What are customers looking for when they visit a café? High quality coffee and other delicious beverages are obviously the biggest essentials. Cafés, however, also tend to attract a specific crowd with their interiors and ambiance.
A café is a social place. People go there to meet with friends, do a bit of work or simply read a book while enjoying a cup of delicious coffee.
The right interior design is one of the elements required to get people spending more time in a café.
Café retail interior design solutions in Singapore are based on several important principles. When these guidelines are followed, business owners find it much easier to attract clients and give these people the lovely atmosphere that they’re looking for.
Design Can Encourage the Right Actions
What’s the overall café theme and what would you like clients to do? Is this a hangout spot for a youthful crowd? Do you offer grab and go services? Or maybe you’d like your café to be perceived as a work/study space that offers delicious beverages?
All of these themes can be enforced through the selection of the right interior design solutions.
If you want people to stop by, get their coffee and leave, you should make the purchasing experience a breeze. Traffic control and the provision of a quick service have to be the focus. The same applies to prominent displays that give people enough information about the menu while they’re waiting in line.
Hang out spots are characterised by soft furniture and little cosy corners for interactions and chats. These are the types of coffee shops that display the most individuality in terms of décor. This individuality depends on the specific group of customers that the business wants to attract.
Cafés that offer work spaces need to have comfortable tables and chairs, access to electricity sockets and reliable internet connectivity. It’s also important for the venue to offer a distraction-free experience. Thus, more private booths will come in handy on top of the regular tables.
The Floor Plan and Layout
Every Singapore interior design company would want to examine the café floor plan before getting started with décor conceptualisation.
The amount of space and the layout of the coffee shop will determine just how realistic the execution of a specific idea is.
Operating a trendy café in the absence of enough space can be somewhat challenging. You will have to think about table placement, ease of access to products and services, having enough space for the back of house operations and traffic flow control.
Nobody wants to wait in line for prolonged periods of time or have people constantly walking by the table while they have an intimate conversation.
The creation of separate zones is one of the ways to make the café interior design functional without being cramped. If the space is limited, focus on the essentials and ditch the extras. You need a counter, a few tables, a comfortable restroom and a kitchen for the preparation of certain menu items. Fitting other stuff inside the small venue can make the café look way too busy, cramped and uninviting.
For many young people, the café has pretty much become an extension of their home or workplace.
A homey feeling at a coffee shop can easily be created through the selection of the right interior design solutions.
The homey environment puts customers at ease and encourages them to spend a lot of time at the coffee shop. It is informal, warm and inviting. It’s not modern, minimalist and sterile because such environments can be perceived as somewhat superficial or even hostile.
Think of Parisian patisseries and small cafés when trying to imagine the homey interior design.
Wood, beautiful chandeliers, artwork, fresh flowers and comfy pillows can quickly transform a somewhat personality-lacking café into a favourite community spot.
Ambient and Accent Lights
Warmth and cosiness are also heavily dependent on the selection of the right lights.
An experienced Singapore interior design company with retail design will usually begin considering lighting solutions as soon as they become involved with a commercial project. That’s how important lights are for the creation of an optimal décor and the attraction of clients.
Lighting in eateries tends to be much more nuanced than in other commercial venues. It can create a specific mood and even stimulate the appetite of clients by strategically highlighting cakes, cupcakes and other delicious treats.
Café interiors benefit from bright lights and the use of ambient, accent and even decorative lighting.
Ambient lighting isn’t the primary one but it creates uniformity throughout the venue to give visitors even and comfortable illumination. Accent lights are the ones that highlight aspects of the venue that should never go unnoticed – the drinks menu board, the dessert display or selection of glasses/mugs available for purchase.
Finally, decorative light is the one that can create a bit of a funky vibe.
Elaborate fixtures, different colours of light and even table lamps could be used if these fit the overall coffee shop concept. The final choice is a great one because it gives customers an easy opportunity to customise their environment.
It’s All About Personality
Singapore cafés are facing stiff competition. This is one of the main reasons why many new businesses will experience reputation establishment challenges.
If you want your business endeavour to be successful, you have to focus on the personality of your café.
What makes the coffee shop special and different? Communicating this information to your interior designer can give you the great start your business deserves.
Experience also matters when it comes to bringing the concept to reality. A partner like Home Guide that has worked on dozens of projects in the past can make it much easier for you to clarify and execute the café interior design concept.
Contact Home Guide today to bring your dream business setup to reality.
