3 Interior Designers Transform the Same Cozy NYC Café

[Narrator] These three interior designers

have been given a photograph of an empty cafe.

They have free reign to design it in any way they please.

My name's Laura and my design style is modern,

tailored and classic.

My name is Patrick and my design style is layered,

colorful and charismatic.

I'm Xavier and my design style is narrative,

purposeful and airy.

[Narrator] No clients, no restrictions, just blank space.

[Laura] This is the cafe space.

When I first look at this space,

if I'm looking at this from a guest perspective,

I don't know how to use this space.

If I'm looking at it from an employee perspective,

I also don't know how to use this space

and I think I'd probably quit.

It feels like there's not a lot of flow to it,

and there also doesn't seem to be enough space

behind the back counter

and the front counter for employees to move around

and kind of interact.

I like to think through how you want your guest

to experience the space.

They need to walk in and feel a sense

that they know where to go, and who to talk to,

and what to do, and there's no confusion.

[airy music]

My idea for this space is to create a French-inspired cafe

where you can come in and feel like you can just hang out.

When designing for a commercial space,

I really love to be transported.

This space is transporting me

to my first sad rental apartment.

I would love to be transported to, perhaps,

the south of France, or Rome, or Milan.

I think if we create a space

that is able to be activated all day,

it's gonna be the best way to serve the neighborhood.

It's gonna reach the most amount of people,

and it's also going to allow us to be open

in making money from sun up to sundown.

The type of place that I can get a cup of coffee,

stop by for lunch, get a nice drink,

glass of wine, a cocktail.

I just want to be able to use this at all times of the day.

[airy music]

A floor is a great place to start

in terms of bringing in a really specific aesthetic,

and a checkered board floor

is perfect for that sort of Perisian feel.

I'd like to do this gray bardiglio marble

and then a Carrera marble, which those two together,

you can just see how lovely they are.

There's been marble in Italy and France for a zillion years.

It's super durable, it's gonna last a really long time,

and I don't mind what we call the patina

that happens with marble over time.

Somebody spills something, it gets etched or scratched,

I just think that adds to the character of the space.

This looks like blonde parquet flooring

and it's not really durable.

I would love to introduce a beautiful antique terracotta.

Terracotta is great because it hides a lot of dirt.

There's a beautiful deep tones to the red and light.

It's tumbled, already has a sort of worn quality to it,

which I think is great for high traffic cafe.

So when I look at the floor,

I see, like, this sort of wood parquet.

It's looking a little foe to me.

That's not gonna fly here

because it's gonna get pretty dirty,

it's gonna get pretty worn down.

I need something that's gonna be

a little bit more durable and cleanable

for a high traffic environment like this.

I'm looking at this, like,

very beautiful broken stone tile look,

and I think that that would be a really incredible way

to make a varied, unusual floor,

but it's also a, you know, a stone material

so you're gonna be able to mop it

and it's very durable in that way.

[gentle piano music]

Cities are notoriously lacking for green space,

and I would love this space

to feel like a respite from your city life.

So I want to bring in a really indulgent dark green,

and that's going to just make this space

feel really warm and welcoming.

If we bring that dark green up onto the ceiling,

it's also gonna help the walls recede a little bit,

and that makes the space feel bigger.

In addition to bringing in this really dark color though,

I actually wanted to think about what that texture could be.

I think a Roman clay in that really dark green

would be beautiful.

It's gonna add a lot of texture and interest to the wall.

And then on top of that,

we can do a beautiful picture panel molding,

which again, will kind of break up the space

and give it some more unique texture.

The brick in the background feels a little bit dirty,

and I don't like the fact

that it's also not the same texture

as the rest of the walls.

I love plaster paint and lime paint finishes.

They give a real nuance to the wall

and bring in lights and darks

and create something really beautiful.

For sure, I would cover over the brick and make it all one.

From like a customer perspective or cafe or a bar,

we see it in only one of its cycles or day parts,

but actually there's a whole life

that happens in these spaces before they open;

prep work, cleanup,

you have to think about the materials you're using.

They need to be really durable

because you're gonna see a lot of traffic.

When I look at the walls,

the first thing I'm gonna do

is get rid of the exposed brick.

I don't love exposed brick in a restaurant setting.

It's a very textured, very rough surface

that tends to collect a lot of dust.

It's very, very hard to clean.

So when I think about the walls in a high traffic place

like a cafe or a bar, anything below countertop level,

it's gonna get kicked, it's gonna get bumped.

Spillage will happen on the floors,

and that will splash up onto the walls.

I wanna make sure that anything that happens

below the countertop is very wipeable, very cleanable,

but is kind of a piece of art in and of itself.

So I'm gonna do a enamel wainscoting below the wall,

but I'm going to do it in a, sort of, like,

Trompe L'oeil painted pattern

so that it has this sort of beautiful architectural,

you know, detailing.

And then above that

I'm going to use this, like,

really beautiful Roman plaster to coat the walls,

and I'm gonna use them Rosa Levanto marble

to create the crown molding.

I'm gonna use the same red marble to create a chair rail

that will go around the perimeter of the space

and then again for the baseboard.

[airy music]

So when you are using a really dark color,

like this dark green that we're gonna bring in,

when you've got it across the ceiling

and across the walls, the corners sort of recede.

You can't tell where the wall ends and the ceiling begins,

and that just immediately makes it feel even bigger.

Looking at this ceiling, it's plain, and white, and cold.

So I think what would be really nice to do

is bring in some reclaimed beams,

which would only add to the feeling

of romantic old world atmosphere that I'm hoping to achieve.

So for the ceiling, I'm also gonna do an enamel treatment

because I want it to be cleanable.

I'm not going to stop harping on about that.

The worst feeling when you walk into a restaurant

and it doesn't feel clean.

[airy music]

Right now, I do love that there is a window,

and I love that it's this bypass window

so that people can come up

and order from outside the restaurant.

However, this could be better laid out.

So what I'd like to do is actually move this bypass window

further into the service space

so that when you're actually behind the counter

in the cafe serving

that you could also just turn to your right

and help somebody who's happens to be at the window.

And then we can add an even bigger window

into the seating area as well.

That way we can have tons of natural light, functionality,

and beauty at the same time.

In a small space,

you're really always looking for more opportunities

to have more sales

and being able to access the restaurant

from two different spots is really ideal.

This window feels like a small takeout window

or something like a drive through window.

Not in love with that. I hate those handles.

I hate that it's a sliding window.

We could really use something

that has a lot more character and beauty to it.

I'd love to see some more light coming into this space.

So I'm gonna create a French-style window casement,

nearly floor to ceiling

with beautiful wood panel detail below.

And I'd also love to see that classic French mulian window

with different panes.

I think that could bring a real residential feeling to this,

otherwise, pretty banal commercial window.

So this window here is not that interesting to me.

I don't like its functionality.

It's kind of like this slider pass through window.

That is not the vibe I'm trying to go for.

What I'd like to do is increase the size of the window

almost all the way up to the ceiling

and come almost all the way down to the floor.

I'm also not gonna try to make it an operable window

or a door or anything like that.

So I'm just gonna do a flat pane of glass.

It's gonna let in a lot more light

and perhaps we can explore maybe a little curtain treatment

on that window as well.

Part of what I wanna accomplish with changing this window

is I just want to let people see into the space.

A big beautiful glass showcase

to show off what I'm gonna do inside this cafe

to the rest of the world.

[airy music]

So what I do think is working here

is this peninsula of cabinetry.

It creates a nice space for the guests to come up.

Across this front area

we should really bring in a cool design with the cabinetry.

So I'd like to do an inset panel with some reeded detail.

We should get an industrial fridge.

It's gonna have better storage

and it can actually sit underneath the countertop.

Obviously we're going going to need

a tea maker of some kind, a coffee maker.

Across this whole back wall we could do shelves

and the shelves will allow us to have a lot of room

for items that we can sell.

So we wanna maximize every square inch

as to how this cafe owner can continue to make a profit,

so they're not just selling the tea and the coffee,

they can sell the plates and the glasses.

What I'd love to do is create a back wall

that feels like somebody's kitchen.

It would be great to have a tile backsplash

and a shelf above.

It'd be wonderful to put a stove and a cooktop centered

and then to float an island in front of it.

I would love to see these handmade tiles

by my friend Aviva Halter.

She hand paints them in Bridgeport, in England,

in her studio,

and so I'd love to have her create special tiles

with herbs or different produce bits on them.

I think that'd be really charming and sweet.

So I want my cafe to feel like an old world kitchen

that a little Nona has been cooking at,

delicious pastries, and juices, and soups.

My grandmother growing up had a wonderful skirted sink;

I'd always loved that.

It's romantic and feels light and airy.

So I think that this Raul Bloom White Buffalo plaid

feels really great

because it's sort of painterly

and has a really great nap to it.

And then the cappuccino coffee maker to the right.

The first thing I'm gonna do

is I'm going to do a back counter

that runs across the entire back of the space.

And under this counter I can locate a under counter fridge.

I can do a sink over here,

and then on top of the counter

I can have my espresso machine and my coffee set up there.

Now I have my entire operation on this back counter

and it's gonna be really tight and really efficient.

The other thing I wanna do in this space

is create a really beautiful pastry display case,

a sort of centerpiece, half hexagon counter,

built into which will be a pastry display case.

On one side we can have maybe a menu,

some other display here,

and then on the other side

we can have the place where you will pay.

So we definitely have to incorporate

some seating into the space.

And I would love to do a beautiful banquette on both sides.

And so if we can do the banquette,

what that allows us to do is actually seat even more people.

So when you have just chairs,

you have to allow at least two feet behind a chair

so that somebody could pull out the chair,

but then also so that somebody could walk

behind the chair as well.

Whereas with the banquette,

it's just sitting flush against the wall

and you actually gain some square footage into a small space

by having something that is just stationary.

I would love to do some marble top tables

with a beautiful vintage pedestal base;

really driving home that cafe feeling.

And then I think some really cool vintage chairs.

I'm thinking of something with a nice thin leg

that will visually still stay very open

and light as you're walking in.

And we really wanna make sure

that this back wall is the focal point

in terms of being able to tell people where to go.

So you come in, you walk straightforward

and you see sellable items,

you see somebody who's going to help you,

you see the beautiful pastries.

And so we really wanna make sure that that traffic flow

is clean, and clear, and simple, and accessible.

We can have the seating on the side

so we'd leave like a nice clear line

straight to the counter.

So this is a really small cafe.

Fitting more people in this space

doesn't mean maxing out, necessarily,

the amount of chairs and tables you have.

In a space like this,

we actually want to remove furniture

and create more good zones for people to stand around.

So I designed a couple of tables here, they're bar height,

but they also have a little footrest,

which is, you know, ergonomically really helpful.

[airy music]

A commercial space really needs to be well lit,

and it doesn't necessarily mean that we have to light it

as if somebody's performing surgery.

We should really bring in

some cool, vintage pendants as well.

I'm thinking of something in a reeded glass,

something that has, sort of,

a French 1950s, 1940s kind of feel

because everybody looks good in eye level lighting.

Nobody really looks good

when the light is coming from overhead.

I chose fixtures that felt

a little bit on the residential side.

Over the island, that light fixture by Joseph Frank,

I've always loved it, reminds me of a little puff pastry.

Above the two niches for the produce and food,

I chose Deval's gooseneck lights

in antique brass with a beautiful milk glass shade.

Lighting in a restaurant space, cafe, bar,

is like one of the most important things to get right.

If you don't get it right, people aren't gonna look good,

the environment is gonna feel either too bright or too dark,

you can't see your food, you see your food too much.

So it's a really important thing to nail.

The two things that I want to, sort of, call out here

are the wall lights and the ceiling lights.

And I'm probably never gonna have

these both on at the same time

'cause I don't think that they're necessary.

The ceiling lights I'll probably have on during the day,

during the morning when I want a little bit more

of a bright atmosphere,

I want the things in the pastry case to really be shining,

but then I'll turn those off completely in the evening

and only have the wall lights on.

Because in the evening I want all the light

to be coming from eye level, face level,

'cause that provides a much more flattering light

for everybody and a much more flattering light for the food.

[airy music]

We kind of have, like, an emotional response as humans

and an emotional connection to nature,

so I definitely wanna bring in some plants across the top.

And the reason for bringing them across the top

is that then they're not gonna get damaged

by people accidentally spilling things on them

or getting in the way.

And then really that should be where the name

of the cafe goes as well.

So I would love to call this space Cafe Josephine

that is named after my great-grandmother.

And I would write it in script

and it's going to then sort of continue

that, sort of, French romantic, sort of,

vibe that we have going on.

I love, in a kitchen,

a collection of plates up on the wall,

especially transfer wear.

I would love to place a collection

of antique blue and white transfer plates on the walls

and tie that in with the buffalo plaided skirt sink

and the blue of the french window.

So on the right side of the cafe,

I took that opportunity to carve out a round niche,

which I thought would be really beautiful

to have lined in antique mirror,

and then to have the menu written out on that mirror;

I always loved the way that looked.

So one of my main goals in decorating this space

is I want to showcase the products that I'm selling

in an extremely flattering way.

So one of the things I'm gonna do

is create a very beautiful back bar display

for all my bottles of wine, my glassware,

all of the things that I'm really, sort of, like,

proud to show and sell in the space.

And I'm gonna back that with mirror

so that it gives it just that little bit of extra dimension

and makes it feel a little bit bigger than it already is.

I also wanna create a beautiful, kind of, like,

drawn back curtain out of carved marble

that will then frame my back bar bottle display.

The other thing that I'm gonna do is

I'm gonna create a display case

that's gonna be completely symmetrical

to the window I created on the other side of the space.

And that's going to be, again,

mirror back to give it a little bit of dimension,

kind of echoing the language of the window

and its framing, and its size, and its shape.

[airy music]

I really love how this all is coming together.

I think that it's a space

that I would want to spend some time in.

I would want to go in and get a really beautiful pastry

and have my perfect little loose leaf cup of tea

that is steeped to perfection.

I think I achieved the look and feel

of an old world European kitchen.

I am inspired by Italian kitchens, French kitchens,

Spanish kitchens, and the English as well.

So I kind of combined all of those senses

into this cafe in my mind.

This is a cafe that transports you away from the every day.

I think what I've created here

is a really, sort of, lovely all day cafe.

The type of place where you can go have your coffee,

you can hang out at lunch for a quick bite,

you can grab a drink.

It's gonna feel very relaxed, but very elegant.

[airy piano music]

Wow. Wow.

My goodness. That's amazing.

Wow. That's fantastic.

Wow, Patrick's definitely reminds me of the south of France.

I don't know...

That's nice. I like that.

I think south of France is a good place to start the day.

It's funny, we all chose to get rid of the brick.

I know.

I kind of can't with the exposed brick.

[Patrick] We're all over brick, exposed brick.

Yeah. I think we all have the clean wipeable surfaces.

Yeah.

I went with an old, old antique plastered wall

where the dirt can just blend right in.

That's the other solution.

That's a good one, you know?

I would love to own my own cafe.

[Laura chuckling]

And work here every day. I'd be happy here.

Yeah, for sure.

Or in any of these.

It's a dream mine I hope to make come true one day.

Yeah.