Designing a welcoming restaurant is no mean feat. It involves paying attention to your target audience, your environment and what kind of establishment you want to be
First impressions are critical in the cutthroat world of commercial dining. From the moment they walk through the door, your restaurant’s design has a big impact on your patrons. It’s important to tell your brand’s story and reinforce its identity, as well as create a welcoming environment. Learn why restaurant fit outs are essential for restaurant success, and how the ideal design can attract customers, making them ready to take advantage of everything your business has to offer.
The Importance of First Impressions
Customers make views based on the ambiance, décor, and general aesthetic appeal of your restaurant, so the layout and design are vital in making a lasting impression from the moment they walk through the door. When managed by skilled experts, a well-done restaurant fit out may produce a fascinating ambiance that makes a good first impression.
Every element influences the overall dining experience, including the colours, lighting, furniture, and seating arrangements. Restaurant fit out contractors can ensure that your restaurant makes a good and lasting first impression on customers by handling the fit out from beginning to end.
The final design of your restaurant’s upcoming interior refurbishment project should work to welcome your customers into your space. This isn’t always an easy task, but one that takes into account the kind of establishment that you wish to present to your target audience, ensuring that your interior design is inviting and appealing to your guests.
By laying out the basics of what you expect to gain from your upcoming fit out, you can work to effectively hone in on the finer details of your interior refurb project, creating a space that will welcome your customers into your space and fit in with your vision.
Start with the outside
The outside of your restaurant will be the first contact your customers will have with your establishment, so it is important to make a good impression from the very beginning. People tend to make their mind up on whether they like something or not within the first seven seconds of seeing it, which doesn’t leave a lot of room for error!
Having a well-lit restaurant from the outside will create an inviting atmosphere, helping to draw people in. How you do this is completely up to you; you can either opt for a warm subtle tone, with a lot of subtle pools of lights, encouraging guests to explore further, or have a more dramatic environment, with flood lights lighting your restaurant up.
Being able to see the inside from the outside is also a great feature to have. It shows transparency in your establishment, whilst also displaying the mood and tone of your restaurant to potential guests, encouraging them to explore further.
Many restaurants have taken to making use of their outdoor area, which adds more features to their restaurant without too much expense. This is also beneficial to customers, as the option to sit outside provides a different scenery to enjoy, this can be achieved through canopies, beer gardens, gazebos and water features. These keep your outside as visually stimulating as the inside.
Prioritise Proper Lighting
When aiming to foster a welcoming environment within your restaurant space, it is vital to first consider how the outside spaces of your establishment looks to your customers – as previously mentioned, this is the first impression that many potential patrons will get of your business. It’s important that you make a good impression from the get go!
By installing proper lighting that will illuminate your outdoor spaces, you can create an inviting atmosphere that will help to draw any potential customers into your restaurant. How you choose to execute this will be entirely dependent upon the theme and aesthetic of your restaurant, but using bright lighting, such as flood lights, will help to capture the attention of any passers-by, working to make your establishment more eye-catching to customers. Subtle, warm toned lighting however will help your establishment to appear warm and cosy to your visitors, inviting them into a relaxing and calm environment.
You can make sure that your establishment gets the ideal mix of lighting aspects, creating an environment that captivates clients and makes a lasting impression, by working with skilled restaurant fit out contractors. Your dining area can be dramatically improved with the use of lighting, making it more memorable and pleasurable.
Consider the Flow of your Restaurant Space
Having a functional flow to your space is crucial to making your customers feel relaxed, and your employees work efficiently. Having a point to greet customers when they first walk in is always a good way to invite people in, whilst displaying your restaurant, enticing them to discover more.
Your restaurant’s flow should accommodate everyone, from couples to large groups. Often allocating sections depending on the size of the group attending. This way you can have quieter sections for those who just want a meal and a drink, or more lively places for those who have come for parties and such.
Choose Context Appropriate Design Elements
The design elements of your restaurant should be subjective to your own taste, but your target audience should be taken into account too. Having a country themed restaurant in the middle of a bustling city strip probably isn’t the best idea, so incorporating your environment, customers and atmosphere into your design is always a good idea.
To add some life into your restaurant, you can add in talking points of features, such as fireplaces, chandeliers or pictures on the walls, which create more of an atmosphere to make your guests feel more at home while they are enjoying themselves. To go a step further, an open kitchen is a very popular feature in many restaurants, as this adds some theatre elements into your restaurant, and adds on to the restaurant experience.
Incorporate Memorable Décor
By giving consumers a distinctive and memorable dining experience, incorporating customized goods into a restaurant’s décor adds a tremendous amount of value. Custom wallpaper with eye-catching patterns or images, for example, can help to establish the vibe of your restaurant space, and create a particular atmosphere.
Having bespoke furniture made for your establishment gives it a sense of exclusivity and comfort. A lasting impression is created by elaborate carpentry work, which displays skill and attention to detail.
These unique additions enhance the restaurant’s aesthetic appeal, distinguishing it from rival restaurants and transforming it into a favourited among costumers. You can create a dining atmosphere that is genuinely unique and immersive, and creates a lasting impact on your customers, by investing in personalised items.
Prioritise a Comfortable Dining Experience
It is impossible to overstate the impact of well-chosen furniture. A restaurant’s furnishings help create a comfortable and enjoyable dining environment. Each element, from comfortable booths to stylish seats, adds to the atmosphere overall and affects how visitors feel while they are there. Customers can stay longer thanks to comfortable seats, which encourages them to enjoy their meals and come back again.
How do your customers feel about the furnishings of your restaurant? Is it time to upgrade their dining experience?
Reinforce your Brand and Identity
The design and architecture of a restaurant play an essential role in defining its branding and identity and making a lasting impression on customers. A unified and continuing brand experience can be made by carefully choosing colours, materials, and thematic components. Customers’ perceptions of the restaurant are influenced by the design decisions, which represent the restaurant’s ideals, personality, and tradition.
The design of your establishment creates the scene for the brand’s story, ranging from modern and elegant designs to rustic and cosy environments. Restaurant operators may create a distinctive and immersive dining experience that stays with visitors long after their visit by creating a visually appealing environment that is consistent with the brand’s identity.
Remember That Context is Key
Any other design elements that you decide to bring into your upcoming interior refurbishment should follow the theme or aesthetic that you wish for your restaurant space to convey. However, the context and the location of your business should also be considered when determining your final interior design. A restaurant that is reminiscent of a traditional American diner might make sense contextually in highly populated, big city locations, but this may work in the middle of the countryside. Factors such as these should always be considered when finalising the design for your commercial restaurant refurbishment.
To conclude, there are a number of factors that need to be considered when planning the interior design for your upcoming commercial fit out, working to welcome customers into your space and encouraging them to dine at your restaurant. To learn more about what Lake Contracts can do for you, take a look at our restaurant refurbishment services.