By Peyton Ezra
When the time comes that you have to renovate and refurbish your restaurant or if you are opening a new one and deciding the interior design, one of the most important things you should get and properly plan out and consider is your lighting. Other than the furniture and equipment that will have to get added, how you go about setting up and choosing your lights is a crucial step in making your restaurant more appealing than others.
Restaurant lighting is an important thing as it is not only a simple decoration you add but it is also something that interacts and affects every other element in your restaurant. Poorly designed lighting setup can make your food look forgettable and unappealing or can completely ruin the mood you are trying to create. Although choosing lights might be a daunting task, we have here several tips you can take into consideration with choosing the right restaurant lighting fixtures to use.
- Balance Between Form and Functionality
One of the first things you have to take into consideration is if the light you are choosing, properly strikes a balance between form and functionality. It is important for the light fixture you are getting to balance between these two aspects as too much of the other can ruin your entire set-piece.
If the fixture’s form seems too impractical that the light barely looks any good or the functionality is good but the form is too weird, reconsider your options and look for something even better. It is not a bad idea to note down the ones you find for reconsideration later.
- Energy Consumption
Another thing to take into consideration is the amount of energy consumption the light will be taking. Since a restaurant is still a business at its core, it is important to save as much money as you can, especially with the utility bill. Getting lights that are energy-efficient and good for the environment might be in your best interest despite the higher price tag as you get to save money in the long run.
- Consider Natural Lighting
One of the things that many restaurant owners fail to take into consideration is how natural lighting comes into play with having good restaurant interior designing entails. When picking out lights, see how natural lights go into your restaurant and how it moves around. Knowing how the light goes allows you to play around with it as well as enhance it even further through your artificial lights.
- Getting Different Intensities
Light comes in very many varying intensities; bright and soft lights are the most common variables and are commonly used for different purposes. Consider getting lights of different intensities and colors and deciding where to place them to create zones in your restaurants.
Having soft lights in your main dining hall and brighter lights in your kitchen allows you to create a distinguishable area for both customers and staff. This allows them to know which areas to go to as well as be guided without having to use precious space with signages.
