By Evelyn Long

Although a restaurant lease can open opportunities for your dining establishment, it may limit your decorating possibilities, preventing you from making some of the more involved changes you envision for your business. However, with a little creativity, you can work around those restrictions to create a restaurant that gets noticed for its décor as much as it does for the food.

Maintain a good relationship with the landlord

You may feel tempted to make decorative changes explicitly forbidden in the lease agreement, planning to restore the property to its original condition before vacating it. However, that risky approach could compromise your relationship with the owner, and conflict could present a distraction from the restaurant’s daily operations. This practice can also make it easier for landlords who are looking for an excuse to evict current tenants and seek higher rents.

In one unusual case, a Montreal restaurant manager woke up to texts from people demanding to know why she hadn’t informed them of the establishment’s impending closure. She discovered the landlord had put the restaurant on the market for $3,170, substantially more than what the family-run restaurant paid for rent at the time.

In this case, the manager claimed that there was no prior mention that it was going on the market, but the landlord claimed to have offered the restaurant a long-term lease, which the tenant declined.

Keeping your landlord happy does not eliminate potential complications, but being a good tenant could motivate landlords to keep you as a tenant due to the simplicity and familiarity it offers. Seeking tenants who will pay higher rent may initially seem like a good option, but many landlords change their minds if new tenants cause substantial damage due to decorating decisions or other reasons.

One of the easiest ways to maintain a good relationship is to clarify what you can and cannot do while decorating. Courts may treat leases as evidence in legal disputes, so becoming familiar with the conditions of your lease is essential.

Use modular options

Including modular furniture in your restaurant design is a practical and flexible way to uphold your lease obligations while enjoying the freedom to rearrange the interior according to seasonality, traffic patterns, or other variables.

These features also simplify creating different layouts for special events that may generate more traffic, such as festivals, guest chefs, and holidays. In addition, they can improve the customer experience by allowing flexibility for people in wheelchairs or guests with baby strollers, for example. The modularity makes it easier for operators to adapt to changing guest needs quickly and easily.

For added flexibility, there are options that include everything from roll-out terraces to movable bars and adaptable host stations. These products come as flat-packed components, assisting purchasers who need to temporarily store them before assembly. The items also offer repairability potential and sustainable materials, helping restaurateurs operate inside the circular economy.

Because these solutions and other products like them adapt to spaces as needed, they work well for pop-up restaurants or any spaces you may only briefly occupy. Many companies sell pieces to use indoors or out, helping you expand seating when the weather permits, too.

Add character with plants

As so many people spend most of their time indoors at their desks, restaurants can capitalize on bringing the outdoors inside with real or artificial plants. They’re among the easiest ways to add texture and colour to windowsills and corners – and you can move them to new premises when your lease ends, leaving no trace for your landlord.

Choosing low-maintenance, long-living plants adds a natural feel while improving aesthetics. Some pothos plants last for over a decade, making them a great investment. Rather than the liver version, you may prefer realistic-looking, low-maintenance artificial plants instead. These can help you achieve the environment you’re looking for without any permanent fixtures required.

Get inspiration from pop-up restaurants

Pop-up restaurants have become popular to offer a limited-time menu or to host an event. Because they are generally limited in space and time, pop-ups can serve as valuable inspiration for your restaurant design, providing ideas for décor that are transferrable.

In the past, designers in Winnipeg have created an inflatable restaurant suitable for sub-zero temperatures for the site of a fine dining festival, and event planners commissioned an environment-responsive temporary structure for sustainable reuse. The snow-surrounded creation featured a vaulted ceiling and custom inflatable, foil-covered panels to direct heat into the restaurant. Some of those pieces included transparent material, giving diners glimpses of the sky. The design team connected the panels with Velcro, making them easy to disassemble and use again elsewhere.

Although this is an extreme example, studying the techniques used here and at other pop-up restaurants can offer new ways to achieve your restaurant’s desired atmosphere. Focus on possibilities that add style without requiring permanent changes, like wall tapestries, quirky furniture, historical photographs (and more) that make your restaurant unique without threatening your lease agreement.

Let creativity motivate your decorating choices

You may feel discouraged if your lease limits specific décor changes but changing your perspective and viewing the restrictions as a creative challenge is the best approach. These approaches may even be better in the long run because you’ll need less time and money to set up in a new space, if necessary.

Along with these options, visit as many restaurants as possible to see what’s possible, and use style as your inspiration to create a look that executes your vision, represents your brand, and offers guests something unique.

Evelyn Long is a leader in accessible and inclusive interior design for commercial spaces. Her expertise is featured in publications like I+S and Facility Executive, where she shares insights on creating environments that cater to all users. As Editor-in-Chief of Renovated Magazine, Evelyn champions innovative and thoughtful design solutions that prioritize inclusivity and functionality.