4 tips for designing the best furniture for your commercial space
Choosing and creating furniture elements for a commercial space should be more involved than picking random pieces from a catalog. Instead, commercial environments like retail, restaurant, hotel and office spaces can be invigorated by working collaboratively with Ideoli to design custom furniture that covers all their criteria– whatever it may be. In order to best design these pieces, it’s helpful for clients to follow these four tips when engaging with us to design their furniture elements:
1. Know and tell us who your target customer is.
The whole process should start with an understanding of the intended audience and user of the furniture element, whether it’s a table, chair, stool, showcase unit or display case. We then focus on designing furniture that is more than aesthetically pleasing, creating pieces that support your overall business goals. For example, a high-end jeweler will likely want more elegant furniture designs that accentuates the gems, compared to a toy store, which might want more fun pieces. In addition to being the right style, the designed furniture needs to be durable depending on the specific use application. There are many variables to consider, so you should lean into our expertise on how to find the right combination based on your target customers.
2. Share your ideas and inspiration with us.
Once we know the target customer and use, it’s time to let the creative juices flow. We love collaborating with clients, specifiers and the distributors, so we encourage you to share all your ideas and inspiration with us for how you envision your space to look and the elements needed to achieve this. From there, we can use our experience to design and recommend the pieces that will help turn that vision into reality.
3. Tell us the mood you want to set in your commercial space
As alluded to earlier, having different target audiences means commercial spaces will want different moods that match the intended customer types. But just because a space is in a certain category, like jewelry or restaurant, it doesn’t mean we assume the furniture has to look a certain way. Perhaps you’re trying to make the store more approachable and upbeat, so knowing that, we could take steps such as altering materials, color and shape, while still using elements that provide the necessary functionality.
4. Consider multi-purpose furniture elements.
As part of maximizing your budget, think about whether you could benefit from multi-purpose furniture. Commercial environments with outdoor space might want furniture that can be used inside or out, depending on the season, and as a result they can save on the amount of pieces they need to purchase. Additionally, furniture can be multi-purpose indoors, such as a table that can be used for eating or to display items. Some commercial spaces want this flexibility, while others would be best served by having furniture with a specific purpose, so it’s important to consider what works best for you and the spaces you’re furnishing.
All these tips might make the process seem complex, but we try to make it fun and encourage you to do the same, like with our client brainstorming sessions over espresso or beer. By going through this process, together we can design the best furniture for your retail space, maximize your budget and deliver a truly customized and quality product.
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