carpets of Worth, which has a factory in England, also makes some wool tufted carpets, but Simpson is partial to Axminsters. He also believes that wool wears better than nylon or nylon blends.

"Nylon will abrasively outwear wool," said Simpson, "but wool will maintain its appearance longer. An Axminster will last a club six, seven, or eight years with very little trouble."

Simpson and others said that using cheap carpet, whether wool or not, will end up costing you money, and not even in the long run.

"You'll end up replacing it two years later," said Simpson.

Another option designers find attractive for various club areas is resilient sheet flooring, such as the Carson, CA-based Lonseal.

Lonseal, which can be used anywhere a carpet can go, is particularly suited to contemporary-looking clubs, as well as patios, locker rooms, kitchens, offices, and bathrooms in even the most traditional clubs.

Made in dozens of styles, Lonseal is a multi-layered vinyl that is heat- or chemically-sealed during installation, creating a seamless appearance. It is highly durable and has many looks, including very realistic faux wood and stone and numerous high-tech embossed patterns you see in upscale venues like an architect's office or a restaurant. The material is slip resistant, cleans with soap and water, and can be used to create mosaic-like flooring patterns. Additionally, it has an imperceptible give to it, ideal for areas where people stand a lot.

In terms of hot trends in colors for flooring, experts agree that clubs everywhere still use a lot of green. Aside from that, they say anything goes and that color is a personal choice that evolves with the overall design and style of the club. As a rule of thumb, though, if you are renovating, it's good to change your palate so things look new and different.

"The joke is ... if it was purple, make it green," said Allen.

Chair Balancing Act

No matter which area of your club you're looking to outfit with new chairs, it's a balancing act: you can't compromise on comfort to get style, and you cannot overlook quality construction for either comfort or style. All three are equally important.

Interior designer Bowers (laughingly, but seriously) recommends working with a designer who can guide you through the decision-making process. If, however, you are going it alone, she said to make sure you're working with a reputable contract supplier for all seating, except maybe couches and lounge chairs.

Then, too, for very particular clubs or club areas, custom furniture makers can create anything you or your members can envision. JL Furnishing, which has two factories (in Rancho Domingues, CA, and Trinity, NC) is a custom house that will take an order as large as 2,500 pieces of furniture--as they just did at Hyatt at Disney Land--or as small as a few pieces for your lounge.

"We've done two sofas, and four or eight chairs many times," said JLF President Lynda Sullivan. "We just did chaise lounges in a restaurant area at the Renaissance [hotel] in Agora Hills. Whatever your vision is, we can manufacture it."

Sullivan and JLF owner Jeffrey Lazar pride themselves on being small enough to be very "hands on," while also able to produce large quantities of fine furniture for high volume areas.

Going area by area then, the average club will be looking at several types of chairs, including bar stools, fine dining chairs for smaller, private dining rooms, banquet chairs, bar stools, occasionals, decorative accent-piece chairs, lounge chairs, and couches.

In terms of style, wooden chairs are often recommended for dining rooms or small all-purpose rooms. Wood can be carved and rich-looking, or have more contemporary lines, depending on the style of the club.

Henry Bodner, sales manager at Prince Seating in Brooklyn, NY, said it's important to make sure that a wooden chair has finger-jointed corner boxes in each of its under-corners, and that there are headless pins and metal brackets at every stress point.

Prince has a factory in Europe where it manufactures an enormous line of wooden chairs and custom designs. The company also makes steel chairs, but Bodner thinks "wood creates a warm atmosphere and feeling" that is good for clubs.

Among Bodner's pointers for assessing a chair's structural integrity, he warned against buying chairs from companies that use imported wood that may be improperly dried, and may warp.

"They cut corners on cheap chairs," said Greg Piper, executive vice president of sales at the Temperance, MI-based MTS Seating, which makes chairs from aluminum, steel, and wood. "Don't buy soft woods, like pine, that could be stapled, not glued. A good chair is glued, nailed, and doweled."

Many companies, including MTS and Church Chair Industries of Rome, GA, make metal chairs that look like wood. Nearly all metal chairs, and some wooden ones, are stackable. Stack heights generally range between eight and twelve.

"We've had people sit in our Burgess Salon Series and not know it was aluminum," said Piper. The powder-coated brushed aluminum chairs come in a range of wood-looking finishes, as well as bright silvers, brasses, golds, and colors.

One of the top steel sellers at Church Chair Industries, the "Grand Designer," has wooden caps on the arms of its armchairs, which coordinate nicely with many of the chair's finishes.

When ordering chairs with arms, Bowers said to make sure that the arms will fit under your tables! Whether wood or metal, there are several factors to keep in mind when assessing the comfort of a chair, including the materials used in seat construction, its width, and whether it has lumbar support and/or flexing seat backs.

"It's essential that you use virgin foam," said Michael Sammons at Church Chair, which was founded by Sammons' parents.

"Top quality foam is very important," said Sammons. "We use 1.8 pound virgin foam that has a compression of 55 to 62 pounds." Sammons said that non-virgin foams can boast higher weights, but are packed with fillers, such as sand or marble dust, which make them inferior.

Whether the chair is wooden or metal, fabric upholstery on seats and backs grab the eye and contribute greatly to style and design. Almost all manufacturers offer hundreds of fabrics and will also use the customer's own fabric (known as COM) if that is a club's preference.

"The hottest fabric now is Krypton--it's exploded in our industry," said Piper. Krypton is actually a finishing process that can be used on almost all types of fabric. "It's stronger than Superman and it's coming from lots of big mills now."

The plethora of fabrics from which to choose includes Olefin, nylon, nylon blends, and poly-blends. The general idea for banquet seating, which gets the most wear and tear, is to choose patterns and colors that will hide stains.

Bowers said she often ingeniously uses a great stain-resistant material on the seat and interior back of banquet or dining chairs, and a finer fabric in a coordinated color for the outside back, which is most visible and least vulnerable to staining.

When considering buying a large number of chairs, most manufacturers will send you a sample. It may not be the color or fabric you end up purchasing, but you can test it out for comfort, durability, and style.