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These are general guidelines for design and placement that can be safely applied to most situations. However, if you are serious about achieving a perfectly balanced and beautiful restaurant environment, then a personalised consultation is recommended for your success in business and a memorable dining experience for your patrons.
Feng Shui for Restaurants
As an intuitive, creative and precise approach to interior design and placement, Feng Shui has much to offer the hospitality industry. Here are some Feng Shui guidelines tailored to the needs of restaurants, hotels and cafes that can enhance harmony and success for restaurateurs and their patrons.
First define the goals of your business and then aim to create an environment that is consistent with these. What style of dining experience do you want to create for your customers? What outcomes do you want for yourself and the business? Are there any difficult features in your premises or local environment that you need to take account of, such as a side entrance, traffic noise or overshadowing from adjacent buildings?
Presentation and Entry
- Examine how your premises present to potential customers. Your entrance is your "Mouth of Qi" – the path by which Qi (life force energy) comes into your life and your business.
- Ensure that your entrance is vibrant, welcoming, and easy to find and access. A front door that is grubby or difficult to open will inhibit potential customers.
- Design restaurant signage and menus using colours and style that accurately convey the energy of your food and the dining experience you are offering.
- Don't have toilets in view from the front entrance.
- In most eating venues it is important to create an ambience that encourages relaxed conversation and enjoyment of food.
- Include thick textured materials in the décor to absorb reverberation of noise. This could be achieved with carpet on the floor, fabric upholstered chairs, or acoustic panelling on the walls or ceiling.
Placement
- Place tables and chairs in a harmonious arrangement so that people are able to move freely through the restaurant, and can sit feeling settled and at ease. Avoid placing tables in front of doorways, or between access routes to the kitchen or toilets. An eating environment that is noisy, obstructed with jutting table edges or generally chaotic can result in agitated customers and staff, and can even cause indigestion.
- A common source for conflict and discomfort are the sharp corners of tables placed at angles as these can direct their "cutting Qi" at diners. Round or oval tables are often preferable. If this is not practical, place tables so that the corners do not oppose each other.
- Avoid placing customers at tables next to the electric meter box. This not only feels cramped but the electro-magnetic radiation emitted can result in an experience of tiredness and headaches.
Behind the Scenes
- Ensure that the "behind the scenes" areas of your building are also scrupulously clean and consciously cared for. These include the kitchen, toilets, storerooms and staff areas. Any areas of neglect represent a lack of integrity in the business. These spaces should be free from rubbish and unnecessary clutter.
- Avoid dripping taps as these also suggest neglect and can lose Qi/money from the business.
The Kitchen
Harmony and efficiency in the kitchen is the key to any restaurant's success.
- As the kitchen uses fire, water and sharp blades, it is a room prone to conflict. Added to this there are often many different people and multiple activities happening rapidly in a small space.
- Minimise exposure to sharp corners and angles, slippery floors, hot stoves, sharp knives, overhanging pots and hooks, congestion, clutter, storage and neglect, and the opposing doors of cupboards, fridges, and storerooms.
- Similarly, staff should avoid working in close proximity to microwave ovens as these emit harmful microwaves.
- Having good ventilation and lots of (preferably natural) light will help to rid a kitchen of smoke and fumes and replenishing the life force of the kitchen and its workers.
- Bring only love and positive thoughts to the preparation, cooking and serving of food as these positive vibrations are then absorbed into the food to be enjoyed by the diners.
Colours and Lighting
- Use warm rather than cool colours for the interior décor and menu design. Shades of red, orange, burgundy, yellow, brown and cream are more conducive to the nourishing and enjoyable experience of eating than are cool shades of grey, blue and green.
- Similarly, choose yellow rather than blue-based lighting that encourages the appetite. Lighting style and effect should reinforce the energy and style of your restaurant. For example, soft, moody lighting can attract those customers seeking a special and memorable night out. However, dim lighting can be frustrating for office workers who want a quick and efficient lunchtime meal.
Seasonal Cooking
- Consider the changing energies of the seasons and select cooking styles and ingredients accordingly. Seasonal cooking is more compatible with the energy of the body, which makes for a more harmonious dining experience.
- As we approach the cooler months of autumn and winter, foods that are warming and inwardly nourishing become important. Slow cooked dishes such as thick golden pumpkin soup and hearty bean casseroles harmonise the stomach, spleen and kidneys, resulting in feelings of comfort and wellness. Cold soups and salads are no longer appropriate.
- The metal energy of autumn can be celebrated with foods and décor in tones of gold and bronze, burnt orange, deep reds, mellow yellows and radiant browns.
- Winter's water energy is expressed with deep indigo blue and midnight purple, chocolate brown, charcoal, translucent watery colours and materials and flowing lines and shapes.
- Similarly interior furnishing should be more cosy and inward-focussed in winter. Braziers and log fires add a welcoming, reflective ambience.
These are general guidelines for design and placement that can be safely applied to most situations. However, if you are serious about achieving a perfectly balanced and beautiful restaurant environment, then a personalised consultation is recommended for your success in business and a memorable dining experience for your patrons.