Feel-good vibes
Detour Cafe was Highly Commended for Best Cafe in the 2015 Hammersmith & Fulham Brilliant Business Awards.
The owner of this Shepherd’s Bush coffee shop wanted to recreate the New Zealand café culture from her homeland. The design needed to meet the following requirements:
- Friendly & welcoming
- Urban cool style with a laidback feel
- Idiosyncratic
- Outdoor lifestyle
Working with a graphic designer, a wallpaper mural of a typical New Zealand outdoor scene covers an entire wall of the café. The campervan in this mural, complete with ‘Detour’ number plate, introduces the warm orange accent colour that is used throughout the café in the pendant lights, bar stools and even the coffee cups and saucers. Orange was chosen as an accent colour as it combines the energy of red and the happiness of yellow. It represents joy and sunshine, giving the café a feel-good vibe.
The black ceiling and walls make the space feel cosy whilst the black tables, industrial style chairs and the black and white striped awning add an element of urban cool. The ‘Detour’ theme also carries on through to the cloakroom.
The new design was accomplished within a tight design budget and a 4 day turn-around for the transformation.
“I bought my cafe, Detour, in October 2015 and while it had a great customer base, I wanted it to make it my own and update its look and feel. I’m an accountant by training and a lover of coffee and food but having not done a refurbishment before I needed some help with the interior design and asked Nicola to get involved – and I am so glad I did. From start to finish, Nicola took into account my Cafe branding, listened to what I wanted to achieve with the new look and provided great ideas. Perhaps even more importantly, Nicola told me (politely!) when things would not work. She even encouraged me to take a few risks and those risks have definitely paid off.
“We closed the cafe and did the complete refurb in only four days, which was important for business, and re-opened in May 2015. The response from our customers has been incredible. We had more new customers in the first few days than we had had in the first four months of the year and our loyal customer base have reacted so positively to the change. Revenue has been up 50% on prior average. Nicola’s design guidance has really been part of this transformation and will contribute to the ongoing success of Detour.
“On top of her design knowledge, as a person Nicola was a pleasure to work with from start to finish – extremely professional in her approach, flexible and fun to work with. As you can tell I’m thrilled with the finish product.” Kelly
Described by City A.M. as a “trendy retailer”.
