restaurant interior design

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Using Feng Shui Colors in Your Restaurant

In the previous post, Feng Shui for restaurants, I wrote about several things that you can do to improve your restaurant’s atmosphere and appeal. This time I want to focus on colors.

Colors are especially meaningful even when it comes to food. People assign meaning to colors through cultural experiences. Colors also have energies that express different emotions and evoke different feelings in people.

When looking to use feng shui to find new colors for your restaurant, take time to understand what type of cuisine works well with certain types of colors. You should use warm colors for the interior of your restaurant and menu and a yellow-based lighting instead of a blue-based lighting. Yellow and warm colors bring more light and positive energy to your dining area. These colors also encourage appetite.

The colors for your restaurant should match the type of dining experience you’re offering. If it’s a family-style restaurant, have colors that attract not only the parents, but the kids as well. Restaurants with lots of tie and suit clientele should focus on sleek colors that reflect functionality and formality. Romantic restaurants should use lots of warm colors with heightened emphasis on reds, pinks, and whites. (more…)

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Feng Shui for Restaurants

I know the title probably caused a few raised eyebrows. I mean, we all know that Feng Shui is used in homes and apartments to improve positive energy and create a more comfortable atmosphere in the living space, but what does that have to do with a restaurant?

Feng Shui is an ancient Chinese art that focuses on using aesthetics to improve the positive energy, or chi, in a space. It tries to bring harmony and balance to an area by using colors, décor, wholesome forms, locations, visuals, and furniture placing.

Despite the fact that we mostly connect Feng Shui with private homes, any place where people spent time can benefit from the calming effects of this ancient Chinese art. Restaurants in particular, with their large traffic of clients, can benefit from implementing a few Feng Shui ideas while decorating and designing the interior.

The following tips are a list of things to keep in mind when trying to implement Feng Shui ideas in your restaurant. In the next posts we will try to go in to deeper details about a few of the ideas.

Colors:

The different colors of the rainbow all have different meanings and we all react to them in different ways. Certain colors will evoke specific emotions or thoughts when seen. Red is a color that excites passion and love and increases appetites. It creates feelings of romance and sometimes lust. Pink is a calm, soothing color that is also associated with love. Yellow is a cheery color that promotes warmth and happiness. However, prolonged exposure to yellow can cause anxiety. (This is why fast food restaurants use red and yellow in their decoration and logos. This causes people to eat more but to leave faster thus promoting to a larger turnover.) Orange strengthens concentration and gives people a creative boost. Blue is a calming color that reflects peace, healing, trust, intellect, and wisdom. Black is not a color associated with depression—it promotes feelings of power, sophistication, modernism, and elegance. Purple evokes feelings of nobility and healing. White represents purity, cleanliness, poise, and confidence. Brown is a color associated with the earth. It represents comfort and health and wellness. Grey is a color that represents precision, clarity, and sharpness. (more…)

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Kids Friendly Restaurant

Today when people are busy working all day long they feel like they have less time to spend as a family during the work week. This is why many families like to go out with their children for dinner. This way they are saving time preparing the meal at home and spending it with the kids while also letting the kids have a fun outing as a family.

But this means that the restaurants they choose to visit must be kids friendly.

So, what things would be found in a restaurant that was family oriented?

Firstly, ask yourself what would a family expect to get in such a restaurant.  What kind of seating outlay would there be?  It would have to have plenty of space in between the table, chairs and booths so that the parents can move freely between their place and their children. Also kids like to run around and move from place to place so needs to taken into account as well. And don’t have floors with carpets, it will get way too dirty. However if kids are able to freely run around then a soft  indoor-outdoor carpet should be used, as that is very easy to clean.

This is where the seating outlay would come in.  Try to plan out where the seating will go before putting anything in the place.  There should be a section for big families with loud kids and ones that are small and quiet.  Also think about using restaurant booths for a kid friendly atmosphere.  A mix of dining booths and restaurant chairs and tables is the optimal idea when trying to cater to a mixed crowed. (more…)

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Tips for a Great Restaurant Atmosphere (part 2)

On our previous post: Tips for a Great Restaurant Atmosphere (part 1) we emphasized the importance of  design, lighting, music and comfort.

To complete the list here are the rest of our tips for a great restaurant aptmosphere:

  1. Seating layout needs to be spacious, yet optimized. Spacious seating will allow servers and customers to walk through the dining area without hitting tables, chairs, and other customers. Make sure you optimize the space you have though. Find a seating layout that allows you to have as many tables as possible without sacrificing walking space. (more…)
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Tips for a Great Restaurant Atmosphere (part 1)

Cafe atmosphere After discussing things like the importance of a good restaurant layout and how to spot quality restaurant furniture, we have a two part post on how to create a winning restaurant atmosphere. The kind of atmosphere that will make your customers come back and bring their friends too.

Creating the perfect atmosphere for your restaurant can take a bit of trial and error. You have to fiddle with lighting, seating, music, decorations, food, service, and how to best receive customer feedback. All these and more can affect the mood and atmosphere of your restaurant.

So like we promised in the beginning, here are some tips for creating a great restaurant atmosphere. (more…)

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First Time Restaurant Owners: The Importance of Restaurant Layout

Restaurant seating floor plans

The restaurant business isn’t one that takes kindly to learning on the fly. Customers are looking for good food and great service. They don’t wish to be guinea pigs and have little patience for ineptness.

First time restaurant owners will thus need to work even harder to give themselves the best chance of being successful because their inexperience puts them at a disadvantage.  A good way to improve those chances is to study the business and then create a checklist. Making sure that everything on that list is completed to their satisfaction and according to proper restaurant protocol, prior to opening the restaurant’s doors to the paying public, is of paramount importance. One of the most important areas that a new owner (or any owner for that matter) will need to focus on is restaurant layout.

A new restaurant owner is likely to feel overwhelmed at fist. This is to be expected. They will have a lot on their plate (no pun intended). Making sure that the restaurant is serviceable and ready to handle customers will require a lot of work. For instance, it will be necessary to find reliable and quality suppliers, hire staff, apply for the necessary licenses and permits.

Designing the restaurant, particularly the restaurant seating layout will be extremely important as well. First time restaurateurs and those without a lot of experience, often don’t pay enough attention to restaurant layout and this is their peril. (more…)

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