Deciding what to spend the budget on? what requires repairing, renovation, renewing, or reusing. What decoration can be undertaken to create that wow factor? Do you have the budget to install a feature statement like a chandelier or a custom-made signature piece of salon furniture?
Are you going to close the salon for the duration of the revamp, or remain open? Typically remaining open will double the time of the refurbishment and add at least 50% to the overall costs.
These few questions and many more require serious consideration by any salon business owner before they start a salon renovation, and this is where a small fee spent using an interior salon designer is a great investment.
“Failing to prepare is preparing to fail” – the motto of Mike Cooper the Managing Director of Inspiring Salons ltd.
“We suggest any salon owner wishing to undertake any salon refurbishment should look at a salon designers fee as an investment into a successful project and not as an expense added to the project,” says Mike Cooper
We have compiled a list of practical steps to help with your future salon renovation:
- Salon Interior Design & Salon Plan
- Refurbishment Budget & Time Schedule
- Start Date: are you remaining open?
- Reopening Date & New Salon Launch.
- Custom-made Salon Furniture: Design, Finance & Delivery.
- Create a Signature Piece of Salon Furniture.
- Salon Equipment: Financing & Ordering.
- Use of Colour.
- Feature Wall Design or Decoration WOW Factor.
- Salon Lighting: Eco, Feature and
- New Technology to Increase Salon Services.
- Digital Signage.
- Renovate or Replace Hot Water System
- Refurbish your Social Media.
- Salon Logo Revamp
Salon Interior Design & Salon Plan
For a salon renovation to be successful all stakeholders in the project need to be following the same path. This is achieved by producing salon designs and salon floor plans. It is likely that these interior designs will be carried out by a salon designer, who may just be responsible for creating the design and nothing else.
The plans enable you to transfer your initial thoughts onto paper, from here you can see how the salon flows, how all the salon equipment will work together, realise your client’s journey and the staff’s working areas. As with anything in life once the start is correct everything will follow smoothly, and this is the case with the salon plan. Perhaps the most important part of your salon refurbishment will be getting the initial salon design correct. Builders can quote from accurate plans; you can decide on your colour schemes, and you can create an accurate salon equipment purchasing list.
Our salon design fee is 100% refundable* but we also draw free 3D salon interior designs. We also return initial salon plans back within 24hrs of visiting your salon.
Mood boards are also a great help for you to decide on the salon’s interior design and colour scheme. When you have completed your mood board make a large hard copy and have it on show in the salon whilst the renovations are underway, this will constantly remind the team of what they are all working towards.
Using a salon designer is money well spent on your salon revamp, their savings will easily offset their initial fee.
Think about refurbing your salon to the Japandi style!!
Refurbishment Budget & Time Schedule.
Any project requires a time schedule and a budget. This is essential with a salon renovation, any overruns will damage your reopening plans and may cause existing clients to lose total faith in your business and take their custom elsewhere. This also applies to budget planning, if your project runs out of finances & the job becomes half done, clients will see a half-completed salon and more than likely will go elsewhere.
We mention further down about "launch dates" and soft openings, these are tips to help with the completed refurbishment, they need to be planned into the project time schedule before you instruct work to start. All the suppliers and construction teams need to know what dates they are working to.
Search the internet for free Excel templates for budgets and time schedule grids, these are great tools and can be adapted to suit your project.
Your budget should be split into 2 sections: work costs & salon furniture costs, do not cost all the building work & materials then see what money is left to spend on the equipment. Salon equipment is one of the key items your clients will notice after your refit. "Wow you now have massaging backwash units", "that shave was great in your new reclining barbers chair" are just some remarks our clients experienced. Yes, decoration & feature walls have an impact, but all your clients will be using your new furniture.
Once you have a budget stick to it and as the refit progresses keep a daily check on how the spend is going vs what the budget says.
Always have a contingency fund, ideally 10% of the total budget.
All your quotations must be detailed and state what they are providing, do they include VAT? is delivery included?
Look at financing solutions - salon furniture leasing is a great option for any salon wanting to upgrade their salon equipment to modern ranges or the latest technology.
Start Date: are you remaining open?
In our experience, and we have carried out 100's salon revamps & renovations, staying open during the process will add at least 50% to the total cost of the project and the refurbishment will take longer to complete.
However closing may not be an option, so planning the works whilst trading continues will take some thought. Night work is a possibility, but only if this is allowed, if your salon has residents above or nearby night work will most certainly be ruled out.
Staying open - will your clients really appreciate having treatments whilst there is building noise, dust, and perhaps water interference?
One reason for salons wanting to remain open is the thought of the loss of business, which is completely understandable, there is however a few creative ways around this. One option is when taking advance bookings of regular clients, keep your revamp week as fully booked and your clients will unwittingly have been allocated appointments around the closure.
Another option is to offer discounted appointments right before and immediately after the building works take place. If your salon closes on a Sunday & Monday perhaps look at closing the Tuesday plus perhaps a half-day on the preceding Saturday, this gives the shop fit team a clear few day to break the back of the renovations, perhaps carry out all the dirty work and get the salon almost back to normal.
Don't look at the closure of a loss of business, use the few days you are closed to carry out staff meetings & training. Look at taking the staff to a training academy away from the salon to learn new techniques, work with new salon technologies, and staff team building.
The salon refurbishment is an improvement not just for the salon but also for your salon team.
Reopening Date & New Salon Launch.
Plan for a soft opening i.e. quietly once the refurbishment is finished - then plan a massive relaunch sometime after. This will give you time and space for any overruns or renovation problems. Also and more importantly reopening quietly at first will allow the staff time to familiarise themselves with the new salon and get used to using all the new equipment.
Nothing worse than having a grand opening and finding the staff are unable to use the new till or the hot water is not working.
The soft opening will give you time to iron out all the kinks and have time to clean, dust takes a while to settle. Plus you may find you need the builders back for some snagging items.
Custom-made Salon Furniture: Design, Finance & Delivery.
We are giving advice about how to buy salon equipment that is produced by various manufactures, but despite the great choice available sometimes you cannot find exactly what you are looking for. With a great interior design, you require great salon furniture.
Buying custom-made furniture or bespoke furniture needn't cost the earth, in fact, some of our bespoke salon furniture is cheaper than buying the equivalent from a factory and as a bonus, you get that exact item your salon design is crying out for.
Bespoke salon equipment: a case study on how Inspiring Salons saved a salon 40% on their salon equipment costs – ask for details.
We have a purpose-built design studio where we manufacture any salon furniture you can imagine; in any colour a client requires.
Our Joinery team will provide you with a complete bespoke stress-free service:
We manufacture:
- Salon Reception Desks
- Manicure furniture.
- Pedicure chairs.
- Threading stations.
- Salon Styling Mirrors
- Salon Reception Furniture.
- Retail Display Cases.
- Nail Bars.
- Others on request.
Create a Signature Piece of Salon Furniture.
When reopening or relaunching all eyes will be on your finished salon. New clients and existing will all be eager to witness your new business, why not have designed something unique as a centrepiece within your salon? Signature furniture items will create a focal point in your new salon interior, a great talking point, and a "hero" item you can concentrate your social media around, this furniture will be a great investment in the salon's future business. Let your salon become the talk of the town.
We here at Inspiring Salons Ltd have our own design studio where we design & manufacture salon furniture.
These items of furniture that we have manufactured have varied considerably, from:
- gold salon reception desks.
- salon lighting.
- feature retail displays.
- high-backed circular waiting couches.
We appreciate that a custom-made signature piece of furniture is a high cost and will have a massive bearing on the overall finished interior design, the decision of ordering such an item is a difficult decision for any salon owner.
We invite all potential salon owners to our design studio to look over samples and wood finishes and discuss manufacturing options.
Clients are also invited to visit the studio during the manufacture to keep a check on the build progress, if this is a non-option we communicate by mobile video.
Remember these “hero” pieces of furniture will take center stage in the salon and as an investment, they should be put to work, do not be afraid to feature in all your salon’s an advertising and social media output.
Salon Equipment: Financing & Ordering.
If possible try and look at buying all your new salon equipment for this project from one source, this will not only give you a greater buying power but also will ensure delivery to your time scale. By ordering through lots of individual companies there is a chance of lots of individual delivery dates, with the headache of lots of delivery delays.
Also only order from suppliers with access to many different equipment manufacturers with varying price bands. Designers linked to one manufacture tend to force salon equipment from their range as opposed to what fits your interior design. Plus if you are thinking of salon leasing these companies will have limited items you can spend your leasing budget on.
We at Inspiring Salons Ltd pride ourselves on not just having extensive knowledge of salon equipment but also having access to a multitude of hair and beauty furniture. From the high-end Italian designer lines to the more basic and cost-effective products, this combined with our salon design skills means we can tailor salon equipment packages exactly to your requirements.
As we have a design studio we can look at the option of re-using some of the furniture.
If choosing salon equipment is stressing the budget one option is to look at salon furniture leasing.
Some of our salon equipment ranges: REM, Salon Fit, Ayala, Pietranera, Karism, Takara Belmont, Welonda, Keila, HOF, Carlton, Logyks, Ceriotti.
Use of Colour.
Colour has an important aspect in your salon refurbishment, get it right and your salon will "pop" on the high st, get it wrong and your clients will not appreciate all your investment that has gone into your refit.
By playing with attributes like color, shape, size, position, and orientation we can create the contrast that our brain is hardwired to pay attention to.
Establishing a colour scheme effectively limits you to using a handful of colours. You can add variety by applying these colours in different tints. This also expands your options on how colours can be used: for example, a bold colour can also be used at a 15 percent tint as a text panel background. Further variety can be achieved by working with gradients.
We can alter the appearance of a room size by how we treat each of the surfaces. Darken the sidewalls the room becomes narrow, light-coloured walls and a dark ceiling it appears the ceiling has been lowered.
Use colour in the salon furniture & equipment:
Salon equipment manufacturers have moved a long way with their upholstery colours and styling options. Now it is very common to offer 2 upholstery colours on one item of furniture. With a multitude of colours now available, this results in literally 1,000's of colour options available. Meaning for no extra expense you can create a unique coloured item of salon equipment.
For example, backwash seats have a lot of staining from hair tint being wash out, so the seat really needs to be coloured black. Now with the two-colour options, it is possible to have safe black seats but with coloured side panels. If you decide in refreshing your backwash area with a feature wall, then you could copy a colour from the wall into the side panel of the backwash seat and instantly your backwash area will take on a new appearance.
The same can be said for any custom-made salon furniture - think about colour, in the picture above there is a reception desk in which we manufactured in a gold laminate, I'm sure you agree this colour choice has an amazing effect.
Feature Wall Design or Decoration Wow Factor.
Any salon designer will advise on what & where you should decorate to create that wow factor, but one popular area that if designed correctly will instantly add value to your overall salon refurbishment with very little expense. And that is a Feature Wall.
A feature wall decoration is a space that is coloured or designed differently from the overall salon interior design and adds interest and energy to that room.
Where in a salon should we put a feature wall or a feature decoration? Ideally, a feature wall is a space that your client will first see when they enter the salon or a room. We put 3D calming wallpaper designs on the rear walls of beauty rooms, so upon entering clients are instantly relaxed.
Walls with doors and windows will not create that wow impact, as they will detract the eyes away from your design. But small walls such as behind the backwash or room dividers also work well as feature walls.
Ideas on how to decorate a feature wall:
- Use a contrasting colour to the overall colour scheme, a colour that is deeper.
- Perhaps feature a media digital screen.
- Barbers create great feature walls with various framed sporting pictures.
- Try covering in a different material entirely - beaut salons try bamboo.
- A large mural?
- Wallpaper - but with a large-patterned print. As shown in the picture below.
Salon Lighting: Eco, Feature and
Lighting effects can have a great impact on any salon interior. Illuminating when the salon is open or during the night when the salon is closed. Obviously, the first priority of a salon refurbishment is to look at the existing lighting system, is it adequate for the new working environment? is it cost-efficient? could a more eco-efficient system be installed? What about swapping for LED daylight lights?
Why Swap to LED Daylight Bulbs: there is an extensive offering of LED lighting solutions. (See link at bottom of our article)This technology, designed to emit light that covers the full spectrum of natural daylight, is used for industrial, commercial, and even domestic applications. With over ten varieties of LED daylight bulbs on offer, it is easy for you to gain the benefits of clear, crisp daylight. LED daylight bulbs are not just flawless in their performance and design but also their supreme longevity.
With daylight bulbs lasting tens of thousands of hours and at a cheaper running cost, swapping your halogen bulbs for LED is a no-brainer.
Once you have looked at all the main lighting issues, then if there is room in the budget perhaps the thought may move to feature lighting. A statement chandelier or LED lights behind the wall styling mirrors for a feature. Shadow lights along the ceiling cornices?
New Technology to Increase Salon Services.
Any great salon designer will keep you abreast of all the latest developments in new salon technology & how they can increase your salon services.
This type of salon equipment is perfect for salon leasing, you receive the equipment immediately, and to help with the salon budget you have fixed monthly payments AND you open the equipment at the end of the term.
One such example of this new technology is the infrared heat lamps by Pietranera salon equipment manufacturers.
A unique piece of salon equipment that is ideal for extra client experience whilst they receive their shampoo of hair treatment. This is a great item for any salon wanting to increase their salon service sales - detailed reading.
The Lamps dimensions - Diameter: 46cm, Height: 24cm, Cord Length: Min - 100cm Max-175cm.
COST:
Black RRP £495 DEAL TO YOU £444 Or only £2:38 per week
Red RRP £495 DEAL TO YOU £444 Or only £2:38 per week
White RRP £495 DEAL TO YOU £444 Or only £2:38 per week
Black Marble RRP £675 DEAL TO YOU £605 Or only £3:29 per week
Matt Copper RRP £675 DEAL TO YOU £605 Or only £3:29 per week
Matt Gold RRP £675 DEAL TO YOU £605 Or only £3:29 per week
Rusted Steel Effect RRP £675 DEAL TO YOU £605 Or only £3:29 per week
White Marble RRP £675 DEAL TO YOU £605 Or only £3:29 per week
Other items of salon equipment worth considering:
- Takara Belmont Micro Mist - unique hair treatment machine. Ideal for increasing hair treatment services - further reading.
- Fable Shampoo bed - a revolutionary system to now wash clients' hair. Ideal for hair & beauty salons - further reading.
- Takara Belmont Rollerball - hair processor, but gentler & more effective than standard hair processors - further reading.
Digital Signage.
The purpose of a salon refurbishment is not only to renovate and repair any old tired and worn-out parts of the salon, but a primary focus should be to improve upon the existing. One way to refresh your salon and become a focal point on the high street that everybody is talking about is by installing digital signage.
TIP - Digital signage could be installed before the salon refit -then during the closure, the signs could be displaying information about what's happening, exciting new salon opening soon, building excitement with your local community.
Digital signage is affordable, even with no upfront costs. We can control all the media input and can create the output. With various screen options that can be positioned in all parts of the salon, not just the shopfront windows.
Do they work? Well, studies show 40% of consumers respond to visual displays, such displays are 10 times likely to be noticed than printed posters. Salons that have installed various media screens have seen a 33% increase in foot traffic into their salon, leading to an increase in retail sales of 24% and a 34% up sale of salon services. Ask for a free demonstration.
Renovate or Replace Hot Water System
If your salon has been running out of hot water during busy times, or equally annoying experiences fluctuations in water temperature then perhaps during a salon refurb would be a great time to sort out these issues. The cost to sort out some of these problems can be as little as £1:50. Prior to any work starting it would be advisable to carry out a plumbing audit.
If you are a hairdressing salon and your salon refurbishment does not involve exchanging the backwash units, you should defiantly look at a backwash renovation. New waste plumbing, greasing and tightening the tilt mech, perhaps replace the shower hose & hand spray. An improvement would be to install a non-drip shower system. Water-saving shower nozzles are another idea. Why not go for thermostatic taps, these can stop your water temperature fluctuation.
Perhaps installing a new water heater! There is a lot of good eco units available now on the market.
Refurbish your social media.
You are going to be relaunching and opening with a beautiful new business, now would be the time to look not just at the salon refresh, but an overhaul of your social media. The reopening will be great for all your new content. You could also detail the salon renovation with social storylines, this would build up great anticipation with all your followers. Use some interesting "design" "new salon life" hashtags and your refit may increase your followers and potentially more clients.
Salon Logo Revamp
As with revamping your social media, perhaps the refit would be a good time to refresh and modernise your salon logo. One would assume the salon refurbishment will be increasing your salon services, so you will be printing new menu cards and price lists. So now would be a time to rebrand with your logo. You may even be replacing the exterior signage anyway.
Final Thoughts:
Talk is Free - Use Me. Thinking about a salon refurb? Then I hope a little list of pointers & ideas was of some help, but please feel free to discuss with me any thoughts you have - a call or WhatsApp is free.
We may be able to help, you may be surprised that we offer a 100% refundable design service* Over time we have saved salons £1,000's in building costs, salon equipment costs, custom-made furniture.
