RESTAURANT INTERIOR DESIGN, IDEAS, THEMES & CONCEPTS

Furniture for modern styled restaurants today are extravagant with heavy upholstery on premium materials like velvet, full-grain leather & performance foam for padding. Electroplating mild steel in a gold finish or a platinum finish is the easiest way to achieve contemporary style.

The very idea of modern furniture was inspired by the mid-century design movement where the sparse use of materials was considered trendy under the guise of using fewer materials to survive the depression during that era.

Anyway, here are a few types of furniture pieces that are likely to be present in a modern-themed restaurant.

MODERN RESTAURANT COUNTERS

Modern Restaurant Bar Counter

Modern Service Counter

Modern themed restaurants clad with furniture styled like the ones mentioned above make heavy use of both ambient lighting and accent lighting. Upscale and luxury modern restaurants can afford expensive hanging chandeliers.

But modern styled restaurants on a budget can make use of simple ambient lighting after dawn and rely on heavy natural lighting before dawn. See the examples listed below to get a better idea.

As a standard thumb rule, the wall color schemes for modern restaurants should be in a lighter shade, the dim atmosphere and deeper hues surrounding the restaurant should originate from the darker colored furniture & fixtures, and reflection from the glossy floor (which can be both light or dark) in shade.

This set-up is ideal to keep modern-styled restaurants run successfully throughout the day, darker paint schemes on the wall is likely to give a shady or dingy interior during the daytime when most diners would want to be exposed to natural lighting.

Make way for the crevices, gaps, and strips on the walls at the time of civil architecture work to ensure that adequate provisions are made for recessed lighting arrangements.

FINE DINING RESTAURANT COUNTERS 

Metal Restaurant Counter

Laminate Service Counter for Commercial Bar

Unlike modern restaurant diners that rely on dim or bright lighting but lighter colors on the flooring and walls, fine dining restaurants rely on lighter shades for all design aspects.  

This means the furniture fabric tends to be lighter in shade but keeping sturdiness in mind, some dark wood types get a pass as they radiate an impression of strength and durability, all of which are desirable design aspects for a fine dining joint

Think extremely light colors like off-white, cream, beige, light grey maybe even sky blue.  

A gently worked false ceiling, wooden or completely carpeted flooring and multicolor/distressed patterns on furniture, walls or any other decoration items can also do wonders to achieve a fine-dining style architecture or design.

If you’re stuck at a decision-making crossroad while setting up you’re fine dining restaurant, simply think of what a banquet-style hall or reception area would opt for and go ahead with that decision.

The term “Rustic” or “bucolic” refers to very primitive, countryside living. Rustic interior styles are devoid of sophistication or modernization altogether and their furniture should also represent this. 

This means not using materials and components that aren’t/weren’t available in the countryside back when your grandmother stayed there. This pretty much leaves only wood as the principal material that can be used to make furniture. 

Given that you're reading this article and actively looking for an interior style for your thali, you're very likely looking for furniture for a high-range or at least a mid-range restaurant interiors, which have to look extravagant, since the Mughals were known for their extravagance and the Mughals had occupied the western belt of the country since a long time 

But more recent furniture models, including several made by us here at FurnitureRoots, can quite easily be made to look authentically rustic and features like distressing and rough sawn wood finish can  be added without a high cost overrun and without exposing modern techniques or materials to your diners

RUSTIC RESTAURANT COUNTERS

Rustic Commercial Bar Counter

Farmhouse-Style Cafe Counter

Rustic interior design style embraces free-flowing textures and earthy colors that emphasize rugged, natural beauty and create an unpretentious warmth.
 
Rustic restaurant bar counters use wooden beams and butcher block designs that bring out the beauty of the grain as well as other natural materials such as stone and concrete in earthy, subdued hues.
 
Such rustic commercial bar counters provide a bucolic, farmhouse-style ambiance.

Simply due to the variations involved within rustic interior designs – Modern rustic, vintage rustic, industrial rustic, distressed rustic etc, there are no fixed lighting patterns that are followed across different rustic designs

However, a general principle to keep in mind – if the wood used across the interiors of the restaurant is predominantly in darkish hues, then using light white light is a good idea to balance out and vice versa, 

Here are a few images of restaurants that have nailed this style. 

A popular misconception is that rustic styles are almost unanimously brown in their tinge. This couldn’t be further from the truth.

Warm neutral colors in both light and darker hues that are found plenty in nature are the best color schemes to go for, this can include forest green, ocean blue and earthy colors 

Mild distressing also goes well with a few rustic themes, more on that later. 

Generally speaking, distressing is a technique used on vintage reproduction furniture to add a “matured look” to the furniture’s appeal. This can be done via even on standard wooden or leather furniture to achieve the desired look and feel that one would want to achieve. 

A typical cost for setting up furniture for a 60 seater Udipi restaurant will sum up to about ₹ 4,50,000

Think of what your grandma’s home looks like.

DISTRESSED RESTAURANT COUNTERS

Distressed Restaurant Service Counter

Distressed Cafe Front Counter

Distressed decor style, commonly referred to as shabby chic style, is one that combines weathered wood with peeling colors, often pastel, and takes a laissez faire view of nicks, bruises, cracks and peels.
 
Distressed bar or cafe counters are made using unfinished wood and combining it with distress painted metal or steel.
 
Distressed counters tend to blend in with both rustic decors, lending it more authenticity as well as with modern/contemporary decor styles where it imparts an element of serenity and colors.

The very idea of distressing is to get a “matured” and aged look to the interior and architecture. This means it’s time to bring Etched or Frosted glass back into interior design for colored and vintage style “cathedral lighting” of the olden times.

Adding more texture to the interiors is always a good idea. Smoothness in design is contrary to what a “distress” style aims to achieve. Work our brickwork, textured and creaking flooring and patchwork are all great distressing ideas.

Restaurants that later on shifted to distressed styles, even when their erstwhile styling was poles apart have seen tremendous success, both from a design & commercial standpoint.   

While we understand that eco-friendly is not really an design style per-se but the furniture that can be housed and advertised to your diners can be beneficial towards the positioning of your cafe. 

Marketing messages and an interior design consistent with the mission you’re trying to resonate with your target audience can be best done along with a special collection of furniture. 

For instance, using “reclaimed or recycled wood furniture” – a furniture style that is not only studier but eco-friendly since it is made from old lumber that is broken down and glued together and reinforced for more sturdiness is a great way of publicizing the part you’re playing in this.

Alternatively using upcycled furniture, grand pieces that are made from discarded old materials like used car parts, old parts salvaged from shipwrecks, junkyards etc is also a great idea. We list some of the furniture pieces we make in each of these materials below.