Battery Station Fortitude Valley

After a couple of weeks of being very slack with blogging- I am working on a couple of exciting concepts though, a recent outing to Fortitude Valley resulted in some lovely serendipity.

That gorgeous old heritage listed garage that has been boarded up for years has had new life breathed in and is now a cool cafe.

With the original signage the name evolved around that- Battery Station. 

Through out the whole interior graffiti features and works well with all the original elements retained.

There is a large courtyard out the back past the kitchen where amazing graffiti reigns supreme beside the  raw industrial edge. It's a great set up for large private functions.

The owner's dog- keen to get into some dish licking.

We dined at the front area which used to be the drive through section for the pump station and marvelled at how small cars must have been in the olden days.

As always, it's the little details I love, such as the vintage collector teaspoons- just like my Granny had hanging from display racks.

My junior dining buddy was very impressed with his scrambled egg breakfast wrap and now lists caramelized onion on his developing palette preferences. The servings we saw were huge and well priced.

A great find and well positioned opposite the Home Maker centre which has limited dining outlets.

Inspired by Warwick Fabrics

Last week I attended the Warwick Fabrics 2014 launch at their Brisbane showroom. 

The night attracted good numbers with a mix of people from designers to upholsterers, furniture manufacturers and retailers.

Warwick laid on great food and plenty of bubbles.

As well as fabric featuring for the night the full range of furniture hardware was displayed with some nice new additions inspired by recent international furniture trade fairs.

The launch was presented by Warwick MD John Mackinnon. John mixed imagery with fabrics and explained the inspiration behind some of their collections. I found it quite enjoyable to see how their design process evolves to produce the finished product. 

It was an affirmation for me that I was picking the same trends that others are. But also interesting to see how the same point of inspiration can be interpreted in many ways. 

You hear of method acting where the actor gets so into the role they feel themselves become that character. I find that sometimes when I've been creating concepts for really big projects I've had to get into "the zone" to get the best results. Sometimes it's the smallest detail that becomes the inspiration for the end result. 

Here's a bit of a look at one of Warwick's fabrics that happens to feature the Pantone colour of 2014- Radiant Orchid and mood this colour evokes.

End result....

Design name- Pilsbury Ash

And final inspirational words from Vincent Van Gogh-

"I dream my painting and I paint a dream."