How a Restaurant’s Interior Design Can Affect Your Brand
2 Min Read By Catherine Collins
When opening your own restaurant, you have plenty of things on your mind. First, you need to find the appropriate location and enough space for everything you have imagined. Then, there’s the menu; which food should you serve, which drinks would you like to offer to customers, among others.
Then there are the prices, employees and so on. When you think you have it figured out, you need to take care of the design of your restaurant and its image. You can’t just leave the walls bare and hope it will work out. You have to find the right furniture, plates, glasses and everything else. But, besides quality, you have to make sure to combine all that so it makes sense and connects to your brand image.
Choose Industry-Appropriate Colors
The first two things one notices about the McDonald’s are its brand colors – red and yellow. The two hues seem like random basic colors, but once you start digging a bit deeper, the larger scheme of things begins to unravel.
Certain colors have the power to enhance or diminish one’s appetite. Colors like red, yellow and green give a boost to one’s craving for food and drinks, while nuances of blue, grey and brown diminish it.
Functionality Above All
Another thing you need to consider is functionality and maintenance. For instance, while solid hardwood might fit in just great in the overall vibe, prefinished hardwood is incredibly susceptible to moisture, and requires a lot of maintenance. You need to keep in mind that, at the end of the day, you are running a business, which means that the cost-effective option is usually to be the right one. This is why investing in highly absorbent bar runners, rugs and mats might be more than worth your while, due to the fact that these accessories protect your inventory in the long run.
Additionally, you should watch out for the air quality. People won’t want to eat in stuffy rooms, so you need to make sure nothing is in the air causing trouble. The best option is finding the best ventilation systems, but you can rely on an additional HEPA air purifier to clear the air; especially during the allergy season.
Homey Atmosphere
What kind of atmosphere you want to create?
While it is true that training your staff plays a huge part here, the biggest credit for achieving this goal still goes to the interior design. Setting the ambiance via lighting, using the right texture for tablecloth choices, displaying a sensible piece of art here and there can make a guest feel at home.
You can also focus on the design of your menus and carefully choose your dishes, silverware and linens in order to take this idea to the next level.
You need to keep in mind that the decoration of the interior alone isn’t enough for success, as the exterior matters too. In fact, it is the key to creating a great first impression. Nonetheless, when going for the long run success, interior and menu are the pillars of successful business and attracting loyal customers.