Berwick Garden Centre, 2024
Our Client Berwick Garden Centre
Berwick Garden Centre is a busy hub for locals and visitors alike with many stopping by for a coffee break or lunch. The owner wanted us to explore options of updating the cafe space as it was badly outdated having last been renovated nearly 30 years ago! Yaicks.
Berwick Garden Centre Scope/Client Brief
The large cafe area and its garden terrace needed a revamp. We wanted to introduce a fresh new look that echoed the garden centre’s lush greenery and calm atmosphere. There were some existing structural elements and services that we needed to work around and work into the design.
We also needed to come up with a new service counter solution and layout to support new business model that changed the past self service to table service. This meant less counter space was needed as people were ordering off a menu rather than a display and this enabled us to create more seating space for an increased number of customers.
All surfaces were to be renewed, a new colour palette sympathetic to the garden centre’s recently renewed branding introduced, lighting improved and style overall upgraded!
The Property Challenges
There’s no two ways about it – the space was poorly designed and downright ugly! The flooring resembled that of a hospital, the furniture was completely dated and the lighting was out of control, better suited to a service station than a cafe! Sorry. This wasn’t so much of a challenge as this is what we specialise in, but the cost and timescales to achieve such a vast transformation were very tight.
We needed to work with multiple contractors to implement the design and ensure everyone knew exactly what to do!
The Decodence Interior Design Solution
We literally started from scratch by removing absolutely everything in the space! Gone was the awful floor, too large a service counter, terrible lighting, and nasty furniture. We designed some beautiful bespoke furniture that works with our new fresh colour scheme of greens and cremes, redesigned the service area, and introduced new textural elements in the form of bespoke timber slat work on a gigantic central planter and the new service counter.
The lighting was made more domestic, feeling and controllable on dimmers, and lots of greenery echoing the surrounding space was introduced. We also added outdoor heating to warm up the new (dog-friendly!) seating area and included a “dome” in the design enabling customers to dine in style and privacy in a pre-bookable see-through space!