Design-Forward Commercial Millwork for Lounges, Lobbies, and Bar Areas

Lounges, lobbies, and bars are often the centerpieces of restaurants and commercial buildings in industries where design-forward thinking is rewarded with customer loyalty. Businesses want to bring warmth and style to their services without sacrificing function, but this can prove challenging when trying to fit a generic design into a distinct space.

Custom commercial millwork can solve the problem by empowering designers to embrace the elements that make each space distinct. Placing the design first can come with risks, but experienced custom millwork artisans can avoid them with these design principles and strategies.

This article aims to help business owners and designers create lasting first impressions through design-first storytelling, modern durability, and professionally created flow.

Tip #1: Use Commercial Millwork as a Brand Identity Tool

There’s nothing more design-forward than building a central commercial space to tell a story in the textures and materials themselves. Brands need to define their identity clearly, and once they have it, custom millwork can capture its essence and turn it into a physical experience.

In a commercial lounge, this can result in designs that use custom-built-in banquettes to encourage a cozy atmosphere, with integrated lighting to define the space better. If the intended identity is intimate and comfortable, millwork can emphasize smooth curves over harsh angles.

This can also go the other way, such as in the reception lobby of a business that hopes to communicate forward-thinking philosophies and utilitarian design. In that case, hard, straight lines would make a strong impression, with large-format accent walls and ceiling details that tie the architecture to the rest of the space.

Tip #2: Choose a Mood that Matches the Ideal Experience

Mood is part of a brand’s identity and separate from it. The thing dividing them is the customer’s experience, whose enjoyment and impression define the mood that comes through the design decisions. When designing with mood first, business owners should consider how choices impact the customer’s feelings and flow.

For example, what materials lead customers to an impression of rustic charm? The business’s brand identity can be as rustic as it wants, but if the materials don’t communicate it, the customer won’t feel it. Smart millwork choices, such as familiar wood textures with exposed grain or warm finishes, can align the impression with the design.

The opposite approach is also true. If a business hopes to communicate sleek, modern, or urban themes, the materials should match. Stone, glass, and other straight-edged and glossy materials can be incorporated into millwork to create a high-end impression while using the millwork’s naturally comforting qualities to avoid feeling too aloof.

Tip #3: Use Focal Points of Commercial Millwork to the Business’s Advantage

Lounges, lobbies, and bars have one clear focal point: reception desks. While some businesses consider their reception desks an afterthought, they serve as a significant touchpoint for every customer who enters the business. Custom millwork presents a clear opportunity to turn this point of contact into an advantage.

A reception desk can be customized to reflect the business’s identity, such as with custom logo work, but the impression can be more subtly effective. With customized designs that can hide POS systems, supplies, and more from the customer’s view, reception desks can become an immersive experience that truly communicates between businesses and customers.

Bespoke, clean designs with beautiful materials tell visitors the business values artisanship and quality customer experiences, even in minor details.

Tip #4: Custom Seating is a Powerful Tool for Customer Engagement

Seating plays a significant role in the customer’s experience in lounges, bars, and lobbies. Design-forward spaces prioritize seating as a functional necessity and a chance to enhance customers’ attitudes toward the brand.

For example, commercial millwork can produce integrated banquette seating, creating the perfect mood for any space. In a dining setting, modular banquette seats can be rearranged to suit the room’s needs. In a commercial lobby where floorspace is a significant concern, bench seating can be built in to provide comfort and accessibility without wasting valuable square footage.

Even businesses that cannot accommodate a traditional banquette seat and dining table setup can use custom millwork to integrate seating, providing the same benefits without the large footprint. Banquette seats can double as hidden storage compartments to relieve pressure from limited floor plans or give workers more access to resources to make their patrons feel catered to.

Millwork Artisans Design Commercial Spaces to Last

Function-forward spaces can become outdated as business needs change. However, when design takes center stage, commercial spaces can communicate their brand’s identity through the intended experience, something that will never go out of style.

With exemplary commercial millwork, businesses can express their ideal customers’ preferences with core touchpoints such as reception desks, counters, architectural details, seating, and more, choosing the materials that best communicate their vision.

At Sixth Avenue Custom, our designers offer businesses a white-glove commercial millwork service to help design spaces that evoke the intended mood and provide customers with the experience the owner wants to convey, every time they walk through their door.

Contact us today to learn how custom millwork can transform your bar, lounge, lobby, or other commercial space by creating tangible ways to experience your identity and vision with the materials and designs your target customers will enjoy.