5 Things to Consider When Designing a Café
When working with your fit out professional on a new cafe design, here’s some things you should consider together. If you’re looking for a quality shop fitter that will help you with all the most important considerations for your cafe fitout, talk to Total Fitouts – we will share our years of fitout experience and expertise and create with you fitout that exceeds your expectations!
1. Distances between tables
It can be tempting to try and fit as many tables and chairs into a space as possible. After all, more tables and chairs means more customers right?
However, it is really important to consider the usability of a space, and the distances needed for people to move around comfortably. A minimum space of 1 metre should be allowed between tables. 1.2 metres is a more comfortable distance, and when designing for access for people in wheelchairs, an allowance of 1.5 metres or more is best!
2. Placement of Serving Counter
Consider the type of restaurant or café you’re going to run when deciding on the placement of your serving counter.
Placing the serving counter near the entry will make it more likely that people will ‘pop-in’ from walking past. But placing the serving counter near the back of the restaurant will mean the people who do come in are more likely to sit down and stay.
3. Flooring
Flooring is often the last thing that people consider when designing a space, but it can be a crucial element in the effectiveness of the overall design. Flooring chosen should be scratch resistant, easy to clean, slip resistant and hardwearing. Many people decide to go cheap on flooring, and then end up needing to replace it when it starts falling apart. It is important that when planning how your cafe you understand the importance of choosing suitable flooring. In cafes and restaurants, timber flooring is particularly popular, but opting for a vinyl plank or timber look tiles can be just as stunning and far more suitable for the purpose.
4. Lighting
It can be easy to choose lighting based on how it looks, but remember that the lighting choice can affect all the colours in the space, and how the food you serve will look. Warm lighting will help to create atmosphere, which can be great when the food presentation isn’t a focal point. However, if you plan to serve food where presentation is paramount, consider cool lighting so that the colours in the meal are properly represented.
5. Colours
Years of research have gone into the effects that colour plays in our psychology. It is so important to consider the colours that you want in your restaurant and how they will affect your customers.
Colours such as blue and purple are to be avoided or only used minimally in places that serve food. The thought behind this is that due to the fact that these colours do not often naturally occur in foods, our bodies do not place any association between them and hunger. In fact, blue in particular has been found to curb appetite.
Red can promote hunger but is not often connected with healthy foods. Red is great for cafes that serve hot chips and fast hot meals, but are terrible if the cafe or restaurant has a focus on healthy eating.
Green colours are associated with health and will work to advertise that the meals provided are healthy and fresh.
Clashing colour combinations will draw the eye, but quickly make customers feel subconsciously overwhelmed. This means that they are more likely to order takeaway or eat faster and leave faster. Hungry Jacks and McDonalds are a great example of this.
Calming complimentary colour schemes work well for restaurants that want their patrons to stay for an extended period of time.
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