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Keeping up with restaurant interior design trends

Appropriate atmosphere for your menu

Wine, bread and oil accompanied by $30 carne pizzaiola would look odd under bright lights with blue and white checkered tile lining the floor.  

Much like every novel tells a story and every story has its theme, every restaurant tells a story and it too has a theme. So, before even thinking about what trends to follow when creating or renovating your dining area, it’s important to know your theme. That high-end Italian food fits much better with atmospheric, dim lighting and darkened wood (or wood-look) flooring. 

With a unique theme, people are more inclined to return or tell their friends. When restaurant goers talk of the new place downtown, they’ll remember the steak tips but they’ll talk of its checkered tile, silver-lined tabletops and the 50s-era coffee posters.

So it’s not just your menu – atmosphere matters. 

Natural textures, raw materials and industrial design

Inspiration by nature isn’t new to restaurant design, but the trend continues into 2017. Using wood or wood-look flooring with other accents – such as leather, plants (real or fake) and even more wood can further promote a cozy, natural interior. 

While wallpaper can appear tacky, the right use of shades and designs can work to your advantage. However, according to Alvarez-Diaz & Villalon’s blog “8 Delicious Restaurant Design Trends that will be on the Menu in 2017,” raw materials such as exposed bricks, wood and concrete, are gaining more popularity when designing a dining room’s walls, as they can add depth and dimension to any restaurant design. Many restaurant interior designers are opting for this farmhouse industrial look as natural (or natural looking) materials become more popular and available.

LVT reigns supreme in regard to floors. With wood, fabric and stone-look designs, LVT can aid with whatever natural design you have in mind. Plus, they’re durable and sustainable – helping with the everyday thuds, preventing slips and falls and air quality. 

Light and bright versus dark and cozy

Size doesn’t matter. What does is how large or small the space seems. 

A quaint diner can look bigger than its actual size with a light color scheme and ample use of beige and ivory. WebstaurantStore’s blog “Interior Color Choices and Your Restaurant’s Message” tells us that such an arrangement promotes calmness and can encourage customers to stay longer. Great for an upscale establishment that wants to keep people around for expensive wine, dessert and coffee long after the entrees are served, but for a restaurant that survives off volume, like the neighborhood pizza shop or a busy breakfast bar, such a light scheme should be avoided.

Dark colors evoke the opposite – a large space can seem smaller and cozier. A good solution for an interior that hosts live music, shows or stand-up comedy on the weekends but not so much on the weekdays, or a hall with dining for large groups that could use an extra dash of intimacy.

Do try to avoid such a scheme in already smaller dining areas, as it can make the space appear cramped. Plus, if it’s too dark, patrons may complain about the lack of light and have difficulties reading the menu. 

However, according to The MP Shift, that “dark, heavy look from grandpa’s house” is getting old, and the industry is trending toward lighter colors. A dark theme can still be used in the appropriate environment, but take care not to over-use. 

For either design choice, your dining room’s floor can benefit from LVT.  With different textures, embosses, styles and wide ranges of colors, despite being below you, LVT can play an integral role in your atmosphere.

The FYI Network’s show Say it to My Face remodeled The Shrimp House, a seafood restaurant in Los Angeles, California, using Altro Lavencia Click LVT for such reasons. Altro Lavencia’s versatility allowed them to capture the specific design and theme the owners sought. 

The world’s best dining room interior design trend…

…is yours!

In an industry with so many current and upcoming trends, it’s hard to pinpoint what’s actually trending. You can peruse list after list with dozens of ideas but still have no idea what’s best for your restaurant.

So, to find the best design for your restaurant, take aspects from trends feasible to your establishment, check out what others have done in your neighborhood and what audience your menu caters to, and create a unique experience.

You don’t want to be yet another dim-lit, darkened-wood Italian eatery in a neighborhood full of dark, Italian eateries, so embrace those blue and white checkered tile floors – but maybe swap the $30 pizzaiola for a hamburger.