Setting up a salon takes a lot of work. For the most part, new business owners focus on the practicalities of running their business. However, as a client-facing business like a salon, you must consider how your clients will perceive your business. Aesthetics and design play a huge part in how clients will feel about what you do.
So, how do you ensure that your clients will want to return to your business in the future? It’s all about presentation! Differentiating yourself and your business from the crowd can play a huge part in your success. Your styling station is where all the important work takes place, and it should be a place where both you and your clients feel comfortable. We’ll give you a few ideas on how to make your styling station stand out from the competition so you can really impress your clients.
Play With Color Variations
Color is such an important part of design that it can completely transform the look and feel of your workstation with a simple palette swap. Different colors evoke different emotions from us as humans, and the best designers can use those colors to create environments that help to make us feel a specific way. Drab and boring color choices might be the safest route, but they certainly aren’t the most memorable. Here are a few ways that you can play around with the colors of your styling station to change its feeling entirely.
Monochromatic
There’s a delicate balancing act that you need to contend with when you’re dealing with monochromatic coloring. When done correctly, the monochromatic look can give your styling station a sleek and elegant appearance. It’s perfect for selling the feeling of luxury to your clients when they come in for their appointment. On the other hand, monochromatic colors have the ability to look quite boring if there isn’t enough contrast and can even feel clinical and stale if you don’t balance out the tones. While monochromatic colors can be very effective, balancing the different shades is how you can create that luxurious look you’re going for.
Bright and Bold
Going in the opposite direction entirely is to focus on using bright and bold colors to evoke stronger emotions from your clients. There’s another balance you have to strike when using these colors to make your styling station stand out. Using highly saturated, primary colors might catch someone’s attention, but it doesn’t scream elegance or professionalism. In fact, going overboard with those kinds of colors can make your station seem slightly juvenile and cheesy. Bright colors are an excellent way to show off your personality but using them with a little bit of restraint can make them stand out all the more without making your station look like it’s been designed by children.
Matching Décor
A good trick for making your styling station stand out is to match your color choices with something close by. For example, if you have a large and striking portrait on the wall near your styling station, you can use that portrait’s color palette as the basis for choosing colors for the rest of the area. This helps to create a point of focus for the client’s eye, drawing their attention exactly to where you want it to be.
Bring Back Retro Classics
What is old is new again. A retro look is always an eye-catcher, and it’s a fantastic way to make your styling station stand out from the rest. For a salon, you have a lot of options to choose from when going for a more retro feel. You can utilize the retro aesthetic in small ways by adding old-school accents to your styling station such as a display of vintage hairdressing implements. You can also go big by using styling chairs inspired by the classics that we see so often in old-school movies and TV shows. A more refined retro look will leave your styling station looking inviting but with another layer of charm on top.
Create a Natural Feel
Bringing nature indoors to create a more natural feel may not be a brand-new idea but it’s been around for so long because of how effective it is. Whether you go with something simple like delicate potted houseplants or you go all out with hanging vines and entire shrubs is up to you. However you decide to bring the outdoors inside, it can help you create the feeling of vibrancy and life in your styling area. Even using something like reclaimed wooden furniture instead of newer models can give your styling space that natural, bohemian feel.
Make Everything Shine
Another way to make your styling space unique that is perhaps a little more practical overall is to focus on the lighting of your area. In a place like a salon where the devils are in the details, it’s obviously helpful to be able to see what you’re doing. Good lighting goes beyond the practicalities though, as bright lights and beautiful light fixtures also add to the aesthetic feel of your space. Give yourself a little more light to work with and draw the attention of clients at the same time by sprucing up your styling station with plenty of good lighting.
Don’t Be Afraid To Personalize
When it comes right down to it, many clients continue to return to a certain salon because they like the people that work there. Depending on the appointment, they can end up spending a lot of time with you as their stylist. It’s comforting to find out that the person helping them all the time is a fully realized person outside of the salon as well. That’s why you shouldn’t be afraid to add personal touches to your styling station. Family photos, children’s drawings, your favorite figurines—whatever makes you feel more like yourself will help you stick out as more unique to the clients you serve.
Creating the perfect salon stations for your salon can take a lot of thought; Keller is the best place to start. Check out the salon stations we have in stock and allow them to inform the rest of your design choices as you go.
