How a tanning salon looks is crucial to its success. A salon can have top-of-the-line equipment but can lose customers because its decor doesn’t create an inviting environment. Conversely, a poorly equipped salon can be successful regardless of its equipment if its design makes guests want to book sessions.

Themed Tanning Room Ideas

Some themed tanning room ideas are obvious, like a beach theme. Beaches are a popular theme for tanning salons because many people associate going to the beach with tanning. This doesn’t mean salons can’t be successful with other themes, though. Tanning rooms with other natural-setting themes can also create a comfortable, inviting environment. These themes include:

  • Rainforest
  • Hot spring
  • Open sky

Other themed tanning room ideas are more abstract, like an avant garde room or a room that makes the guests feel like they are floating through space. The goal of creating themed tanning rooms is to create immersive spaces that make the guests feel like they have stepped away from the stresses of their day-to-day life to relax and take time for themselves. Soundscapes can be worked into tanning rooms’ themes, like the sounds of ocean breezes in a beach-themed room or soft, twinkling music for a room that feels like a journey across the universe.

A tanning room’s theme is more than its paint color and the images on the walls. It can include lighting effects and textures that are used to create a specific ambiance. For example, a rainforest-themed tanning room can include a waterfall that creates relaxing sounds and a collection of lush plants.

Best Colors for Paint in a Tanning Salon 

When a salon owner does an internet search for the best colors to paint a tanning salon, he will likely find results suggesting warm colors like orange, yellow and red. The reason these are often the response is because they suggest warmth. Warm colors are reminiscent of fire, the sun and the result of being out in the sun: a tan!

This doesn’t mean cool colors cannot work in a tanning salon. Although they don’t make the viewer feel warm, they can make the viewer feel peaceful and at ease. Purple and blue are soothing colors, and green is often used to make a space feel more connected to nature. Tanning salons can use these colors to create comfortable, peaceful environments and to contrast the heat guests feel during their tanning sessions.

When designing a tanning salon’s interior, the salon owner can use color psychology to create an effect that matches its brand. Brands in every industry use color psychology to communicate who they are in terms of price point, value, target demographic and the benefits they provide to consumers.

Emphasize Care and Pampering

Most tanning salon guests view their visits as an act of self-care. Often, tanning salons offer additional services, like manicures, pedicures, microblading and cryotherapy.

A salon owner can emphasize the self-care aspect of visiting a tanning salon in the salon’s interior design by making soft, fluffy towels available and filling the salon with pleasant scents. Additional ways to make guests feel pampered at a tanning salon include offering healthy snacks like cut fruit and beverages like smoothies as well as installing a heated floor.

Because guests visit tanning salons to feel beautiful and healthy, it is very important that salon owners make cleanliness part of their interior design. This means creating a space that is easy to keep clean. Bright, white walls and counters can make a space feel clean, as can reflective surfaces and open, airy spaces. Live plants can also help to make a space feel healthy and rejuvenating as long as the plants are healthy and vibrant.