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In the hospitality industry, unless it is a big chain which has its own style and branding, most of the other bars, restaurants and hotels get decorated literally up to the taste and vision of the owner or manager. There is no right or wrong way to decorate a venue when you have the cash to splash but if you want the newly created space to have the right impact and wow your customers don’t think yourself a designer and ask a professional for help. If you don’t know what theme to pick, what the latest trends are or simply cannot make your mind up with the overwhelming information and ideas on the internet, then you definitely need an interior designer and possibly an architect if you are thinking big. On the other hand, if you already know what your place needs to transmit to your guests, but you can not make your vision come to life, if you are finding it hard to pick the style, colors, furniture then your best solution is to consult the experts.

I hope to help you visualize your ideas, be able to see crystal clear your bar, restaurant, café, bistro or anything that your mind wishes to conjure and turn into the best hospitality offer ever.

Lets start with the latest decor trends in the hospitality industry. The more we destroy our natural environment the more we crave it. In the last couple of years the new trend in Americas’ top venues is the green effect of lots of plants, wood, natural pale colors, white, bright spaces with some modern rustic or industrial features.

I call it the ‘greenhouse effect’ style and it has 3 variations – posh-retro glamour, cozy-green and pure greenhouse. Please make sure you pick your decor depending on what your business is about and not the other way around. The posh-retro glamour is great for a la carte restaurants, cocktail bars and any specialty restaurants.The cozy green below is suitable for all day everyday gastro bars, bistros, cafes etc.

The pure greenhouse can be as basic or as posh as you want it to be. You can literally build a restaurant in a greenhouse and your imagination is the limit of what kind of food or service you want to offer.

As you can see green is the main accent color in most of the examples, blue is also an option as long as it’s fresh and bright and compliments the rest of the elements instead of overpowering them.

You can achieve the greenhouse effect in more than one ways – with plants only (artificial plants nowadays are a state of the art and easy to maintain), with tiles only, paint or wallpaper, furniture or a mixture of all.

Remember the look of your place will give your customers the feel of who you are and what you do, your identity. The value of your product will be formed in your guests’ mind through their senses. Depending on what they see, feel, touch smell and hear is how they will rate the quality and value of what you offer and it will be different for each one of them. Obviously your product and service will play a big role in this process as well, but the first impressions last the longest.

For more inspirational ideas check out restaurant decor images.

Once you are clear on your style and vision with regards to your decor and what message you want it to convey to your guests the next step is to get to work.

Look for local architects and designers, check references and recommendations. The locals should know any law and other restrictions or requirements that your project may need. Try to inform yourself independently by talking to the local Health and Safety & Hygiene inspectors, Fire brigade or any other government establishment that will be involved in granting you building permissions or operational license. For example a 4 Star hotel may have different requirements in Spain than in England, may be even different in the different provinces of Spain.

This part of your project is vital, if you get misinformed or the professionals you are using are not very competent you may be delayed on your deadlines and worst of all your operational license may take a very long time until all government bodies approve of the final project.

Now that you have everything in hand, you have to get to the nitty gritty and decide on a lay-out and materials with your architect and designer. They will help you use the space to the maximum and find the right materials when it comes to hard wear and tear but do not let them build you a bar or a kitchen. For the actual equipment and lay-out of your kitchen and bar you should use a company that specializes in this area. Unless you know how to do it yourself or have a very experienced head chef and a bar manager on board that can help you.

Don’t pick equipment or materials just because they look pretty or they are cheap – be practical! If you are not sure about something ask. For example if you don’t know what color tiles to choose for the restaurant floor then ask the cleaners which type is easy to clean and doesn’t show dirt as much. Don’t leave any decision to chance and it will pay off as soon as you open your doors!

Good Luck!

It doesn’t stop to amaze me how people light-heartedly make a decision to spend their life savings to open a bar, café, restaurant without ever having worked in one. I still cannot understand why everyone thinks it’s the easiest thing in the world and there is no way it will not work. Not to mention the fact that just because people eat and drink in restaurants and bars they think that automatically makes them the experts. My favorite one of all times is that everyone has had an uncle or a cousin who run a bar and they know how things work because they have grown up in one.

happy family funny kids are preparing the dough, bake cookies in the kitchen

When I went to my first networking event as a guest of a colleague of mine, we all had to introduce ourselves and our business. Good job it was only 7 of us so it wasn’t too intimidating as this was my first introduction in front of people and in Spanish. Even though I had mentally rehearsed already what I wanted to say it never comes out as you planned it once you start talking. When I started with my introduction it seemed like I caught everyone’s attention because they were asking questions and I thought this was a good sign until there it was – The Hospitality experts! One of the ladies had her husband working all his life as a Head waiter in a restaurant and another one had a father who had his own restaurant and she had grown up with it. Basically 40% of the people attending already knew my business and there wasn’t much I can show them or teach them. Not to mention that nobody seemed to have paid much attention to what I said. This is a prime example of how ignorant people can be when it come to the hospitality & retail industry overall and what it involves.

Before I set up this business I did a lot of research on what kind of information, advice, training is available on the internet free & paid. To be honest there are tons of blogs, webs, books that people can read and find out more about how to start their own business, how to set up a bar, open a shop. Believe it or not it’s not enough. I have seen bars and restaurants that tick all the relevant boxed accordingly to the advice found on the internet or what the university teaches and they still don’t work out. In fact this happens more often than a successful end to the story. Having many years of experience or comfortable cash cushion is also no guarantee for an exit.

Before you set up your own business, bar, restaurant you must find out why you are doing it besides the money. You have to know your purpose, which will become the blood flow of your venture. Your idea and belief of why you want to do this particular work will give the main objective and the heart of your business. Once you have that clear then you can continue your research. For all small business owners and those who are planning on setting up for the first time I strongly recommend the following reads:

Start with Why by Simon Sinek

The E-Myth Revisited by Michael E. Gerber.

Both are very inspiring, easy to read, worth every penny and will save you a lot of headache in the future.

Good luck to you all and if you want to talk more about the above topic feel free to get in touch. We are here to help!

How to decorate and where to start from

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