A guide to redesigning a coffee shop

Estimated reading time: 8 minutes

Key takeaways

• Redesigning a coffee shop should start with brand values.
• Consumer flow is the most underestimated factor in café redesign.
• Staff workflow is invisible when it works, but costly when it doesn’t.
• Flexibility in layout allows adjustment as customer behaviour changes.

Redesigning a coffee shop can be a defining part of a business’s identity. Increasingly, café owners are revamping their spaces to improve the customer experience, with concept, seating, menu, and staff workflow all requiring careful thought.

“The physical space is the brand made real, and the design of the fitout often mimics brand identity,” says Dustin Khan, Sales & Marketing Director of Cloud Picker Coffee in Dublin, Ireland, which was a finalist in the 2025 Global Coffee Awards Europe edition.

“You can update your logo, refresh your packaging, retrain your team on tone of voice, but if someone walks into a space that still looks and feels like the old version, the redesign hasn’t landed.”

You may also like our article on what baristas love and hate about working in coffee shops.

Why redesign a coffee shop?

Coffee shops redesign their spaces for several reasons: to optimise the workspace, to support a rebrand or brand refresh, or simply because the interior needs updating.

In a competitive market, improving the customer experience is an equally strong motivation. Starbucks is doing exactly that, returning to elements from earlier eras, including comfortable couches, warm lighting, and a more inviting atmosphere, as part of a broader turnaround strategy.

Small details matter too, and they often require the most thought. They are also one of the clearest ways a coffee brand can express its values.

“The small details require deeper inner questions: What is this space for? The position of a bin, the height of a shelf, where the cables run, just some simple white space; they’re invisible when you get them right,” Dustin says. “You only notice them when they’re wrong.”

At Cloud Picker, these details include a tap for refilling water bottles and projectors that reference the cinematic history of the Pearse Street café, which was built in 1824 and remodelled as a cinema in 1920.

Loïc Installé, owner of Belga & Co., which has cafés in Brussels and Antwerp, takes a similar approach.

“You want to make the customers and staff feel at home and give them the premium experience they are looking for,” he says. “Good quality porcelain cups, a proper sound system, the right lighting; these are the details you don’t really notice at first, but sink in later and make you come back.”

Brand identity comes first

Redesigning a space to reflect a café’s brand identity is directly tied to the customer experience. 

For Cloud Picker, a partner redesign is an opportunity to bring everything into alignment. “The space then becomes part of the story rather than contradicting it,” Dustin says.

Aliaksandra Sonets, Head of Marketing at The Miners, a specialty coffee roastery and café chain operating across the Czech Republic, Spain, Poland, Slovakia, Austria, and the Netherlands, argues that interior design alone is never enough to keep a brand relevant. A refresh, she says, is always a broader process.

“For me, the interior is a reflection of ideas. It is a communication tool, a physical way of expressing and reinforcing the values, ambitions, and identity of a brand,” she says. “Design decisions should not begin with questions about colours, furniture, or materials. They should begin with questions about what the brand stands for, how it wants to be perceived, and what kind of experience it wants to create.”

What’s a good starting point for a coffee shop redesign?

A common starting point is the physical layout: customer space, seating, and flow all need careful consideration. As coffee businesses grow, so do the demands on their spaces. Volume increases, menus change, and equipment is upgraded, each of which can alter how a space needs to function.

“Consumer flow is the thing people underestimate most, and it is the hardest to predict,” Dustin says. “You can map it when building: where you expect people to queue, where they’ll wait, and how they’ll collect orders. But real behaviour is messier, and people are unpredictable. You need to redesign with some flexibility built in, because you will need to adjust for consumer patterns, busy periods, or service changes.”

Loïc has seen small changes make a significant difference. Moving the menu board to the other side of one of his shops noticeably changed the dynamic of barista-customer interactions, he says. 

“You also need to think about details like power outlets and storage space for bags and coats,” he adds.

Staff workflow carries equal weight. If baristas can’t move efficiently, or equipment is in the wrong position, wait times rise and service suffers. “Slow service, inconsistent drinks, people moving everywhere, stressed staff,” Dustin says. “The workflow is invisible when it works and very visible when it doesn’t.”

Aliaksandra frames it as an extension of the customer experience. “Even without thinking about it, customers subconsciously read the space: is it bright or dark, noisy or calm, is the music pleasant, do they feel invited to approach the bar?” she says. “We carefully plan the barista’s movements step by step, so their workflow can be as comfortable, logical, and efficient as possible.”

Practical tips and guidance for redesigning a coffee shop

A coffee shop redesign can be largely cosmetic or more substantial, but either way, Aliaksandra recommends starting with a concept built to last.

“When we create a new café, we design it with a concept that should serve the business for at least ten years, which is typically the standard lease period for a coffee shop,” she says. 

Her practical advice is to move from the big picture to the smallest details, with location and premises always coming first. From there, the process is about listening carefully and translating a brand’s vision into a space that feels authentic to both the location and the business.

Dustin’s starting point is honesty. Before beginning any project, he says, owners need to be clear about their brand identity and the resources they have. “Look at how your space is actually being used, not how you intended it to be used, and design from there,” he says. 

Remain open minded

Talk to staff, Dustin says, because they know where the “hidden” problems are. He says café owners should build in flexibility because consumer flow can be surprising, and keep the operation and the aesthetic in close alignment throughout: a space that looks right but runs poorly will cost the business every day.

Cloud Picker’s airport sites illustrate these points well. Each location was treated as its own brief rather than a template. “The volume expectations at an international terminal are not the same as a regional one, and the budget had to reflect what the space could realistically return,” Dustin explains. “We worked through each one separately: layout, workflow, equipment positioning.”

Loïc emphasises that a coffee shop redesign is an opportunity to learn from previous mistakes, finetune the workflow, and rethink the customer experience. “The sink that may look useful in one location should perhaps be moved to the other side,” he says. “And this is something that only your baristas will know.”

Redesigning a coffee shop is about more than aesthetics and showcasing an eye-catching espresso machine. Staff workflow, operational efficiency, and the physical space itself are all important to consider.

“It’s about understanding what should remain, what should evolve, and how to create a better experience for everyone who walks through the door,” Aliaksandra concludes.

Need more leads for your coffee business? Get in touch with PDG Media, our marketing agency dedicated to specialty coffee, here.

Coffee shop redesign FAQs

When should a coffee shop consider a redesign?
A redesign makes sense during a rebrand, when the layout no longer matches how staff and customers use the space, or when operational demands have grown, such as menu changes or equipment upgrades.

Why does staff workflow matter so much in café design?
Poor workflow increases wait times, creates inconsistency, and puts staff under unnecessary pressure. Badly designed workflow is immediately visible to customers, whereas a well-designed one goes entirely unnoticed.

Where should the coffee shop redesign process begin?
Start with brand values and the physical location, not aesthetics. Understand what the business stands for, how customers move through the space, and what staff need to operate efficiently. Everything else, including colours, furniture, and materials, should follow from those decisions.

Photo credits: The Miners, Cloud Picker Coffee

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