When you decide to open up your own coffee shop, you will probably be spending some time coming up with the design. Let’s face it, unless you buy a franchise along with the building, you will need to figure out exactly where everything will go. Depending on the building, some things, such as the kitchen and bathrooms, may have already been decided but most of the other things won’t be.

So what does this mean? Well, basically, it means that you can’t do anything else until you design your space. You will obviously have the building by now and you will have your business plan but you still need to really look at the design.

Many times, when people are designing everything, not just coffee shops, they tend to go a little overboard. There are so many interesting things to purchase and each one is either a necessity for the shop itself or for the atmosphere. Although it is tempting to shop, even for a few small items, before you have your design, I would strongly recommend against it.

Choose your theme:

Okay, this doesn’t mean that you pick out a theme and go from there but it actually means to look at what type of atmosphere you want. Do you want a place where artists can come and display their art or read their work or do you want a place where business people would love to have lunch?

Knowing what type of atmosphere you are going for will help in deciding your overall design and layout of your coffee shop.

Look at your menu:

This may seem strange but knowing what your menu will be will help in providing the best design layout for your coffee house. Knowing your menu will give you an idea of the type of equipment you need, and what other “permanent” fixtures you will want. Things like a condiments bar or a muffin display case or even a pick up counter will need to be figured out before you start your layout.

Once you know what type of equipment and “permanent” fixtures you need, you can start graphing out the interior design, adding the items and making sure they have just the right amount of space. Make sure that you take electrical outlets into account when you start drawing in your equipment.

Learn about your fire zone:

I may have lost you there, but did you know that you can only have a max number of people in a building depending on what the code is for your neighborhood. This will affect the number of seats and tables that you provide for your customers and will give you an idea of how much space you will have to play with after your tables go in. At this point, you can start looking for tables and figuring out the sizes and colors you would like.

Figure out your accessories:

Every coffee house has some sort of accessories, whether those are plants, bookcases or a small stage. Once you have your seating and equipment on your designs, start looking at the little extras that you want. Put those into the layout too.

Once you have everything figured out you can start purchasing and setting everything up. Make sure you use colors that work well together and don’t detract from your overall atmosphere.

-Sirena Van Schaik

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