Over the past several months, Jennifer Snider, our interior designer, has been responding to your questions about church interior design. In this post, she wraps up the series by taking a look at two of the finishing touches you’ll want to consider for your remodeled or new church building: appropriate furniture and signage.
Embracing Furniture Flexibility
You can see in this first image, showing a seating area at Archbold Evangelical Mennonite Church, that they’ve set aside a place in their church building for people to gather for fellowship. In this case, they’ve provided ottomans instead of coffee tables. This allows for maximum flexibility, since each ottoman can become a seat to accommodate a larger group. They also chose individual chairs rather than sofas or loveseats, making it easier to rearrange the furniture to suit groups of varying sizes.
Flexibility is also key in the café, as you can see in this picture from Gateway Church of the Nazarene. Here they have intentionally chosen to use square tables rather than the more common round tables. This provides flexibility since it’s easier to push a few square tables together to furnish a larger group.
Investing in Furniture Durability
Another element of successful church interior design is to choose furniture that is commercial grade. This seating nook at Blue Grass United Methodist Church, for example, uses commercial-grade seating, even though the chairs look as though they could have come right out of someone’s home.
Code requires church buildings to use commercial-grade materials. Commercial grade furnishes are also more durable and will last longer, which is essential given the higher volume of traffic a church can expect. The warranties of residential grade products will also be void if used in a commercial setting.
Making the investment in commercial grade is also good stewardship. You want your new church building or renovation project to stand the test of time, just like you want your church vision to continue growing your church community.
Welcoming Guests with Proper Church Building Signage
Another factor to consider in your church vision is how you welcome guests. If people walk into your church building and can’t find their way around, they won’t feel as welcome and may not return.
In this picture, also from Gateway Church of the Nazarene, the entrance to the auditorium is clearly marked. In addition to helping guests find their way around, such signage introduces them to your church’s vocabulary. “Auditorium,” “worship space,” and “sanctuary” could all be names used for the same space. Clear signage helps guests begin to understand your specific church vision.
One good way to find out where you might need signage in your church building is to walk in the front doors, pretending you haven’t ever been there before. Would you know where to take your children for children’s church? Would you be able to find the restrooms? Could you find your way to the worship center or sanctuary or auditorium? Whenever you aren’t sure where to turn, that’s a good place for signage.
More Church Interior Design Tips
We hope you’ve found this FAQs series helpful. If you want more tips on the best church interior designs or help understanding what makes a great church building, sign up for our free i3 webinar series (simply visit our website) or give us a call at 800-625-6448. We’ll be glad to help.