You’ve thought about the food, have your menu, know who you want as a chef, but you’re a little bit stuck with the interior of your café. Did you know that the interior is a significant factor that influences customer satisfaction? To stand out and enhance happiness, you have to provide good food, good service, and have an appealing interior.
Comfort in an environment has a direct effect on how your customers will experience their food. When you are comfortable, good food just tastes better.
Here are a few things to consider when designing a space.
Keep the Customer at the Forefront
Before doing anything, consider how the environment should make the customers feel. Consider how many people you want in a single area at once and ease of movement between spaces.
Consider how many spaces you want in your café, is it big or small, will there be a juice/ smoothie bar, the server stations, an outdoor eating area. Consider where these things will go and how they should fit together.
Decide on a Concept
When designing and planning your café’s menu, carry your concept through to the interior. It is not cohesive to have an Italian restaurant made up to look like a Mexican one. It is confusing and misleading. You want to communicate what you are and what you sell through visual cues.
When designing, or redesigning remember to co-ordinate the look and feel of your restaurant with your branding. It is essential that your branding is cohesive. Your interior, menu, advertisement, website, and even the exterior should blend in a way that is not only obvious to you.
Your concept also needs to match the tone you are trying to set. A few considerations are; do you want it to be casual, modern, big and noisy, or small and intimate. So, plan your environment in a way that makes it make sense.
Color
Color reflects your restaurant’s theme. This isn’t limited to just the paint on the walls. Plants, furniture, décor are all examples of the use of color in one’s space. Carry your interior colors and themes through your online presence because Restaurant colors play a role in the comfort and stimulating an emotion. They also affect the happiness of your customers and their satisfaction. Fast food restaurants often use reds and yellows, as this has been proven to stimulate the appetite.
Different colors make people feel different ways, so be aware of this when choosing your color pallet.
Lighting
Lighting can make a massive difference to your space. It can assist you in nailing your theme, or it can make a room fall flat. As a café, your prime time will be during the day. Use natural light. Consider big windows to give your space that feeling of being more open. Don’t forget shading for when the day gets hot and too bright.
Natural light isn’t just visually appealing. It also helps people, mentally and physically. This ties back in with how feeling good in a space just make that food taste better. Make your customers feel good every moment they spend there.
Design
Now that you’ve considered all of the above, it is time to design a space that works around these concepts. Design your café so that it functions well. The customer might be spending a fair amount of time in the space; you will want to ensure their comfort.
You and your designer should work out the space and layout before any construction is done.
If you have tables, they should not be placed too close together. Maximize your space, but still, make your layout comfortable. Consider looking at different seating designs. A room full of tables, although practical, can get boring. You are designing a health food café. Have some fun.
Furniture and Accessories
You need to keep in mind the size and shape of your café. When planning for furniture, it is easy to get swept away by all of the exciting options. Do not get a giant couch as a seating alternative that looks cute and suits the vibe you are going for but is impractical in the space.
You will also want to plan what will go on the walls, where and you will have anything on the table and countertops. You need to plan cohesively down to the dishware, silverware, and napkins, following the theme you came up with earlier.
Whether you do it yourself, decide to hire a professional restaurant design consultant, or even a certified interior designer, have fun with your space and keep it cohesive. It plays a significant role in attracting customers and keeping them coming back so, do not neglect even the smallest details.