What to Consider
When Designing a Salon or Personal Suite
Whether it’s a personal suite in a small, cute space or a full-fledged salon where the boundaries are less restrictive, the opportunity for optimal design is literally limitless!
No matter how much space you’re working with, what your budget might look like, or how you plan to decorate your space, there’s so much potential just waiting to be tapped into—and it’s all entirely up to you.
If you’re starting from scratch when it comes to designing your salon or suite, the process can easily feel overwhelming—especially since, like we said, there’s so much potential out there! But don’t sweat it—we’re here to help.
While we can’t offer up our interior decorating and design services to you directly (although, that would be super fun), we can provide you with a few must-consider factors that you should map out before you start buying your supplies, painting the walls, and getting to work.
So, what’s the best starting point for your design process? Right here, fam.
Start reading below and get the ultimate guide to the top considerations for designing your personal suite, salon, shop, or spa!
Appeal to Your Clients
What you want in a salon or suite definitely matters—but you can’t get tunnel vision. Think about who that salon or suite is truly for—your clients. If you’re not taking into consideration what clients will think or feel about your salon, suite, or studio, then you’re not designing for success.
Consider what your clients look for in a salon. Think about what you like to see as a customer walking into a salon. You can even take polls from regulars to understand what they enjoy about a salon’s design.
Ultimately, you want to design a salon or suite that’s appealing to you and your employees, but if you’re considering the clients’ experience from the start, you’re not setting yourself up for success.
Brand, Branding, and Brand Identity
Your salon or suite should be a direct nod to your brand and brand identity. Brand can be a complicated topic—because it includes tangible and intangible elements—but despite its complexity, it’s a crucial feature for any salon design.
If you’re unsure about brand, brand identity, or how to brand your salon successfully, read this article here. We dive into what you need to know about brand (as a concept) and how you can brand your salon to reflect your brand’s identity seamlessly!
Incorporating elements of your brand into your salon design is crucial to your success!
Lighting, Hardware, and Outlets
These three factors might sound boring but they’re monumentally important when they come to designing your space. Let’s start with light.
When you’re choosing how to design your salon, you have to consider true, natural daylight and how you’ll incorporate this into your space. This means understanding windows, your suite’s location, and how you can capitalize on natural light.
Ask yourself questions about lighting—will you need to supplement with lighting in certain spots throughout the salon? Are you able to plan out where you’ll need additional fixtures? Have you considered LED vs incandescent bulbs? Lighting is a huge consideration and shouldn’t be taken lightly (no pun intended).
Hardware and outlets are important considerations, too. Obviously, you’ll need plenty of access to outlets and hardware for your equipment, but you don’t just want wires and cords laying around.
Consider designing your stations to have hardware and outlets inside your drawers or cabinets to keep these necessities hidden.
Stations & Color Bar
These areas are prime real estate for thoughtful, unique, and functional design. Consider these areas to be your domain—they’re your workspace, so your discretion about what’s going to work best is what matters most.
Yes, you’ll want these spaces to be comfortable for your clients and, of course, aesthetically appealing, but ultimately, it’s about seamless functionality and making your job easier, so make sure you’re considering these spaces from all angles.
Think about comfy chairs, luxe shampooing stations, and focal-point color bars to draw the eye to your salon’s unique design—just make sure you never sacrifice aesthetics for functionality!
Adaptability
In light of the COVID-19 pandemic, it’s important to take a look at your salon or suite’s design and ask yourself questions like, “If I need to adapt the design of my salon to survive, could it work?” Think about how partitions and shields are being used in salons during the pandemic to protect clients.
Are you able to implement these changes if needed? Are you able to keep clients 6ft apart? While it’s impossible to totally plan for every scenario, it’s important to ensure your design leaves a little wiggle room and flexibility for adaptability.
Reception & Waiting Areas
Remember, you’re not just designing your dream salon—you’re designing a client’s dream salon, too. That means that areas they use (that you might not) need to be thoughtfully planned and designed. The waiting area and the reception area are going to be huge considerations when it comes time to design your space.
You don’t need endless amounts of space to create a comfortable, relaxing setting—you just need to take your clients’ needs into account. Is there room to create a comfy space that your clients won’t mind waiting in? Is reception cramped?
Think about how your clients and staff will be spending their time in these areas and design according to these considerations.
Have you designed your own salon or suite with serious success? Do you have tips that you wish you’d known before you started designing your salon? Don’t leave your community hanging! Share your insight, advice, and techniques with your beauty pro team—drop a comment below and let us know how you designed your salon or suite!
Loving our blogs? We thought so! Subscribe with EBS and stay up-to-date with our regularly updated posts bringing you insight, advice, and a real community!
