“The “temperature” of a space has a big impact on how productive and responsive people are.
Staff and customers alike need to feel a certain warmth to gain the best from your business and the space you operate in.
Here’s 4 big ticket items to create warmth in a commercial space:
Lightning
In many fitouts, the choice between using warm or cool light is easy because it’s wise to use a mixture of each.
Soft white (warm light) is perfect to create a space where we want to offer relaxation and comfort. It is most often used domestically, but when used as accent or decorative lighting in a fitout, it’s highly effective.
Generally cool lamps are preferred for a modern look in commercial settings. Cooler lighting is best for performing tasks. It’s a definite best for displaying merchandise.
Hint: Include some decorative lighting (pendants, wall fixtures) with warm lamps in waiting areas, restaurants, bars, and spaces where comfort is key.
Colour
Warm colors convey various effects.
Use them for energy and enthusiasm, to stimulate and connect staff, clients, customers, patients, or students.
Use them also to advance a space and make the surroundings seem more open.
Hint: A basic way of using a warm palette is to apply the 80/20 rule. Use 80% from the warmer yellows, oranges, reds or pinks and only 20% from the cooler blues, greens, purples.
Flooring
There’s no doubt that the words “timber” and “warmth” can be used comfortably in the same sentence. So, too can carpeting.
There are many timber or timber-look options ranging from refined hardwood or rustic salvaged planking to engineered timber flooring, to vinyl which looks like timber planking or even bamboo.
The choices are wide and varied in both serviceability and price point. All will create a feeling of warmth in their own way.
Hint: Divide up areas by running the planks in a different direction.
Carpeting and Rugs
Commonly and widely used in waiting areas, office spaces, some retail uses, education and sometimes foyers to create softness and absorb sound.
Hint: Rather than choosing entirely carpet, partner it with timber, polished concrete or tiled flooring to break up spaces, create more interest and provide pattern and colour.
Texture
Bring in some texture. It’s a must.
It’s all about what people perceive as a sense of touch when they walk into a space. It creates a warmth that draws them in. It makes them want to enter and stay around to sit on or touch the surrounding surfaces.
Hint: Bring in texture by introducing materials with pattern or movement, with some roughness, coarseness or contrasting softness so that people can “feel the warmth”.
Timbers, leathers, sisals, fabrics, wallpapers, pressed metals, aged bricks, stones, plant life – there are so many materials to combine.
As a business operator, you look after your clients and customers in a variety of ways, but when you focus on creating a warm and positive mood to welcome them, it can be easier to win their loyalty and trust.
