Café ideas showroom

Following the building's earlier heydays, the area of Chippendale became quite seedy and the hotel became a haunt for cartels and gangs. Before it was closed down and boarded up in the late 1990s after an infamous shootout between rival gangs, it had been the Blackmarket Hotel & Hellfire Club. Later attempts to reopen it as a brothel failed and the building was purchased by Café ideas to become their two level showroom for café and restaurant furniture and equipment.

In determining the colour scheme, it was a Council requirement to respect the historical significance of the building. The client brief was to give it lighter, fresher colours (it previously had dark purple wall face, white parapet and orange trims) and create a colour scheme that tied in with the purpose of the building.

A heritage tri-colour palette was selected and colours chose reminiscent of café lattes and hot chocolate to fit with the café theme, being Resene Coral, Resene Dutch White and Resene Milk Chocolate.

Colours used: Resene Coral, Resene Dutch White, Resene Milk Chocolate.

Products used: Resene Lumbersider, Resene Super Gloss.

Architectural Specifier: Judith Briggs
Project: Resene Total Colour Awards 2011

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