Everyone wants their business premises to appeal to those that visit them. Whether you have an office that might be frequented by business partners, a coworking space brimming with startups, or a hotel with guests coming in and out, you want people to admire the space you have created.
For many business owners, it’s important to go beyond just making their business look smart and respectable. Ensuring it’s attractive, reflects their brand personality, and stands out from similar businesses is essential. Adding various boutique touches to your business can help it develop a unique look, so consider how you could create that extra special feel.
Select a Unique Property
If you don’t already have your commercial property, you can start by looking for the perfect place that will work for your brand. Although renting is an option, buying property is a good idea for even smaller businesses. If you opt to buy property, you’ll have much more control over it. You’ll be able to do what you want with it, from gutting it out to even knocking down and rebuilding. It will also allow you to settle in to one place and not have to worry about moving. When you look for your property, you can find plenty of unique, boutique options. For example, you can often find older buildings with plenty of character, or new ones that are sleek and modern.
What’s Your Brand?
Before you do anything to your business premises, you should think carefully about your brand. It’s important to keep it in mind as you think about what you’re going to do and carry out your plan. If you want to go for a boutique look, you probably view your brand as something of a boutique brand. It could be a store, a hotel, a cafe or a restaurant. However, there are other types of business that aren’t as public-facing that you might see as boutique too. For example, many people will describe their design studio as being boutique. You need to think about what it is that makes your brand “boutique” – why is it special, and how do you go above and beyond to provide for your customers? Your business premises should reflect your brand.
Work with an Interior Designer
As much as you might have some great ideas for your business’s new look, what you should really do is work with an interior designer. If you have any ideas, you can discuss them with your designer, but you need their expertise if you want to create a boutique look. You might task a designer with performing a complete overhaul of your business’s interiors. Or perhaps you might just ask them to come up with some unique touches or even just one eye-catching feature to add some dynamism to the space. When you choose a designer, you can look through their portfolio to find previous work they’ve done that you like.
Create an Eye-catching Entrance Feature
There are many ways to create some unique features for your boutique business. If you’re not sure where to start, but you want to suggest some ideas for your designer, why not start at the entrance? You can make sure your business has a big impact on anyone who walks through the door. If you have a lobby or reception area, it’s the perfect place to put something that people will immediately notice, and maybe even want to take selfies with. Try looking at some different materials you could use for a unique feature. Take the open plan office The Studio in London, which recently used welded wire mesh for a beautiful way to turn their lift into a feature. You can take anything that’s functional and make it look stunning too, so it’s not just a practical object.
Commission Art
Artwork is always going to help your business look more unique. Many boutique hotels place a focus on displaying art, and some even have artist-in-residence programmes. While you can buy any art you like the look of, for a truly boutique feel you might prefer to commission something. You can have an artist create something just for your business, so it works for your brand. That doesn’t mean it has to be commercial art. It can still be something that would look great in someone’s home, but you can have more control and make sure you get art that reflects the look and feel you want your business to have.
Be Playful
One of the best things you can do is allow some playfulness into your interiors. If you don’t want your business to look too corporate and stuffy, you can make fun design choices that help to lift it out of the ordinary. Look for crafters and designers who can make unique touches for your business. You can inject some playful features into just about anything, whether it’s the art you put on the walls or the items you put on people’s desks. You could even have things that can actually be played with, like a water feature in the lobby or a kinetic sculpture in the garden. Some companies provide things for their staff to play with, from video games to pool tables.
Make Your Business Welcoming
If you want to avoid having your business feel too stiff and corporate, you should think about how to make it feel more warm and welcoming. This is especially important for anywhere you will have customers and visitors coming and going all the time. However, it still matters if the only people there all day are your staff. While you don’t want them to feel so comfortable that they spend all day napping, you still want them to feel relaxed and at home while they’re at work. You can add homely touches like lots of soft textiles to make sure your business premises don’t feel too cold or minimalist.
There are many ways you can add some boutique touches to your special business. Don’t let it look just like any other company, especially if you need to make guests feel welcome.
