Having color is an important part of decorating your restaurant. You don’t want to bore your guests while they’re eating, but you also don’t want to completely overwhelm them with crazy colors. Instead, you want to create an inviting, comfortable, and enjoyable space for people to come and eat. Color actually has a big impact on us during our everyday lives and not many people are aware of that.

            It especially affects us while we’re eating. There are whole psychological studies done on these effects and help restaurant owners figure out which colors are best to have and which ones to leave out. When you think about your restaurant’s colors, don’t just think about the walls. Don’t forget about the colors in your furniture, dinnerware, menus, etc. Below are some ways you can incorporate colors and patterns into other aspects of your restaurant.

  • Tableware: These items consist of plates, bowls, mugs, cups, and other dining items (minus the silverware). This is an easy area to add color too, since there are so many colors and patterns of tableware available. Having solid color items is a great addition, but to really incorporate color subtly, it’s best to have items with a small pattern. This way the color isn’t as obvious, but it still adds a little something.
  • Tabletops: There is such a diversity of restaurant tabletop styles and shapes to choose from. Since they come in different materials and colors, there’s more of a variety to choose from. The primary options are wood, metal or stone tabletops. Wood is very versatile since you can stain it to be whatever color you’d like it to be. Metal, on the other hand, isn’t as easy to change. Usually it’s just the standard grey color. However, to spice it up, sometimes restaurants paint designs on their metal tabletops.

The most colorful option though, is stone. There’s such a wide variety of natural patterns that you can find in different stones and all of them have lots of accent colors that you can draw on. Granite tabletops are perhaps the best for this reason. It’s the most commonly used in restaurants and kitchens for this reason. You don’t have to have a colored granite if you’re not interested in having several different colors. Granite is primarily white, black and gray, so you can simply use a basic slab if that better matches your color scheme.

  • Cushioned Chairs: Similar to tabletops, cushioned chairs (or just upholstered furniture in general), comes in dozens of colors and patterns. These are a bit trickier than the tabletops since patterns and colors usually put on cushions go in and out of style rather quickly. So, to avoid this it’s best to just go with a nice, classic color that compliments the colors of your walls.

Chairs should be the last item you purchase if you’re looking to add color into your space. Make sure it coordinates with the tables and walls. Too much color can be distracting and have a negative effect on diners.

To get the best results, research some potential color schemes that are recommended for restaurants and choose one that you believe best fits your brand. Do this before purchasing paint, any furniture, or tableware. That way you’ll be able to pick and choose where and how you want to incorporate more color into the restaurant.