How To Design A Restaurant Bathroom

An Introduction To Restaurant Bathrooms

Designing a restaurant is difficult as restaurant design is often required to be so specific yet needs to be wildly different from competitors to stand out.

This design philosophy conundrum extends to the restaurant bathroom.

Ever since the popularisation of social media and photo sharing apps, the quality and aesthetic of an establishment’s bathroom has become increasingly important.

Because of this, if you are designing a restaurant, you must take great consideration in making your bathroom as high quality as possible, as well as truly beautiful.

Let’s break down the top 10 ways you can design the perfect restaurant bathroom.

Themed Bathrooms

Your first decision when deciding on your restaurant bathroom design is an important one.

You must decide on your bathroom theme.

Your bathroom’s theme will influence every decision you make hereafter, as your theme will not just encompass the visual language, but the ergonomics and the utility as well.

If you’re struggling to figure out what theme your restaurant bathroom should have, then consider the kind of food you serve.

If you’re a seafood establishment, then a nautical bathroom theme or a beach themed bathroom would be perfect, as they have that intrinsic connection to the sea.

Comparatively, if you are a German restaurant, then a gothic themed bathroom could be perfect for you, as gothic architecture and design has strong ties to Germany.

Maybe your restaurant already has a theme, which makes this a lot easier! For example, a lot of rustic themed restaurants have sawdust on the floor in the main dining area and have barrel seats. You can simply follow through this design philosophy in your bathroom and make a rustic themed bathroom to match your existing restaurant theme.

Accessible Bathrooms

Another design tenet that will affect every subsequent decision is the level of accessibility you aim to achieve.

Accessibility is just as, if not more, important as ever and in the restaurant scene, it’s competitive.

If someone cannot comfortably access the toilets of your establishment, they will go elsewhere.

Therefore, if you want to make the best possible restaurant in 2023, you have to make your restaurant accessible.

There are a few ways to make your restaurant bathroom accessible, such as:

• Include Bespoke Disabled Toilets
• Include Grab Bars By All Toilets
• Incorporate Brail Signs
• Ensure There Is Enough Room For Wheelchair Manoeuvrability
• Incorporate Non-Slip Flooring
• Gender Inclusive Bathrooms
• Adult Changing Stations
• Install Wall Hung Toilets Or Comfort Height Toilets

As you can see, there is a whole host of ways you can make your bathroom and your restaurant as a whole much more inclusive and accessible.

Just think, if your restaurant is not currently making itself as accessible as possible then you’re missing out on a large pool of customers, so as well as being the moral thing to do, making your bathroom accessible is also the profitable thing to do.

Bathroom Utility

In a similar vein, you need to think about the utility of your bathroom.

What do you want to be able to do in your bathroom?

This may seem like a simple question, but it is deceptively complex.

Any lack of utilities in your bathroom will act as a hard filter to those who seek convenience and will cause those customers to go to establishments with more convenient bathrooms.

For example, the bare essentials are that you want people to be able to go to the toilet and to clean up after themselves. That’s simple.

We’ve also established that you want your bathroom to be as accessible as possible, which with a few considerations is also very simple.

Now think a bit deeper.

You can use your restaurant bathroom to diffuse any pain points of the dining experience.

For example, if you include complimentary toothpicks, feminine hygiene products and other conveniences in your bathrooms then it removes the need for people to leave the restaurant to address their concerns.

Getting food stuck in your teeth can be an annoyance at best and a pain at worst, so if your customer knows they can nip to the bathroom and use a handily provided toothpick to fix the issue, they are less likely to have a bad memory associated with the restaurant and are also less likely to leave the restaurant early to address their issue elsewhere.

Think about what people need and what can ruin a fine dining experience, every remedy you can offer is another customer that stays in the restaurant a bit longer.

Luxury Bathrooms

Now, if we broaden our scope from utility, we reach the idea of luxury.

If utility is what people need, luxury is what people want, and people want to feel special.

Lots of restaurants include big novelty mirrors or décor in the bathroom to encourage selfie taking and picture sharing, which passively generates good word about your website online.

This is easy enough to accomplish, all you need is good lighting in your bathroom, a large mirror that accommodates the likes of a group selfie and an interesting item or decoration. For example, it is common to have some kind of large, lavish looking seat that is akin to a throne. These are often very colourful too, like hot pink or a bright red.

People sit in these luxurious seats, take photos in your large mirrors while bathed in your great lighting and then post this to a potentially infinite number of people.

This is an example of how luxurious bathroom design can easily create free marketing for your restaurant.

The Number Of Fixtures In Your Bathroom

Now, on a more practical note, you need to consider how many fixtures you want in your bathrooms.

Specifically, you need to decide on how many pairs of toilets and basins you want. This will be dictated by how many people you can host in your restaurant at max capacity.

If you are a small café, you can get away with having a couple of toilets, but if you are a larger restaurant, you will need quite a few.

When it comes to customers, the general guideline is to have two  toilet and basin combos for every thirty female guests and two toilet and basin sets for every fifty male guests. This is just a rule of thumb however and it is always best to have too many toilets than too little toilets.

You will also need a separate staff bathroom, where typical office bathroom rules apply of having one toilet and one basin for every five employees.

Figure out your maximum capacity of guests and staff and work backwards from there when deciding how many fixtures you need.

Bathroom Safety

Another vital aspect to take into consideration is safety.

Safety is an underpinning factor to every environment in society and it is especially important in publicly accessible bathrooms.

It is imperative you ensure that the space itself is as safe as possible, especially if you serve alcohol. This includes considerations like making sure there are no sharp edges, there is nothing to trip over, all of the water from the taps is consistently caught in the basin and doesn’t splash out, making the floor slippery.

You must also consider making the environment safe in the social sense. This is a harder thing to achieve, but there are a few concrete steps to take. You should have some of your security staff positioned near the bathroom, so if there is an incident, they are immediately at hand to help alleviate the issue.

You should also make sure that trained staff members are easily contactable through programmes like the ask for Angela support system.

This can be enhanced by having posters or signs with relevant contact numbers in the bathroom to help customers stay in the know and to ensure they are aware there are preventative actions they can take.

Bathroom Fixture Durability

How long do you want your restaurant to be in operation?

The answer is presumably “as long as possible”.

This means you need to invest in fixtures and furniture that will endure wear and tear and last for as long as possible.

Naturally, this extends to your bathroom.

If your toilets are constantly out of order or your basins are chipped, this creates issues for you and your customers.

Invest in strong, heavy duty fixtures like stone resin basins that are much more durable than their counterparts and have been known to last a lifetime with correct maintenance.

This will save you a lot of money in the long run and prevent a lot of inconvenience too.

Ergonomic Bathrooms

When you enter a really well designed space, you don’t have to think about how you move through it. It feels natural.

This is an example of good ergonomic design. It is design that is tailor made to be used by people.

You need to employ high quality ergonomic design in your restaurant bathroom to ensure the customers have a satisfactory experience and to cut down on people wasting time in the bathroom and causing queues.

Ergonomic bathroom design is very simple, you want people to be able to see everything they need when they first walk in and for everything to have a natural flow to it.

For example, if toilet cubicles are on the left side of the room and urinals are on the right side of the room, with basins located in the middle of the space, this creates a space that is very easy to use and one that will not get congested easily, as you can see whichever fixture you need immediately upon entry and moving from one to the other doesn’t get in anyone’s way.

Easy To Clean Bathrooms

Something you don’t want to overlook is how easy to clean your bathroom is.

Hygiene is one of the most important aspects of a restaurant, so if your bathroom is not hygienic, then people will talk.

The best way to ensure your bathroom is hygienic is twofold, you need to make sure it is designed in a way that is easy to clean and you need to clean often.

How do you make sure a bathroom is easy to clean?

Simple! You follow these guidelines:

• Space Out Fixtures To Avoid Small Hard To Reach Areas In Between Them
• Install Rimless Toilets
• Install Waterproof & Nonporous Fixtures And Furniture
• Install Monobloc Taps So There Are Less To Clean
• Install Semi-Recessed Basins So There Is Less To Clean

The Price Of Bathroom Design

Finally, you need to consider price. All of this advice we have given is fantastic in a vacuum, but if you can’t afford to implement it, then you’re stuck.

That’s where we come in.

Not only does Durovin Bathrooms offer a wide selection of amazingly high quality products at an affordable price, we also offer trade discounts.

So, get in touch and find out how much money you can save when building your perfect restaurant bathroom.

Final Thoughts On Restaurant Bathrooms

Hopefully, this article has shown you just how easy it is to effectively design the ideal bathroom for your restaurant and how by considering your customers and your theme, you can make a space you can be truly proud of.

For more bathroom design advice and bathroom ideas, read our blog which is full of articles explaining everything you need to know about bathroom fixtures, bathroom design principles, and more.