Furniture?! We’ve thought about the band, we’ve thought about the bar, we’ve even got the waiting staff sorted. But sofa hire? No one told us we were going to need sofas at this thing.

Okay, so sofa hire might not seem like the most obvious and important thing to plan for when you’re organising your event, but it’s definitely something you should consider. Think about it. In coffee shops and festivals, nightclubs and more, sofas help people feel relaxed and comfortable. They add to the aesthetic of your layout, and they provide a bit of additional seating as well. They’re not half bad then, are they.

So what can sofa hire add to your events?

Make everyone feel more comfortable

Dining seating is all well and good if you’re actually dining, but before and after the meal (or if there’s no meal at all), everyone needs somewhere to sit. Standing around can be a bit awkward, but when you scatter seating around your venue people are more likely to spread out and make the place look a little bit more populated. This doesn’t need to be just down to sofas, we’d thoroughly recommend a mix of seating, so that people can choose where they feel more comfortable. Sitting at a table will be more comfortable and suitable for older guests, or if people will be eating. It’s just not that comfortable balancing a plate on your lap when you’re older than five-years-old.

Get people talking

One of the biggest worries with most events is that people won’t socialise, and the atmosphere will be awkward and tense. But thankfully, there are ways to make sure that your guests feel a little bit more at ease, and getting them to start talking.

Sofa hire allows people to feel comfortable, and above all familiar. They also encourage people to cosy up to one another. Place the furniture facing each other to form little booth like areas, and place a coffee table in the middle. You wouldn’t expect strangers to sit together in these cosy places, at least not straight away, but when people are sitting around and looking comfortable people are more likely to feel at ease and get talking themselves.

You’re filling a space

One of the mistakes often made with event planning is to hire too big a room, and then not put enough things in it to make it feel inviting. A big empty space will feel half finished, and like you were expecting more guests. Lay out the dining seating or the dance floor as you would usually, and then look and see where you have big empty spaces. You will of course need to leave space for people to stand and so that people can walk through the space comfortably, but even then you’re likely to have to have some space to fill. If you place lots of flowers in these spaces it will quickly become overwhelming, but through sofa hire you can add useful features which also make it feel a little fuller, and like you’ve hired a room of the right size.

George works for an event furniture hire company based in London. With several years experience in the event furniture hire industry, he has a lot of specialist knowledge on the industry.