Top Painting Tips For Restaurant Owners

When running a restaurant, you need to give a lot of careful thought to the menu, but you also need to give your décor more than just passing consideration. The paint you choose and the way you apply it can have a big effect on the way your customers feel when they visit you.

In this article, Stag Painting and Decorating, local painters in Mansfield have put together our top tips for painting your restaurant ranging from deciding on the right colour scheme to choosing the perfect finish for each area of your business.

Prepare your space

Whether you are attempting to paint your restaurant yourself or bringing in the professionals, it is still important to make sure that your restaurant space is fully prepared for the task.

Make sure all items have been removed from the walls, bar areas and back of house and keep your chairs and tables as far away from the walls as possible.

This can help to prevent you getting paint on any of your valuables, so store as much as you can in a safe place ready to be replaced when the job has been completed.

Front of house painting

The colours you choose for front of house in your restaurant will have a massive effect on the ambiance of the space and the way your customers feel. The paint you choose will help to establish the style of the restaurant, so you need to think about colours that coordinate with what you offer.

For example, seafood-based restaurants might make the most of blues and yellows to promote a coastal lifestyle, while steak houses will often lean more towards orange and amber for a warmer feeling. If you specialise in vegetarian or vegan food, then more natural greens and browns might set the tone better.

It is also important to think about the colours that can have a negative impact on the customer experience. An excess of red can overly stimulate the appetite, creating a rushed dining experience, whilst muted greys might be dreary and uninviting.

Neon colours tend to be highly stimulating and therefore overwhelming in large quantities, whilst an overuse of black and white may appear stark and unwelcoming.

Brown is a natural colour that conveys warmth, but if used too widely it can feel heavy and dull, whilst a jaundiced yellow gives a sickly appearance to everyone in the restaurant so try to steer towards warmer, sunny shades instead.

Back of house paintwork

Whilst your front of house décor will be dominated by colour, it is generally best to stick to something plain and simple in your kitchen area. White tends to be the more popular option as it helps the kitchen appear clean and hygienic and also helps to highlight any areas that your cleaners need to pay attention to.

Paint finishes

In addition to choosing the right colours, you also need to select the best paint finish for each area of your restaurant. Semi-gloss paint is often recommended for kitchen areas as it is durable and easily cleaned. This means that grease or cooking splatters can easily be wiped down without fear of damaging the paint.

However, in the front of house you may prefer a satin or eggshell finish as these give a slightly shinier appearance that still provided easy cleaning but prevent light from glaring off the walls which can then disturb customers.

It is also worth remembering that paints which have flatter finishes will show scrapes from chairs and handbags, so choosing an eggshell finish tends to be a more scratch resistant solution.

Think about lighting

It is important that you consider the lighting in your restaurant before you start painting, as this can play a crucial role in how the space looks and feels.

Lower lighting tends to be used in fine dining restaurants, natural lighting is favoured in modern cafes and themed restaurants opt for coloured, moody lighting. It is therefore crucial that you consider how the paint colours will blend with the lighting.

Look at how much artificial light you use, as well as what natural light is able to enter the space. Colours can look different in different lights, so you need to assess how each one will look in daylight and at night to make sure you have a consistent and appealing atmosphere.

Target audience

You should also think about the customers you are aiming at with your restaurant when choosing your colours. For example, the paint scheme for a family eatery will be very different to a high-end restaurant aimed at young professionals.

You should take the time to think about your target audience and understand what their expectations are likely to be so that you can then tailor your colour scheme accordingly.

The painting process

When it comes to redecorating your restaurant, it can be tempting to want to undertake the job yourself, but it is important to remember that while this is cheaper, it is often a more arduous task.

Hiring a professional for large restaurants is advised due to the scale of the project which may require someone with more experience. A professional painter and their team can limit the amount of time that the restaurant needs to be closed.

It is also important that any paintwork has a professional finish. As customers relax in your restaurant, their eye is likely to fall on any areas which are splattered, uneven or wonky, which can detract from their experience.

A lot of thought needs to go into the painting of a restaurant, so it can be useful to seek professional advice. This will not only help you select the right colour but also get the perfect finish.

You need to make sure that any painting that you do in your restaurant is durable so that it can stand up to high volumes of traffic and stay looking good for as long as possible. The décor in your restaurant will say as much about your business as your food will, so it needs lots of thought, planning and attention to make sure you get it right.