Blog Post

The hospitality sector has had to undergo a huge upheaval in the last 18 months, with owners having to rethink every single aspect of their business. This applies to the design of their premises, as well as what they can actually serve to customers.

Thames Contracts specialise in high-quality café design and refurbishment in and around London. Here we look at six of the trends which have proved popular in restaurants, coffee shops and cafés over the past few months.

The Need for More Space

Social distancing requirements mean that you need more room between tables. Owners may also have to create space for separate counters for takeaway and click and collect orders, even if they didn’t have these services before. Customers may also need to wait in larger reception areas or lobbies by the main entrance before they are shown to their tables.

The new regulations have brought in a whole new cleaning regime for all food and drink premises. Cafés and restaurants also need to create space for hand sanitiser stations, not just in cloakrooms and restrooms but in all areas of the business.

Many venues are now looking at installing automatic or electric doors as this will minimise the need to touch door handles and will cut down on the risk of infections spreading.

Outdoor Dining

The problem with space is that it’s a finite resource, so many café and restaurant owners are looking to extend beyond their immediate premises. In many cases this means onto the pavement or unused parking spaces outside, which may mean applying for outdoor dining and drinking licences from their local authority.

This enables businesses to increase the amount of ‘covers’ they can provide on any given day, which is crucial when it comes to maximising revenue streams.

The Need to be Welcoming

With all the new practices and cleaning regimes in place, restaurants and cafés can easily feel more like a hospital than somewhere you go to enjoy a meal out. However, there are plenty of cosy touches you can add to make sure diners feel at home. Artwork, particularly weavings and tapestries, will help avoid your eaterie becoming too clinical.

Plants will also help – either pictures of them or actual flowers and shrubs if you have the space; some say it improves the air quality and it certainly makes you feel like you are in someone’s garden. Don’t forget the ceiling either – it’s an unused space and putting posters and pictures there can help prevent you from trying to put too much onto the walls.

Light Works for You

Warmer palettes in lighter hues are very much on-trend this year. Reds, yellows and oranges in particular have been shown to increase excitement and appetite – which is what owners of all types of food and drink premises want.

However, the advice from interior design experts is not to go too overboard with any bright colours as this can easily seem overpowering to customers. Keep any neutral or pale shades that you already have – psychologists believe that these hues help create a calm, relaxing atmosphere, which is desirable for owners and customers alike – so that everything is kept in moderation.

Mix and Match Furniture

Lightweight, portable furniture is proving increasingly popular. All businesses, not just food and drink outlets, need to be as flexible as possible to keep the money coming in. Cafés and restaurants needed to be more versatile before the pandemic anyway, with different types of clientele likely to pay a visit at different times of the day (for instance, workers on their lunch hour usually only had time for a quick drink or snack, while evening diners had more time for a longer, larger meal).

All of this is made much easier if tables and chairs can be moved around, either within the premises or onto the pavement outside if the weather is good enough.

A move away from standardised chairs and tables is another trend which has been identified within the trade. A non-standard look, apart from helping to attract different types of customers, will also help prevent the premises from looking too samey and sterile.

Café Design and Refurbishment in London from Thames Contracts

If you are interested in high-quality café design and refurbishment and operate in or around London, then Thames Contracts are the people to call. We can help if you want to strip out some existing fixtures and fittings to create more space or if you want a complete refit. We can also help with other types of work, including coffee shop design, office fitouts and end of lease dilapidations, all in the London area.

When you contact us, we will first arrange an initial visit to your premises, discuss your needs and then create an initial design brief. We will then create a 3D set of images, along with a budget and a proposed work schedule. Once all this has been agreed, we will work as fast as possible as we appreciate lost time is lost money. We have a network of tried and trusted professional tradespeople and have an excellent record of getting projects completed on time and on budget.

We will help you to make the optimum use of all available space, maximising the numbers of customers you can accommodate while making sure everyone is as safe as possible. If you would like to know more, follow this link and complete the online form or call us on 020 8368 0045 and we will be happy to talk to you.