The Mood Board

On the advice of an art director friend of mine I made a couple of mood boards to help me come up with ideas for the decoration of the cafe. It's a great way of doing research and putting together a visual picture of what you have in mind. I suppose I could also do a few sketches to convey ideas but this feels more tactile and I love doing image research anyway, especially if it's for something that really interests me. I would like the cafe to have a feminine and elegant feel to it but for it also to be fun and a bit eclectic. It needs to be somewhere that people would like to linger and feel comfortable enough to drink lots of tea and eat cake (of course).

The cafe as it stands is an old photographic studio and is perfect as a blank canvas on which to create this cafe. Light pours into the space as there are two huge windows at the front and that also means that we can create beautiful displays and decorate the glass from time to time if we feel like it... there's a little area outside where people can sit at a table and take tea and I would like to decorate it with flowers and plants so that it looks pretty outside as well.

Returning to the theme of the original post on my blog "home". I guess this desire of mine to decorate comes from the same place as wanting to create a home. It's definitely a creative urge and I think that although I don't have a family of my own I still like to create a feeling of "home" where ever it may be or whatever form it takes. When I am involved in making something I'm searching for the best bits of myself and I try to put these together in a form that other people can understand and appreciate.

I've always enjoyed giving parties as well. It's hard work but also very satisfying to create a lovely atmosphere and open up one's home to friends. That's my ideal way of being sociable. I don't do it that often but when I do I like to make sure there's plenty to eat and drink and that my home looks and feels a comfortable place for my friends to relax and enjoy themselves.  Oh God, I think I just sounded a bit like Nigella but so what... although she may have turned into a rather crazed domestic goddess I like the way she writes her cookery books. She encourages the reader to try out recipes and not aim for perfection and I'm all for that. It's about making something that looks and tastes lovely without falling into the trap of trying to make it perfect. My pavlova's a happy pavlova!

So hopefully this cafe will be a place which exudes charm and invites people to feel comfortable and be happy. Tea and cake, who could want more?