Commercial ice cream freezers might not come to mind when you’re thinking about interior design. But in places like cafes, ice cream shops, or hotel dining spaces, ice cream freezers can be highly visible. That’s why it’s so critical to consider how to integrate a freezer into a customer-focused hospitality space. After all, when someone decides to take a selfie with their favorite flavor dripping down a waffle cone, that ice cream freezer might be part of the backdrop.
With some thoughtful design decisions, you can make your freezer a positive component of your dessert counter or bustling city cafe. Read on to learn some of the best strategies to introduce cold storage freezers into your hospitality venue!
The Impact of Good Design
For a business to make a positive impression on customers, it needs a good brand and design aesthetic. And for hospitality spaces, the interior layout, color scheme, and overall sense of style matter most. Everything from the stools to the floor tile can shape how a customer perceives the space and their experiences in it. Finding a way to integrate commercial freezers into these spaces and even highlight their presence can elevate a boutique hotel or ice cream parlour’s brand.
Freezers used to be a hulking but essential presence in any ice cream-focused establishment that owners were eager to hide. You’d find them behind swinging doors or tucked into the back corner of a kitchen. Today, however, those commercial ice cream freezers have become showpieces of a hospitality space’s design aesthetic.
Today’s version of an ice cream freezer can be customized to meet any shop’s design specifications. Freezers can be showpieces that attract attention or subtle fixtures, depending on one’s preference. A small parlour in a coastal town might opt for a retro freezer to cultivate a throwback vibe, for example. A modern urban hotel with an open kitchen could choose a sleeker model that looks elegant.
Cafes can choose colors for freezers that match their floor tiles or walls, or add wood and other decorative touches to make commercial freezers read as part of the architecture. Business owners aiming to make a positive first impression on customers can do so with a cohesive design scheme that highlights the vital pieces of their operation.
Finding the Right Location
Freezers tend to be among the larger appliances in a workspace. Consequently, their placement becomes important not just for aesthetic purposes, but also for functionality. A freezer that obstructs pathways for workers won’t help with efficiency. But a freezer that’s too far away will make it cumbersome to access necessary items.
Whether in a luxury wellness hotel or a quaint cafe, hospitality space owners need to strike the right balance when placing a freezer. If a freezer holds seasonal ice cream flavors or on-the-go novelties, locating it by the checkout register can make a lot of sense. This encourages last-minute purchases and offers convenience for both workers and customers. Likewise, placing commercial freezers in poolside snack areas can provide accessible munchies for individuals lounging in the sun.
Inviting Attention with a Freezer
It might be hard to imagine a commercial freezer as the centerpiece of a space’s design scheme. Visual designers are treating these essential appliances that way, however. And they’re finding clever ways to do it. Materials and colors play a pivotal role in helping a freezer read more as a stunning attribute than a utilitarian object. Businesses should consider the tone of their space and incorporate finishes, accent pieces, and decorative flourishes for freezers that bring their brand to life.
A freezer in a blush pink finish, for instance, could tie in with a brand color scheme that features that color plus mint. Flanking a freezer with menu boards or adding a pendant light above a freezer can frame it and call attention to its presence.
Adding reclaimed wood panels around a commercial freezer in a cozy ice cream shop can soften its presence and look cohesive next to butcherblock countertops or hardwood floors. By contrast, a freezer with clean lines and a muted gray color could exude luxury in a more modern hotel setting. Other options to dress up a freezer include adding decals and wraps. A playful character or text wrap could infuse a freezer with personality that encourages customers to open the door and select a sweet treat.
Lighting the Way
In any environment, the right lighting scenario can make a huge difference. And ice cream, with its potent colors and textures, needs the best lighting possible to make it pop. Introducing LED lights into glass-top freezers, for instance, can produce sharper colors and add a professional finish. As the day moves along, a dimmer function can help shop owners set the perfect ambiance so the colors look their best. Whether pendants or track lights, overhead lighting can help draw consumers’ attention to a freezer stationed by a front door or near a back hallway.
Lighting matters for other reasons, too. Ice cream is picturesque, and in today’s social media-saturated world, it’s the perfect subject for the latest post. Guests will love taking pictures of their frozen treats, especially if the lights in your space illuminate the rich colors and textures of freshly scooped butter pecan. And for businesses, every tagged post can translate to greater visibility in the hospitality world.
Highlighting Your Most Vital Appliance
Ice cream freezers offer obvious functionality in a gelato shop or upscale hotel kitchen. But they also offer businesses an opportunity to play up the sense of comfort and excitement that indulging in ice cream brings. Highlighting a freezer as a central component of your design scheme can anchor your hospitality space, and you don’t have to disrupt your layout and workflows to make it happen. With intentional color or material selections and the right lighting, you can add a freezer to your space that feels cohesive, functional, and inviting.
