Lighting a Restaurant: Discover the Importance and Ways to Effectively Light Your Restaurant

Maybe you recently decided to take the entrepreneurship route and open your cafe or restaurant, but do you have any idea how lighting can help you offer a true gastronomic experience to your diners every time they visit you?

Light and color are the main elements that build a space. Light is so important in human life that it influences their mood and their perception of time. In the eyes of an architect or interior designer, light is used as a nuance that enhances or hides certain qualities of the space and helps to express its personality.

When we talk about interior design, we refer to the set of planned elements from the beginning, where it is essential to know what feelings you want to provoke in the attendees of a restaurant or cafe. Right in this, light plays a leading role.

People who are dedicated to gastronomy are creating unforgettable experiences when visiting their restaurants, and lighting design are essential.

1. What do I want to do, and for whom?

This answer is directly related to your restaurant’s public and the personality you want to give it. Clearly define who you want to attend and what feeling you want to convey: a serious, fun, ostentatious place, etc., so you will know which aspects to accentuate and which not, and create, more than a design, a whole lighting concept.

For example, suppose you have a restaurant that mainly serves breakfast. In that case, your customers may be interested in eating in daylight or with a window view, as opposed to a cafe where most couples go, where you can use a Spotlight on the tables to make your customers forget that they have more people around.

Another riskier example can be restaurants with communal tables that seek to promote conviviality and conversation, breaking the dynamics of independent groups of diners. These restaurants can use general and diffuse lighting and even use natural light, thus reducing the sense of privacy among their attendees.

2. What is the orientation of my space, and what are the natural inputs of light?

You must know the elements with which you already have. Perhaps your business already has very cosy natural lighting, which you can take advantage of without competing with other design elements.

There are two main sources of lighting: natural light and artificial light, both of which must be properly integrated and coexist. Determine where they can be balanced and in which situations one of them could stand out or leave a surplus.

You can also take advantage of the different neon lighting varieties that exist to achieve true integration of lights and that are perceived with balance. For this, you need to know when to give priority to artificial light. We suggest you get in touch with Kemp London, the city’s oldest sign-making company specializing in commercial and residential lighting and illumination.

Kemp London boasts a full suite of state-of-the-art clients from restaurants to large corporations who have taken their lighting aesthetics and management to the next level. Kemp London specializes in Neon Signs and Illuminated Art, Interiors, Retail, and Hospitality Lighting, Set Design and Events, Neon Effect LED, Corporate and Architectural Lighting, Large Format Printing and Vinyl, etc.

3. How do you plan to segment and distribute all the zones in your business?

Most restaurants or cafes have a linear distribution scheme in their areas open to customers, starting with a reception area, followed by a diner area, which in turn is divided into two: family and private; and finally, the bar, which is the limit of the diners’ journey. At the same time, they also have toilets, corridors and circulation areas, and a kitchen.

Use artificial light, either indirectly or punctually, to properly segment the areas of your business.

Here are some points that you can consider for each of these areas:

• Corridors and circulations

It is the area where there is usually more lighting to guide your customers to their table and see, more clearly, where they can sit, where the bar is, in case they want to order something or to show the emergency exits of the place.

• Diners

For this area, lighting with warm tones is mainly used. Still, care must be taken that the light is not so warm, to such a degree that it can distort the color of the food, and also does not shine directly on people’s faces to avoid any shade that prevents them from not even reading the menu well.

In some restaurants, it is common to find the dining area divided into two areas: one more familiar and one more private. The family area is usually outside, such as a terrace, where contact with natural light is key. On the other hand, the most private area is designed for clients looking for a more intimate space, hence the importance of applying more specific and controlled lighting that makes them feel that only they exist in that place.

If you decide to install pendant lamps on the tables, remember that the recommended height between the table and the lamp is 70 cm, in this way you will avoid any type of accident.

• Bar

The bar fulfils a very important function within a business. On the one hand, it is used as a visual finish as it is the top of the open area for customers and has two work areas: the preparation of drinks and the cashier, which require direct and specific lighting.

There are two main trends to focus the bar: using pendant lamps above it, and the other is to directly illuminate the bar using backlit surfaces.

• Kitchen

Unlike the areas to which customers have access, the kitchen is a work area that needs a white light that does not deform the colour and texture of the food, which allows to see the general state of the food, its consistency, its doneness, develop the proper presentation of the dishes and have the proper visibility to find things easily.

All this leads us to understand in a better way that each activity carried out, both by users and employees, requires specialized lighting designed for them.

A restaurant’s success lies in the comfort of the client and that a memorable experience accompanies the food. Therefore, we can say that lighting is essential to carry out the activities in certain areas, such as to show the personality of the place, through directed lights, ceiling lights, spots, recesses, etc.