95 George Street, Hove
I have a lot of experience designing coffee shops, but in all that time I have not met someone more into coffee that Matt, the founder of Chasing Rabbits. For that reason the coffee counter below was one of the most detailed and revised elements of the project. The design brief was to make the coffee shop dog friendly and to give the concept a mid century feel. There would be a minimum food offering of cakes and pastries and I needed to make the first floor work too (more about that later).
Photography by @fabriziooppes.photographer
My Approach to the building / layout
Ground Floor
The site was previously a betting shop with the main stair hidden around the back in a different location. There was some storage space that was lower than the rest of the first floor at the rear of the building and this gave us some limitations to how we could reconfigure the stairs.
As you will know the mid century movement was all about teak. We went with this finish for the main coffee counter and the furniture which is made up of:
- Original mid century pieces, sourced from Mid Century Re find in Worthing and upholstered by Bespoke Upholstery in Hove.
- Fixed furniture and seating hand made by SixHands.
- Contract standard chairs sourced by the client.
First Floor
It was important to encourage customers upstairs so I put the stairs next to the end wall and opened up the ceiling on the first floor. This created a full internal profile of the building that I applied a mural to. I also used a set of lights hung to match the pitch of the stairs. Opening up the ceiling made a dramatic difference to the space. I reinstated 2 windows that had been blocked up and completely opened up the main first floor space.
I am very happy with how the first floor has come together. Matt (client) agreed to all of my big ideas to make this first floor work. It is hard to draw customers upstairs sometimes, I had to firstly make it clear that we had a first floor and secondly make it a nice place to stay. I purposely used bold colours on the end walls to accentuate the open ceiling design. This was done with greens and pinks that work well with the teak of the mid century furniture.
Exterior | Branding
I was introduced to the founder of Chasing Rabbits back in the summer of 2021 by the branding agency Good Noise. I have worked with Peter and Stephen before on Capsule Records and this was another project where the graphic design was a key element of the interior design. At this stage the awning is yet to be fitted to the front fascia which will set towards the bottom of the panel.
Patience is a virtue
It took a year to find the right site and we took the survey in october 2022. It then took another 10 months to get hold of the keys. This can happen with some projects and it pays to be patient. It has been well received by the good people of Hove and is a thriving addition to George Street. I am very happy with the end result and wish Matt and his team much success. To find them on instagram follow this link.