When planning to open a café, bar, or restaurant, the owner of the establishment must think about more than just the menu. In addition to eating, visitors come to have a good time, and interior design is developed down to the last detail. This applies even to fast food restaurants, where guests look for a short time. But a pleasant atmosphere will make them come back next time and bring colleagues or friends.
Types of cafes and restaurants
First of all, you should clearly understand what type of institution opens. From this builds the entire design concept.
Sports bar
The audience comes to watch the match, to cheer on their favorite team. An important component of interior design is the convenient location of televisions. Sports symbols prevail in the decor. Do not forget about the acoustics. Sports bar guests do not always want to watch a match and come just to chat. This fact is built into the design and quieter areas are suggested.
Children’s cafe
A bright, bright space with furniture, comfortable for children and adults. Obligatory one large area or set of corners, where children can run, play quiet games, participate in workshops. Safety is very important: no sharp corners, outlets are hidden from sight. Surfaces are made of materials that are easy to clean.
For decoration, as a rule, choose a fairy tale or fantasy theme. Parents will appreciate a cafe if it has a lounge area for adults, from which all the children’s play areas are clearly visible.
Cafe-restaurant
It is assumed a large number of seats. Visitors spend an average of two hours here, so the furniture must be very comfortable and the design must be relaxing.
Cafe
An establishment with a full menu, but designed for a small flow of guests. Cafe for elite visitors assumes comfortable seats, separated by light partitions to ensure the privacy of the meeting.
Cafeteria
A type of cafe with a self-service area.
Dining Room
Spacious institution also assumes self-service. Canteens are used for celebrations and banquets, so the interior design is thought of different ways to arrange the furniture.
Coffee bar (coffee house)
A place for business meetings and dates. Menu offers drinks and snacks. Visitors spend on average about an hour, but will come in regularly if the atmosphere is conducive to that. The ambiance should have tables that can comfortably accommodate a laptop and a cup.
Pub
A nightclub with dimmed lights. Often there is live music, so the interior provides a stage. The pub is characterized by massive wooden furniture. The style is chosen brutal, as the main audience – men.
Fast Food
Visitors come to have a quick snack. Owners of non-networked fast food outlets rarely pay attention to the decor of the room and set only a few typical tables. But psychologically the guest will prefer to return to a restaurant with a beautiful interior and a pleasant atmosphere. And the design will solve this commercial problem.
Healthy Eating Café
More often opens near sports clubs. Designed for quick visits by people with certain food preferences. The concept of the interior is aimed at a healthy way of life.
Art Cafe
Target audience are creative young people. Creative space with a lot of author’s decor. It is worth choosing mobile furniture for an art cafe to quickly arrange places for companies with a different number of participants.
Lobby bar
Located in hotel lobbies. The main audience – tourists, visitors. The interior design of the lobby bar depends on the hotel concept.
Summer cafe
Open terrace at the restaurant or a freestanding arbor or tent. Equipped with light furniture, which can easily be put away for the night. In the project, special attention is paid to the tent, which protects from the sun and rain. The interior is built in conjunction with the surrounding cafe space.
Hookah Room
The room in the Oriental style. It is important to think about ventilation in the project so that the guests could enjoy hookah without inhaling the smoke coming from the neighboring tables.
Karaoke bar
Provides for a stage and karaoke system. The interior must include a place for a DJ.
Rock club
The room with high ceilings often decorated in the style of loft, grunge, punk. The project necessarily laid the stage and dance floor in front of it, as well as a place for a sound engineer. Tables are placed so that the stage was visible from any angle. Acoustics is thought over so that the sounding music does not interfere with a conversation sitting at tables.
Layout
Plan of the room is built, based on its size and location of communications. The number of rooms depends on the type of institution, but always includes:
- a lounge for visitors;
- a bar or counter for orders with a cash register;
- kitchen;
- bathroom.
The location of all areas should be convenient not only for guests, but also for the working staff. The planning begins with determining the location of the kitchen and bathroom, as these rooms are more dependent on communications. Next, the rest of the zones are laid out.
Entrance group
The design of the facade depends on the overall concept of the institution. Signage, showcases, door should match the interior and attract attention. Ideally, a menu is installed at the entrance, so that passersby can immediately understand the pricing policy of the restaurant and the composition of dishes.
Automatic sliding doors are suitable for the entrance, recessed into the entrance of the building. Otherwise, people passing by will bump into the mechanism. When choosing conventional doors, take care that the design is as light as possible and does not force an effort. Often, in order to keep the heat in the hall, the entrance group consists of two consecutive doors. The vestibule between them should be quite spacious. For this purpose, the street door opens to the street and the inner door to the hall.
Reception desk
A receptionist’s desk is necessary in large restaurants where tables are often reserved. Guests need to see the receptionist, and the receptionist himself feel comfortable in his workplace. At the reception desk is placed a telephone, a notebook for notes, menus, sometimes a computer is installed. The accessories necessary for work are hidden from the eyes of guests.
Dressing room
More often equipped in elite restaurants. In other types of cafes places for outerwear are located in the hall. Need to think about where to install hooks and hangers so that massive jackets and coats do not interfere with passing through the hall visitors and waiters and do not spoil the interior design.
Bar
The bar counter in most types of cafes is the main element of the interior. Around her are placed comfortable chairs. The tabletop is lit with soft light. Behind the bar is equipped with a comfortable workstation for the bartender. Below the countertop for guests is set recessed into the rack workspace. The recess accommodates alcohol used for cocktails, glasses, tools for preparation. It is important that from the side of the hall the bar counter always looks clean and neat.
Faucets for pouring drinks are installed so that the bartender faces the hall when pouring.
Behind the bartender’s back there is a rack with the alcohol offered in the facility. A mirror wall helps to visually increase the space and make it look like there is an abundance of drinks. Decorative accessories can also be placed here.
It is also necessary to provide space for a coffee machine, if the coffee is not prepared in the kitchen.
Room
The main principle in the design of the hall is to make a space that is comfortable for the guests and employees of the restaurant. It is better to sacrifice the number of seats than to create a cramped interior.
Regardless of the type of cafe, tables are placed at a considerable distance from each other. At least 1.5 square meters are allocated for each square table. Behind the person sitting there is 75 cm, so that a person can freely move a chair without hitting his neighbors.
Detailed plans with standards can be seen in books on ergonomics.
Each table is lit separately. Bright overhead lighting is unacceptable for cafe design. An intimate soft glow creates an atmosphere of coziness. In this case, the aisles should not be darkened. The floor is illuminated by LED strip, wall sconces, built-in lights along the baseboard.
Kitchen
In the kitchen the priority is ergonomics. Initially all the necessary appliances and furniture are thought out. The size of the room should be such that the cooks do not interfere with each other. Ideally, it is necessary to limit the access of waiters, and to provide a window or counter for the delivery of dishes.
When drawing up a kitchen plan, it is necessary to consult with the chef and put into the project the trajectories of movement of employees. Convenient placement of equipment and tools for the chef will be the key to its effective work.
Traditionally, the kitchen is hidden from visitors, but in a bold interior design you can place the cooking area behind a glass partition. In this case, the interior of the kitchen should be in harmony with the decoration of the hall.
Bathroom
A must for any restaurant, even a small one. If there is an opportunity to separate the women’s and men’s toilets, it’s worth taking advantage of it. At least allocate 1-2 booths if you can’t have completely separate rooms.
Ideally, if the toilet is located so that visitors can get to it without attracting attention.
The design and cleanliness of the bathroom is always memorable to guests of the cafe, and you should not be negligent about the design of this place. In addition to beauty and convenience for visitors, it is necessary to think about ergonomics for cleaners, so they can in a short time to bring the booths and sinks in order and take out the trash, without passing through the hall and the working areas of the restaurant.
Choosing a style for the cafe
The interior design style of a restaurant, bar or cafe often depends directly on the type of establishment. For cafes that offer a menu of any country, the style is predetermined. Japanese, Georgian, Italian and similar restaurants, as well as hookah houses, are decorated in the corresponding menu ethnic style. The designer can fantasize and make decorative elements different from the standard performances.
The design of pubs and rock clubs is brutal, loft and grunge are suitable for them.
For an elite restaurant, a classic or modern interior with original designer furniture is appropriate.
For other types the style can be anything. The choice depends on PR policy and the tastes of the target audience. The cafe owner’s understanding of who he wants to attract becomes the key to successful commercial design.
Furniture
The furnishings are selected in accordance with the style. It is important that the guests were comfortable to sit at the table or at the bar. If the cafe often conducts business meetings, small tables are unlikely to be suitable, as it is inconvenient to set a laptop on them.
The cost of the furnishings should correspond to the pricing policy of the institution. Plastic is inappropriate in restaurants, and rough wooden furniture looks strange in fast food and children’s cafe design.
For creative spaces you can replace chairs with pouffes and baggy chairs. For work areas, you need to choose furnishings that are comfortable for employees.
Light
Local table lighting should be soft, non-irritating to the eye. In the kitchen, general light is installed, sufficient for comfortable cooking. The space behind the bar is zoned with light: the rack is decorated with local spot lighting, the bartender’s work area is lit brighter, but does not interfere with the guests.
Backlighting of the mirror in the bathroom is designed so that extra shadows don’t fall on the face and the color of the skin remains natural. This is important for women who correct their makeup here.
With the help of lighting design techniques, it is possible to create unusual installations and this attracts the public to the institution.
Decor
Interior design of the cafe is made up of little things. The mood is created by the decor, subject to the chosen style. In a restaurant, it is appropriate to have a lot of trinkets, corresponding to the theme. For example, in the pub you can hang hunting trophies, and in retro cafe put old suitcases and install faded frame photos of the early 20th century.
The design of catering facilities opens up space for creativity. There is no dry office style. It is only important to keep the aesthetics and create a harmonious space.
Color solution
The palette depends on the style of the interior. But it is necessary to take into consideration the psychological characteristics of the perception of color.
It is believed that orange and red improve appetite. For the concentration of thoughts yellow in combination with white, green or brown is suitable.
If visitors come to the cafe to rest after a day of work, an abundance of bright spots is inappropriate.
Small rooms are better decorated in light tones. Dark colors to include in larger spaces.
Creating a cafe design project is very different from the design of residential premises. The designer must present the concepts very quickly and give the drawings to work. Together with the customer, he solves the important task of commercial attractiveness of the institution. But if everything is taken into account, the result will not be long in coming, and soon after the opening there will be many guests in the cafe, wanting to get fresh impressions and have fun.