Delicious food and quality service are highlights in the restaurant industry, but you shouldn’t forget about how a restaurant looks and feels, too. Restaurant ambiance is critical for success in the food industry.

The interior design of your restaurant sets the tone, defines its character, and creates a theme. Restaurant interior design trends are constantly changing as customer tastes evolve. Staying informed about what’s popular and making necessary adjustments to cater to customer preferences are the keys to restaurant success.


These design themes can help you change or update your restaurant to fit this year’s top trends.

1. Sustainable Construction Design

Utilizing sustainable construction techniques in restaurant design is becoming the standard. Sustainable construction design involves using environmentally conscious building materials and techniques that reduce a building’s carbon footprint. These include things like:

  • Energy-efficient HVAC systems with smart temperature controls and zoning capabilities. This allows for reduced energy usage.
  • Installation of occupancy sensors in low-traffic areas to automatically turn lights on and off based on detected motion. This prevents energy waste from lighting empty rooms.
  • Insulated concrete form (ICF) construction for walls and foundations. ICF blocks provide superior insulation compared to wood framing.
  • LED lighting throughout the restaurant interior. LED bulbs last longer and use less electricity than incandescent or fluorescent lighting.
  • Low-flow plumbing fixtures to conserve water.
  • Use of recycled, renewable, and locally sourced building materials whenever possible. Using locally sourced materials also reduces transportation emissions.

Sustainable construction elements help reduce operational costs through lower utility bills. They also provide environmental benefits and allow a restaurant to market itself as an eco-conscious establishment. With rising eco-awareness among consumers, this can give your restaurant a competitive edge.

2. Dark Color Tones 

For 2024, modern restaurants are utilizing dark color tones to create ambiance and style in their interiors. Dark walls, tables, and gray wood flooring provide a rich and traditional look, adding character and enhancing the overall dining experience for customers.

Dark colors and tones have become an increasingly popular trend in restaurant interior design. When used thoughtfully throughout a dining space, deep shades of gray, black, navy, forest green, and brown can create an intimate, upscale ambiance.

Specifically, dark-colored accent walls, ceilings, faux-finished furnishings, stone surfaces, and wood tones establish visual interest while encouraging patrons to linger. Strategically placed lighting casts a glow throughout the space, drawing attention to decor elements and making dark colors appear richer.

Dark wood flooring and tabletops also add warmth and dimension. Matte black or forged metal finishes on light fixtures, chairs, and table bases provide contemporary contrast. Leather, velvet, or brocade upholstery choices align with the sophisticated scheme.

Gallery walls involve decorating walls with a curated collection of framed photos, artwork, wall hangings, mirrors, and other memorabilia. When thoughtfully designed, gallery walls create visual interest and establish aesthetics. Framed photos, paintings, posters, and memorabilia along gallery walls offer diners a view of unique imagery throughout dining spaces.

In a restaurant setting specifically, gallery walls achieve multiple purposes:

  • Attract attention and spark conversation, giving customers decorative elements to admire. This enhances the overall ambiance.
  • Establish a theme or mood through intentional, cohesive decor choices.
  • Influence traffic flow when strategically placed, subtly directing customers.
  • Personalize the environment with framed dishes, chef photos, or restaurant history.
  • Provide opportunities to showcase local artists and refresh artwork for regulars.

Altogether, gallery walls can help your restaurant establish branding, ambiance, and uniqueness for years to come.

4. Minimalistic Design

Regarding recent restaurant and bar design trends, the saying “less is more” holds true. Minimalist spaces help reduce visual distractions, which can enhance guest engagement.

Minimalist design techniques achieve this by creating clean lines and clutter-free zones through neutral backdrops, such as white or light-colored walls, that allow the decor to stand out. Natural materials like stone, wood, plants, and concrete add clean texture. 

Discreetly hide any necessary wires and conduits, and use space-saving furniture to prevent visual clutter. Use mood-setting accent lighting instead of harsh overheads and offer streamlined, clear menu options.

This simplified concept focuses on ambiance, brand, and cuisine by defusing visual chaos in favor of quality materials and purposeful decor. 

5. Picture-Perfect Social Media Backdrops

Platforms like Instagram are becoming increasingly influential in how restaurants market their cuisine and spaces. Photogenic dishes and dining spaces encouraging quality user-generated content can provide invaluable brand exposure.

Restaurants are starting to design their interiors with shareable social media moments in mind. They use textural backdrops and eye-catching lighting fixtures to create intrigue for photos. They carefully arrange strategic table settings and menu presentations ideal for snapping the perfect picture. Designed focal points like vivid murals, neon signs, and exposed architectural elements also encourage photo opportunities, turning patrons into organic advertisers.

While some criticize social media for changing dining etiquette norms, leveraging social media performance, reach allows restaurants to spread their messages widely and drive traffic. Ultimately, these sharable and stylized spaces help attract the ideal brand demographics in modern, technology-immersed markets.

6. Lighting Accents

Lighting is crucial to creating the right atmosphere and ambiance in a restaurant. Restaurants use proper lighting placement, dimming controls, and color palettes to customize moods or themes for different dining areas or events. 

You can use different strategies to achieve effective lighting. For example, grazing vertical wall surfaces can spotlight textures, while hanging fixtures over artwork or architectural details can distinguish focal points. Ambient overhead fixtures can establish comfort, and task lighting can improve kitchen and bar functionality. You can also use color-changing LEDs to set seasonal or festive moods. 

Even small-scale lighting adjustments can have a significant aesthetic impact. By maximizing illumination, restaurants can create distinct atmospheres, extend guest stays, and boost brand familiarity. 

7. Visible, Open Kitchens

When a restaurant displays its kitchen operations for guests, it can create a more engaging and satisfying dining experience. By watching the chefs at work, guests can feel closer to the origins of their dishes and appreciate the efforts made by the staff to prepare quality cuisine. 

This visibility can offer many benefits, such as captivating diners with fiery grills and steaming stations, while also allowing guests to gain insight into how chefs prepare signature menu items, satisfying their curiosity.

Increased visibility of the kitchen can also enable better hospitality from the kitchen to the table. Open workflows promote freshness, hygiene, and traceability, which is preferred by discerning diners. Patrons can witness the artistry and passion behind the dishes across the dining spaces, and chefs become attractions. 

Ultimately, when the kitchen is visible and barrier-free, it strengthens the relationship between the staff and the guests by revealing the diligent culinary craft.


So, Is Restaurant Interior Design Important?

Restaurant interior design is vital for shaping customer experiences and setting businesses apart from their competitors. A dull and uninviting atmosphere can discourage customers from staying, returning, or recommending the restaurant despite the quality of the offerings.

Without thoughtful layouts and aesthetically appealing environments, even the most talented chefs and staff can struggle to make a positive impression on their customers. Therefore, distinct and updated designs are invaluable for converting customers and retaining them over time in a highly competitive market.


FAQs About Restaurant Interior Design

What are the latest restaurant interior design trends?

Current restaurant interior trends include sustainable construction elements, dark color palettes, photo walls, minimalism, creative lighting, and open kitchens.


How often should restaurants remodel their design?

I recommend updating the interior design of your restaurant every five to seven years to stay contemporary, refresh aesthetics for regulars, and conform with evolving trends. However, modest annual changes like new accent decor, artwork rotations, or special lighting keep designs are simple ways to update design without overspending.


What design elements make a restaurant look modern?

Clean lines, neutral tones, dark wood elements, pops of color via lighting and plants, geometric patterns, metallic and velvet accents, murals and textural artwork, concrete or marble surfaces, custom graphics, and signage are all modern design aesthetics.


How do restaurants create Instagrammable spaces?

Restaurants seeking Instagrammable interiors use vibrant wall paint colors, eye-catching murals, marquee neon signs, hanging greenery installations, accent lighting, patterned tilework, localized artwork displays, textural furnishings, and deliberately staged table settings to attract social photo ops.


Editorial Contributors
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Abbie Clark

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Abbie Clark is a writer and blogger. She is the founder of "Hey She Thrives", where she writes about all things motherhood, coupled with expert cleaning tips that echo the warmth and order of a loving home. She is also the co founder of "RideRambler." There, you can find all of the info you'll ever need on DIY car fixes and Auto news.When not writing, you can find Abbie chasing her toddler, trying a new cookie recipe, or fishing with her husband.

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