For restaurants that want to deliver the perfect ambience, the dining space is where you need to spend quite a bit of time making the feel of the dining area just right. A dining space is much more than restaurant tables and chairs randomly arranged. People need to feel comfortable and relaxed to enjoy the good food and appreciate the service. The dining area defines the overall ambience of the restaurant and the kind of experience it can deliver. A well planned dining area should complement and accentuate the theme of the restaurant, highlight the features that make it a better dining option, and ensure that the staff functions with maximum efficiency. Below is how you can create the perfect dining space for a restaurant.
Getting the Theme Right
You need to choose a theme for your dining space, so it is coordinated with what customers expect with the design rule of function before form. An excellently executed theme provides a soothing dining experience. Incorporate the theme into the restaurants’ décor, music, lighting, staff outfits, culinary style, and even the menu items. A theme is a unique feeling a person gets when in a space that everything is coordinated. Your restaurant furniture should accent and highlight the theme of your restaurant.
The idea is to ingrain the theme on a customer’s mind. Walt Disney’s theme parks are an example of developing a great theme. Each area of Disneyworld has a distinct theme from space to pirates and each area does not waiver from mixing one theme with any other theme. This kind of visual penetration of a distinct theme can make your restaurant very memorable which helps to turn occasional customers into regular patrons. It is important you choose a theme to which your clientele can connect.
Suggestions for Getting the Right Theme
- Visit other restaurants to get a theme idea
- Hire a designer to assist
- Go to other places to get ideas that are not restaurants, like a mall, a small town downtown shops, or go to other cities.
Appropriate Color Palette for Dining Space
Colors play an important role in affecting various interactions within the dining space, i.e. interactions involving the customers that eventually make the difference between a popular restaurant and just another eating-out option!
Engage People, Don’t Overwhelm Them: People react to different colors, and each shade has a slightly different psychological impact. For instance, the choice of wall and flooring color can greatly affect the way your customers perceive your restaurant, particularly the first impression. It is better to create a color blend that stays away from extremes. A decent play with colors in the dining space means creating points of visual engagement and prepping a few zones that help people to disconnect and relax. You don’t want the dining area to overwhelm the customer with overzealous color patterns!
Using Lighter Colors: A small restaurant with a cramped dining room can look bigger by using lighter colors on the walls. Colors such as ivory, pale yellow, off-white, and light gray exude a serene feeling. This helps people to unwind and spend some more time, translating into repeat customers.
Using Darker Colors: A darker color palette using deep shades of blue, crimson or dark purple helps to camouflage the emptiness found in expansive dining halls where the dining crowd might feel spaced beyond their level of comfort. Here, darker shades help to induce the feeling of a cozier setting. Dark colors also aid in concealing small flaws in the property like ductwork in the ceiling. Avoid blue as some people say it makes them less hungry.
Using Warmer Colors: Colors like reds, yellows, bright greens, and burnt orange help to add to a cheery dining space. But also know that bright colors such as yellow or red can be irritating to customers, so do not overuse them. Green can be more relaxing as it may represent the outdoors. Some dining areas use basic colors like white, black, brown and grey—called neutral or passive colors. These are helpful in creating a likeable contrast with a brightly colored dining area ensemble.
When developing a theme such as sports, cowboy, Italian décor, strictly business, or something like Disney uses in their parks make it an extension of your written business plan. Then use the right colors for the theme and especially for your target customer.
