A simple guide for getting creative with ideas for commercial interior design
Getting your interior to reflect your business to attract more customers is a key element in running a successful business in the current era. Customers are picky about where they spend their time and their standards are high.
Whether you are starting from scratch or doing a quick refresh of your cafe, restaurant or pub , reception or shop, you will want to make it not only attention grabbing, but also a space people want to hang out, and even make it instagram friendly to encourage those social shares.
You may be able to appreciate great atmosphere and stylish interior spaces but just don’t have much experience with designing them yourself.
If you know exactly what you like but are swamped with the amount of choice read on. There are so many options for wall colours, flooring options, and light fittings, it is easy to get bamboozled by it all.
Here is a basic method you can follow for creating something special.
Decide what look you want to go for
Think about what your customer will enjoy and what will appeal to them. Do you need your space to be sophisticated, relaxing, vibrant, on-trend, cutting-edge or quirky?
Look for inspiration
Ideas won’t just come out of thin air, you need to hunt them out. Go on a day out to look at other similar type of businesses that you like the look of and that is popular with a similar customer type to yours.
Do a google search or use Pinterest to find photos of interior spaces that you love, colours combinations that grab you, materials and textures that could work for your theme and make your mood board.
At this point don’t think about what will or won’t work for your space just pick things you like.
Find your one thing
Select one image that is your favourite item on the mood board and that fills you with excitement. This is your main inspiration image and you aways come back to this for colours and style when picking anything to go in your scheme.
Now the fun starts
So now you have a mood board and a main image you can use this to refer back to all the way through when planning the layout, choosing materials and furniture items.
Pick your focal point of the room and ensure you make this stand out by making it unusual, different, brightly coloured or contrast it with rest of the space.
Always keep in mind that you want to make a real impact and get noticed. Playing safe won’t do this. You need to be brave and just try things. An easy way to do this is with paint colours as they can be painted over quite easily if the result isn’t what you imagined.
Take paint, fabric and flooring samples to the space where you are thinking to use it to get an idea if you think it will work.
Remember that nothing will look like it did in another scenario. Colours look different in every room as they change depending on light levels and what you put them next to.
You are always aiming to create ‘a one of a kind’ interior, you aren’t trying to replicate whats been done before, and you wouldn’t want to.
Using materials in an unusual way is a wonderful way to create impact such as timber flooring planks to clad a feature wall. Making a statement isn’t always about colour. It can be as simple as a change of materials to a wall or a surface too.
How you combine materials is key too. Sometimes using a small amount of bright colour within a light airy space helps the colour stand out more.
As a default mode if in doubt, always go for the bolder option.
Think about the bigger picture of what it will look like in the actual space and with the other items you have chosen.
And lastly the only rule is that there are no rules. And if anyone tells you there are, well aren’t rules always made to be broken?
How can we help you?
Got more questions about what could work for your interior to attract more customers?
Contact one of our designers today to talk about your design needs on 01803 295959 or by email.