The design of your café can set you apart from the crowd and provide your customers with a comfortable home away from home or a chic new place to be seen, short black in hand. Whatever your intended style, here are five café décor trends that you should know about.

Industrial

With its metal fixtures, rough edges and warehouse styling, the industrial style café is the new go-to trend for those looking for quality brews. The style frequently features blackboards, exposed brickwork or cement walls, polished concrete or floorboards, with repurposed tables and recycled wood.

Ceilings add to the rough feel, with exposed beams or air-conditioning ducts and oversized pendant style light globes. It’s a trend that says the food will be locally sourced, the brew fair trade and the coffee… sensational.

Creating this look is about attention to detail – rough and ready detail that is. The art is to make an area appear thrown together when every little touch actually adds to the theme. This is where professional shopfitters like Tú Projects provide invaluable assistance, making your vision seem effortless.

Cafe Trends
Cafe Trends

Eclectic

Mismatched chairs, repurposed tables and a vintage couch nestled in the corner – the eclectic style is about reusing the old to create something new. This is a home away from home cafe, where the mugs you drink from wouldn’t look out of place at your Grandma’s house. But make no mistake, there’s a knack to pulling it off. Go too eclectic and the café looks old school, it’s about mixing vintage with modern in healthy doses.

Chic

Crisp finishes that mix modern textures with clean lines are the mark of a chic and modern café. A minimalist approach selects feature pieces within the space to form the artwork of the venue. Colour may be restrained, used only in deliberate splashes of bold chairs or lighting. The look says your food will be contemporary and your coffee premium.

Themed

There are a host of brilliantly designed cafés at present that have embraced either a theme or blend of cultures. Driven by the growing street food culture, it may be an American-Japanese theme featuring anime-inspired artworks and American diner-style tableware. The ethos is about melding cultures to create a vibrant dining experience.

The skill of a themed restaurant is pulling back from trying to replicate a time or culture. Instead, it’s about a subtle nod to an era or traditions with a modern twist on the idea.

Ramshackle

When milk crates provide seating and tables are made from pallets, the ramshackle concept is at play. Think fresh produce and hessian, whole foods and boutique coffee. This look is about creating the vibe that focuses on the quality of produce rather than the decoration.

Designing a café is about catering to a need – that need may be somewhere trendy to be seen, somewhere quality to enjoy coffee with friends, or somewhere to knock out an assignment over a fair trade flat white. It’s also about giving your customers an idea what to expect and a place to relish a meal. With the right design, you’ll get them coming back again and again.