Painting and Decorating a Restaurant

A fine restaurant relies on ambience as well as delicious food, and your painting and decorating choices determine much of that ambience.

This seafood restaurant gets a maritime feel from the teal colour and the portraits of sailing ships. Note how the picture rail sports the same colour as the walls, while the chair rail is picked out in a pale cream shade that tones beautifully with the pictures. The effect is of ships sailing on the sea, with whitecaps in the foreground.



The colour scheme continues in the prep area behind the bar. Another choice would be a clean, fresh white, but this choice keeps the whole place in sync.

The thing to avoid is painting the part customers see and leaving the part where the work takes place undone. Customers see these spaces, after all!

Warm colours are popular in restaurants. They make the place feel cozy, and they can make customers feel hungrier, too! Here, a warm terra cotta paper with elegant gold touches defines the bar area. It's a handsome contrast with the blue green in the dining area -- just across the colour wheel.

The total is a welcoming space. Customers come in expecting to enjoy themselves.