Salon Furniture
DirGroup Salon Furniture & Design Articles
The three key parts of a great salon lighting scheme
Feb 10th
Designing a good lighting scheme for your hair salon isn’t always as simple as fitting halogen bulbs in the ceiling and popping a lamp on reception. You need to design your lighting scheme according to the décor and colour scheme of the salon, as well as to create mood and help your colourists do their job properly.
There are three main parts to a great salon lighting scheme. These include:
1. Ambiance lighting
Ambiance lighting can positively influence the mood and emotions of your clients, making them feel relaxed, peaceful, cheerful or anything else you want them to feel. This can in turn affect their buying decisions and styling choices, as well as enhancing the attractiveness of your salon.
2. Task lighting
This allows for true colour rendering, allowing your colourists to do their jobs properly and mix up exactly the right tones for the client. This kind of lighting should be used above salon chairs, focused on the top of the clients head.
3. Make-up lighting
This is lighting used to flatter the client as they look in the mirror, as well as helping make-up artists to do their jobs. These lights can be placed around or above mirrors, or around the walls of the salon.
Why open a hair salon?
Feb 9th
We have looked at all sorts of ways of decorating and designing your salon on this blog, but we haven’t yet focused on the benefits of opening a hair salon or a beauty spa in the first place.
Most people open their own salons after working for other hair and beauty businesses and developing a taste for the industry, but what about those who are looking for a completely new venture – why should you open a hair salon rather than any other business?
Here are just a few reasons to bear in mind:
• Owning a hair salon allows you to provide a much-needed service (people will always need their hair cutting), whilst also making people look and feel good every day.
• The hair and beauty business is financially rewarding, even in the current economic climate.
• By opening your own salon, you will be afforded the creative freedom to design and decorate it any way you want. You can choose colour schemes, play around with salon furniture and much more.
• On a day-to-day basis, hair salons and beauty spas are fun and extremely social places to work and to visit.
Designing your salon to increase brand recognition
Feb 8th
Brand recognition is a marketing concept used to familiarise potential customers with the company or brand. By taking steps to improve brand recognition in your hair salon or beauty spa, you could improve your brand’s image and help customers get to know what your business is about.
The ideal place to start with brand image is in the design and décor of your salon. You can link things like colours and styles to your salon’s logo and even the ethos of the business.
Follow these tips for improving brand recognition in your salon’s design:
• Create a memorable logo. Remember to keep the design of the logo striking yet simple, making the name of the salon prominent.
• Use the logo on everything from the salon’s exterior sign to graphic displays inside the salon. You can also use the logo on staff uniforms, brochures and appointment cards, as well as on the salon’s website.
• Match the colour scheme in the salon to the colours of your logo – these will become the company colours that clients will recognise
Remember, the more successful you are at creating a strong brand image for your business, the more professional your salon will appear.
Barcelo Buxton Palace Hotel unveils new beauty rooms
Feb 7th
The Barcelo Buxton Palace Hotel in the Peak District has recently unveiled a £15,000 upgrade to its existing services and facilities, in the form of luxurious new spa and beauty rooms.
The time and money spent on the makeover means that the hotel now boasts two double beauty treatment rooms, two singles, an opulent waiting room and a stunning relaxation room. This effectively doubles the capacity of the original design, creating a harmonious and chic retreat for hotel guests and out of town visitors.
The beauty’s spa’s décor is stylish and contemporary, starting with its welcoming colour scheme of warm creams and gorgeous chocolate browns. The spa’s designers make great use of feature pieces of salon furniture such as wicker loungers, lamps and ceiling drapes to create its lavish yet soothing atmosphere, perfect for a pampering treat.
The hotel’s general manager, Daniel Graham, said:
“I am delighted to announce that our new beauty rooms are now open. We have created an inviting and relaxing haven for guests and local residents to come and indulge in fabulous treatments from our professional beauty therapists.”
The Barcelo Buxton Palace Hotel itself is a historic building dating back to 1868, and is situated in the Peak District in an area popular with tourists.
Salon décor tips: designing for colour work
Feb 6th
As a salon owner, you need to ensure that the space is functional, professional-looking and fit for cutting and styling clients’ hair. You also need to make your salon suitable for colour work, but what does this entail?
Accurate colour reflection
In order for your colourists to do their best-quality work, they need to be able work in an environment in which colours are accurately reflected. This will enable them to mix exactly the right shades to suit their clients’ requests, therefore ensuring that they visit again.
To create the right environment for colour clients, you need to get two main aspects of your salon’s décor right:
• Lighting
You need to light for true colour, to ensure that client’s colour looks the same in natural daylight as it does in your salon. Use spot lights above salon chairs and backwash units so stylists can see what they are doing, and go for flattering make-up lighting in front of the client.
• Colour
Basically, you need to keep the colour of your salon’s walls as neutral as possible. Bright, light reflecting colours (i.e. garish blue or neon orange) could influence the way colours appear.
Salon design inspiration: Shine Hair Salon in Bristol
Feb 5th
The Shine Hair Salon in Bristol is an inspirational example of how the décor of a salon can positively influence the mood of its customers.
The salon is designed in such a way that it makes the best possible use of the natural light flooding in through the front window. Bright whites and an exemplary energy-saving lighting scheme complement natural-toned wall panelling and wood flooring, the latter of which is the building’s original flooring that has been painstakingly restored to create a warm and welcoming atmosphere in the salon.
This sense of light, airiness and spaciousness makes the salon feel extremely relaxing for clients, who also get an added shot of feel-good from the use of bright, cheerful colours throughout the salon. These colours, appearing in salon chairs, merchandise displays and even in the plant pots outside on the street, also make the salon feel contemporary and fun.
The owner of Shine in Bristol, Jason Paget, explains his design to HJi hairdressers’ journal, saying:
“Our clients’ age range is from seven months to 70,”
“I’ve attempted to appeal to everyone by mixing design decades, materials and textures in quite a bold way, while still keeping things clean, functional and above all welcoming.”
What does your reception desk say about your salon?
Feb 4th
If you are designing or renovating your salon’s interiors, you need to think carefully about the customer experience before you make any major decisions regarding colour or salon furniture, for example.
Ask yourself:
• What is the first thing the customer will see when walking through the door?
• What impression does this make?
• What effect will this first impression make on their overall opinion of the salon?
The answer to the first of these questions is the waiting area, which is generally dominated by the reception desk. This is why it is important to choose your reception desk carefully, after putting in a lot of thought into what it says about your salon and its ethos.
It is also important that your reception desk complements and suits the décor in the rest of the salon, so as to create a flowing, harmonious design scheme.
The rest of the waiting area
The reception desk is not the only crucial element in a welcoming and comfortable waiting area. You must also remember to include:
• Waiting benches, sofas or chairs
• Coffee table
• Decorative touches, such as plants, flowers and artwork
• Merchandise display
• Magazines and other reading material
Cheshire’s The Mere resort opens 5-star health and beauty spa
Feb 3rd
The Mere Golf Resort and Spa in Cheshire is celebrating after opening a brand new, five-star health and beauty spa.
The hotel resort, located in the Cheshire town of Knutsford, has spent a total of £5.5 million on its luxurious new health club and beauty spa. Heralded as “the finest in the North West” by its owners, the spa will offer a wide range of treatments, services and facilities.
For starters, the spa will one of the first in the region to offer the ‘Fishy Feet’ foot treatments (using garra rufa ‘doctor fish’) that are becoming increasingly popular up and down the country. Also on offer will be bespoke skin consultations and a Rasul bathing room, where mud, heat and steam are used to cleanse the skin.
The spa also boasts the very latest spa and salon equipment, as well as a 20 metre swimming pool, hydrotherapy vitality pool, an aroma steam room and salt infusion and experience showers. The design of the health club and spa is clean and contemporary, despite being situated in a charmingly historic building.
The Mere’s co-owner, Gary Corbett, said:
“I am delighted that phase one of our £15 million re-development is now complete and am confident that The Mere now provides the ultimate in luxurious but affordable health, well-being and day spa experiences in the region.”
Choosing salon accessories: a quick checklist
Feb 2nd
When opening a new salon, it’s important to budget for the larger purchases. These include vital salon equipment and furniture, such as salon chairs, backwash units and that all-important reception desk.
However, you mustn’t forget about the smaller accessories, as it is these practical items that will help your salon to run more smoothly every day. Save some money in your budget to get:
• Stools for your stylists (preferably portable) – so that they can comfortably access all sides of the client’s hair during cutting or styling
• Wheeled trolleys – For the storage of regularly used tools and equipment such as hairbrushes, scissors, styling products, hairdryers etc.
• Coat rack – If you don’t have a cloakroom, it is essential that guests have somewhere to hang their coats and bags during appointments. Without this accessory, you risk cluttering up your beautifully decorated salon space as well as loss of property.
• Fresh flowers, the latest magazines and other decorative touches – To improve the salon’s appearance and really show that you care about the smallest details
• Footrests, to be placed below salon chairs – Anything you can do to improve client comfort during their visit will be appreciated
The benefits of adding hair processors and steamers to your salon
Feb 1st
Due to better features and the use of more advanced technology, hair steamers and processors are being used in an increasing number of hair salons.
Commonly known as hair steamers, these pieces of salon equipment offer a range of services and benefits to your clients. As a kind of ‘sauna for the scalp’, hair steamers offer:
• Improved circulation. This can lead to better hair growth
• Scalp cleansing, including the removal of dead skin and dirt
• Moisturising roots and hair shafts
• Help for dandruff sufferers
• Brighter colour treatments
• Help for dry or brittle hair
• Stronger, softer, smoother and healthier hair overall
Due to these benefits, you should definitely consider getting a steamer for your salon. One brand that comes highly recommended by experts is the Salvador hair processor and steamer. This advanced piece of salon equipment has numerous special features including an in-built wind-blowing fan setting, programmed microcomputer control and ozone steam, atomisation and pulverisation.
Ensure you market the benefits of your new hair processor and steamer to clients, and you’ll soon find yourself with a unique selling point to push your business head and shoulders above the competition.
