The franchisee of four Spokane-Coeur d'Alene area Applebee's restaurants recently completed a total of about $1 million worth of renovations to give the outlets a new look and feel after more than 20 years of featuring the same memorabilia-themed decor.

The four restaurants—located on Spokane's North Side and South Hill and in Spokane Valley and Coeur d'Alene-debuted the new look earlier this month, says Duane Wilson, who oversees day-to-day operations at six Inland Northwest Applebee's outlets, including those four.

"We've gone in and revitalized to become more relevant with our guest traffic and have updated to today's current architectural and design standards to make them more comfortable and aesthetically pleasing," Wilson says.

Each of the outlets was closed for three days while work was done, and work was staggered so only one restaurant was closed at a time, he says.

The four Applebee's here are owned by Atlanta-based AmWest LLC , which is the second largest Applebee's franchisee in the U.S., Wilson says. AmWest owns and operates 103 Applebee's across Washington, Oregon, and Idaho, as well as parts of California, Colorado, New Mexico, and Georgia.

Wilson says the outlets here were some of the first Applebee's restaurants in the U.S. to receive the interior upgrades as part of Lenexa, Kan.-based Applebee's Services Inc.'s goal to have all of its locations redecorated and updated over the next several years.

Before the modifications, the restaurants here had featured sports memorabilia from regional high school and college teams, as well as historical photos and knickknacks such as skis and car parts, among various other artifacts, Wilson says.

"That theme was original to Applebee's and was used for well over 20 years," he says. "We are putting a much newer and more modern look into the restaurants."

The new interior design is more contemporary, he says, with each restaurant here featuring large wall murals and high-resolution photos of regional events, such as the Spokane Lilac Festival, Bloomsday, and local nature scenes.

He says the South Hill restaurant features artwork depicting the history of Fairchild Air Force Base, and the North Side outlet is themed with photographs of downtown Spokane.

Wilson says that most of the photos on display at the restaurants were taken by local photographers.

The general contractor for the project was Vancouver, Wash.-based Tapio Construction Inc., and some Inland Northwest-based subcontractors also were involved, Wilson says.

Auctions were held at each of the outlets before renovation work began in order to sell the miscellaneous items that formerly had decorated the restaurants, Wilson says.

He says that the proceeds from those auctions—totaling in excess of $20,000— benefited regional charitable organizations, including the Windermere Foundation, which supports low-income and homeless families throughout the Inland Northwest.

AmWest also invested in staff retraining and some menu updates to complement the new look and feel of the outlets, Wilson says.