Not wanting to affect regular foot traffic or local engagement, an existing café in Armadale undergoes a renovation to create stronger pathways, better connections and a fun interior for customers and staff alike.
The Nine Yards Café in Armadale had good bones, a clientele and a great position, but in a former life, some dubious decisions about design, floorplans and flow had been made. There was more to the space and a refresh was necessary; a designer’s eye needed to bring everything into focus. “How do we refresh without spending money?” Robyn Levin, Wildflower’s Creative Director remembers asking, “so we put of lot of what we had into furniture.”
As furniture curators and procurement experts, Wildflower brought their creative nous, plus an ability to create consistent messaging and work within the budget. The scope inevitably grew, and a more holistic approach seemed apparent, but still Wildflower’s skill at wearing the interior consultant hat proved invaluable. A proviso in the renovation was the existing Thonet chairs would remain. An icon in every sense of the word, their blonde timber finish, quite warm in their colouring was, if not a contrast to the cool colours of the interior, lacking a connection.
“That’s how we landed on the idea of Laminex Pale Honey, because it was this idea of bringing in warmth for the chairs, so that they didn’t look out of place,” Wildflower Founder and Design Director Cara Stizza adds. “We were joking just before, we have pulled out Pale Honey for a lot of projects and it has never quite landed.”
Yet seeing Laminex Pale Honey here, the idea feels inspired. Gone is the feeling that it might feel too ‘fun’ or saccharine and in its place is a warm interior, not just giving the chairs a feeling of home, but a thread throughout the entire space. Cabinetry features the Laminex décor heavily, with shelves and cupboards getting the creative treatment without ever feeling novel. But perhaps the space in which it is most successful is the long, high kicker of the banquette, letting the Thonet Hoffman chairs finally find their feet.
“Working with the builder, we picked finishes – there were very few drawings - except in how we saw it coming together,” remembers Robyn. “It was a real collaboration in that respect.”
The previous iteration of the café had, much to the chagrin of Wildflower and the builders, several large, built-in concrete tables. Their positioning posed substantial problems to the flow of the space, leaving very little room for people to wait for their coffee, unable to see the counter or sit at a communal table, all things that make a café work, and the clients - hospitality veterans - were explicitly after. There was nothing else to do but have them removed and after several days of demolition, the flow was enabled, and the Wildflower team went back to work.
Large timber tables provide textural differences and a consistent design language, just as the tiled benchtops and islands do; the slight irregularity of colour and shape leaving a feeling of craft, a tacit warmth that the team have instilled throughout the project.
The deep burgundy upholstery of the banquette, along with the walnut timber used in the display cabinets and communal table, completes the palette, lifting the space from the cool-grey walls.
“A big factor was how do we create a sense of warmth in the space without physically changing the structure and fully repainting. That can be money not used well if you’re just repainting and a lot of your budget can go on that. So, we made sure that [the budget] that was there, was used well.”
Working within a strict set of parameters Wildflower executed exactly what a commercial client is after, a beautiful and functioning business.
“We were just talking about how much can be achieved with Laminex, because the colour can do the work for you; it does the heavy lifting. We can make very simple tables for projects and because you’re elevating it with a great colour, it goes beyond a standard workplace table. There’s obviously a lot of work put into the colours and the palettes and development, leaving the colour to do its job.”
“In this context, knowing that it has the durability to stand up in a café environment, that it’s going to get kicked and hammered and stand the test of time is reason enough,” says Robyn on the decision to use Laminex.
“When you go past and you see people sitting at the communal table or sitting in the window, it’s really satisfying to know that what you intended is how it’s being used,” finishes Cara.
What more could a café ask for?
Learn more about this project and explore Wildflower’s portfolio in more detail here.
Credits:
Design: Wildflower
Photographer: Bobby Clark
Carpentry and Build: Arran Stelling of Stelling Carpentry
Joinery: Vision Interiors
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