When designing a restaurant, attention tends to focus on details such as furniture, decoration and brand image. However, having adequate lighting is equally important: the restaurant may have excellent interior design, but customers will not fully appreciate it with poor quality lighting.
Lighting also affects how the colors and textures of objects are perceived, and this applies to food and drink. The right lamps and accessories can also make your dishes tastier. On the other hand, some ingredients may appear dull and less flavorful under lamps with poor color reproduction.
Get a professional MEP design for your restaurant and optimize your lighting system.
In this article, we will discuss 4 ways to improve restaurant design with lighting. When you're in the food industry , lighting can be a powerful marketing tool. Professional design can help you create the right environment while getting quick approval from the building department and saving on energy bills.
1) Glare Prevention: A Top Priority in Restaurant Lighting Design
Glare is an uncomfortable effect on human vision when a concentrated light source is directly visible or reflected from a surface. Depending on its severity, the effects of glare can range from mild discomfort to visual pain. In restaurants, where keeping visitors comfortable is a priority, glare should be avoided at all costs. Glare can turn off customers, even if you serve some of the best food in town.
To avoid glare , you need an even light distribution where bright bulbs are not directly visible. Reflective surfaces like mirrors and metallic objects should also be placed where they won't send light rays to your customers. To achieve this, the best recommendation is to hire a professional lighting project. Architects and engineers can use simulation software to try out different lighting options for their restaurant and choose the most suitable lamps and fixtures.
2) Using color temperatures to your advantage
Lighting design is technical and subjective, but there are general trends in how light colors affect human emotions.
- Light sources with a high color temperature have cool tones of blue , which improve attention to detail and awareness. Excessive exposure to cold light can also induce stress and anxiety while disrupting sleep.
- Light sources with a low color temperature feature warmer yellow tones , which have a relaxing effect. This makes them ideal for places like bedrooms, hotel rooms, and restaurants. Warm light would be counterproductive in an office, where its relaxing effect can reduce productivity.
Note that high color temperatures are considered “cool” while low color temperatures are considered “warm,” and this may seem counterintuitive at first glance. However, correlated color temperature (CCT) actually refers to the color of the lighting produced, not the actual temperature of the lamp. For example, LED bulbs operate at lower temperatures than older, less efficient bulbs, even if you see a high CCT value on their packaging. In this case, high CCT refers to a cool blue tone and does not mean the bulb will be warmer.
Warm lighting (low CCT) is recommended for restaurants as it creates a relaxing and more comfortable environment. On the other hand, cold lighting (high CCT) can be used for parking areas, where high visibility and attention to detail are desired.
3) High CRI lighting: make your dishes look better
The Color Rendering Index (CRI) describes how well a light source shows the color and textures of surfaces. The maximum CRI value is 100 and describes a light source that has the same quality as sunlight. CRI and CCT are sometimes confused, but there is an easy way to tell them apart: CCT describes the color of the light source itself, while CRI describes the ability to show the colors and textures of other objects.
In a restaurant, high CRI fixtures improve the appearance of food and drinks, making them tastier. Just keep in mind that the opposite is also true: poor lighting has a negative impact on the way your dishes are perceived, even if their taste and quality are the same.
4) LED pendant lights: eliminate unwanted heat around customers
Pendant lights are very popular in restaurants as they can provide superior lighting at each table. However, pendant lights often have an undesirable effect: releasing heat too close to your customers, causing discomfort. A simple solution in this case is to use LED pendant lamps, which have lower heat emission and energy consumption.
In general, LED lighting is recommended to reduce energy bills in restaurants, especially if your city has a strict energy code. However, LED lamps are also a more comfortable option when used near restaurant tables, thanks to their low heat emission.
