Last year, McDonald’s made headlines when its burgers came in dead last out of the 20 chains surveyed by our kin over at Consumer Reports. So to improve its image, is the grease goliath falling on its own sword like Domino’s and coming out with a better product? Nope. It’s dumping over a billion dollars into remodeling its restaurants.

According to USA Today, the Golden Arches hopes to have most of its eateries updated with a more “modern” look by 2015. The company has been testing out a variety of redesigns at around 280 McDonald’s around the country and has decided to go with the revised appearance of its Tampa-area outlets.

Among the differences for the new-look McDonald’s restaurants:
•GOODBYE BRIGHT COLORS: Bright yellow and red exteriors are to be replaced by “much more subtle oranges, reds, yellows and even greens.” Also, the bright red roof will now be flat (and not red because you won’t be able to see it).

•FAREWELL TO FIBERGLASS: Wood tables (or at least something wood-like) will replace the fiberglass we’ve come to know and love.

•SITTING PRETTY: Metal chairs to be replaced by wood, or even seats leather-ish covers. USA Today says you might even spot a lounge chair or two, the kind you’d see some blogger hogging at Starbucks.

•TV TIME: Because no “contemporary” redesign is complete without flat-screen TVs, a handful (fewer than half) of McDonald’s will be featuring wall-mounted displays.

“McDonald’s has to change with the times,” says the senior vice president of domestic restaurant development for McD’s. “And we have to do so faster than we ever have before.”

“We’re not trying to be Apple,” says McDonald’s senior director of U.S. restaurant design. “But we can be inspired by them. When you’re inside an Apple Store, you almost feel like you’re inside an iPad — and you want to stay there. We want people to walk into McDonald’s and have the same feeling.”

So they want you to walk into a McDonald’s and feel like you’re in a Big Mac?

McDonald’s revamps stores to look more upscale [USA Today]

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