15 Modern Restaurant Interior Design Ideas You Can Implement on a Tight Budget

Why is restaurant interior design so important?

Whether opening a new restaurant or updating your existing one, interior design should be at the top of your mind. After all, before your guests can taste the food or experience the service, the restaurant’s interior design forms a crucial first impression. Acing the restaurant interior design helps you offer the ultimate dining experience to your guest that ensures repeat customers.

Read on to know about some of the best modern restaurant interior design ideas that entice your customers and help you build a brand image. 

Best Restaurant Interior Design Ideas for Creative Inspiration

1. Warm Welcome to the Guest

• A stunning entrance is a sure way to excite your customers. It should be catchy, inviting, and unique. 
• Ensure that your restaurant’s name is well lit, bold, and clearly visible.
• A unique sign and comfortable seating in the waiting area help build your brand. 

2. Decide a Theme

• A theme in a restaurant helps bind different design elements.
• Your restaurant theme should be subtle and appealing to make the dining experience memorable for your guests.
• Consider matching the entrance design with your restaurant’s theme or cuisine. 

3. Try Infusing Greenery within the space

• Greenery inside your restaurant in the form of indoor plants has several advantages – it reduces toxins, eliminates stress, uplifts mood, and is enjoyable to look at. 
• You can consider placing plants on shelves or walls or getting a vertical indoor garden, amongst others. 

4. Create an Accent Wall

• Accent walls can be your go-to choice to reinforce your restaurant’s theme and ambiance. 
• An accent wall in the dining room creates a focal point and draws your guest’s attention. 
• Many restaurants use accent walls to highlight their brand’s colors, themes, and personalities using patterns, textures, and even objects.

5. Celebrate Your Location

• Highlighting the cultural heritage or history of the location can be a smart way to attract customers, especially if your restaurant is located nearby a tourist attraction.
• You can consider incorporating some restaurant interior design low budget ideas like native styles, designs, colors, flags, etc., in your restaurant interior design to set the mood for your guests.

6. Consider Bar Beautification

• Since drinks and alcoholic beverages have higher markup prices than food items, it makes sense to invest in upgrading your bar.
• Although the kitchen and dining areas are the heart and soul of a restaurant, the bar is where friends, colleagues, or family members bond.
• Highlight your bar with bold designs, attractive colors, and bright lighting to draw your guests. 

7. Put Emphasis on communal dining

• In fast-paced, busy city life, it often gets difficult to keep in touch with friends and families. One reason many people spend money on dining out is because they crave time and connection with others. 
• You can culminate a sense of togetherness and community dining by keeping long restaurant tables in the middle of the dining room to seat large groups. 

8. Use Modern Lighting Fixtures

• Modern lighting fixtures let you experiment with ambiance lighting inside your restaurant. 
• Depending on your clientele, brand image, and theme, you can consider industrial, ornate, or understated lighting.
• Additionally, some modern fixtures allow you to control the shade and color of the lights depending on the time of the day. 

9. Showcase Local Art

• Using local art as a décor element in your restaurant interior design can do wonders for your restaurant.
• Supporting local artists not only highlights your sense of community, but it can be a great conversation starter amongst your guests and staff too. 

10. Highlight the kitchen

• The kitchen is undoubtedly the heart of any restaurant. What better way to highlight it than going for an open kitchen?
• The sight of food getting prepared in an open kitchen can be the best way to win back the trust of your guests, especially after the Covid-19 pandemic.
• Also, the smell of dishes being prepared will definitely add to your restaurant’s ambiance and your guest’s appetite. 

11. Offer Unique Seating Options

• While most owners pay minute attention to their restaurant interior design and food, they often tend to miss the seating.
• Experiment by creating a mix of Restaurant booths, Restaurant bar stools, and Restaurant chairs or couches to go beyond the regular seating. 
• However, ensure that your restaurant seating is visually appealing and stylish without compromising the comfort of your guests.

12. Incorporate Mirrors

• Mirrors can be a great small restaurant interior design element to add depth to your restaurant, especially if you don’t have a large space. 
• Mirrors are available in several styles, shapes, and sizes to blend effortlessly into any restaurant décor.

13. Consider Modern Restaurant Furniture

• Have you ever wondered why furniture in some restaurants appears improperly arranged with wasted space?
• Good restaurant furniture placement makes the most of the available space in your dining room and makes it appear inviting and comfortable for your guests.
• The design of your restaurant furniture should be in line with its theme and allow the effortless movement of your staff and guests. 

14. Single out your ceiling

• Who says you need a glass-painted ceiling or wooden beams to draw eyes to your ceiling? 
• Use colors, textures, and styles to transform your restaurant’s ceiling into a visual treat.

15. Focus on Flooring

• Rather than being a restaurant with a boring floor, get creative by installing a funky floor.
• Choose a floor design and pattern that complements your restaurant’s interior design.
• Whether you use a wooden floor or a trendy carpet, a bold floor design will certainly get you much-needed publicity through your guest’s social media posts.

Design Tips for your restaurant interior

Now that you know a few trendy and simple restaurant interior design ideas, here are some of the general tips and best practices for restaurant’s interior design: 

i. Plan Your layout Carefully

• It all begins with your restaurant layout! However, getting the ideal restaurant layout goes beyond measuring the space available.
• Before selecting restaurant furniture or wall colors plan and divide the area into segments like front-end and back-end, kitchen, dining room, waiting area, restrooms, etc.
• Your restaurant’s interior layout must be easy to navigate, well spaced, and reflect your brand’s image and personality. 

ii. Pay Attention to Lighting

• Lighting color and intensity inside your restaurant, if selected thoughtfully, can do wonders for your guests’ dining experience.
• Since lighting influences your guest’s emotions and moods, it can help set the tone for your restaurant.
• Go for a mix of artificial and natural lighting for a rich and soothing effect. 

iii. Choose the Right Color Based on your venue type

• Just like lighting, colors can have a tremendous effect on human psychology and affects their buying choices. While dull colors can be mood-killer and disappointing, bright colors like red are believed to induce hunger.
• However, the color you select should be as per your restaurant type, theme, and clientele. For example, soft hues are perfect for family restaurants, while bars and nightclubs demand bright, vibrant colors.  

iv. Consider Sound System

• Last, but definitely not least on your list should be the music in your restaurant. After all, uplifting music works well with the appetite.
• However, the type of music you select is on your restaurant’s theme as well. For example, a slow jazz or instrumental music works well for an intimate, fine dining setup. 
• In a nutshell, rather than being the centerpiece, the sound should complement the rest of your restaurant interiors.

FAQs