Greenheart Espresso. Matt Woods Design.

Young Australian designer Matt Woods, designed Greenheart Espresso in Sydney, a refurbishment project ending with the creation of a small, but truly captivating hole-in-the-wall cafe.



The space was stripped back to its bare bones, the lacklustre surfaces were spiced up with new cladding and the warm lighting design illuminates the key elements. Matt Woods used the old designer’s trick of a floor-to-ceiling mirror at the end of the narrow space to open it up and create a smoother internal flow.



According to the designer, nominated for the Australian Interior Awards, a limited budget forces you to think outside the box and helps you come up with creative, economically sustainable ideas for the project. Of course, this also impacts positively on the environment, when materials are repurposed and fittings adapted.





In a nod and a wink to the green building trend, which is in many cases nothing less than a “green painting”, Matt Woods went with a warm aquamarine green fit out, slightly mocking one of his lecturers from his Sustainable Architecture masters course who once told him that, “Unfortunately often the greenest thing of any particular  project is the colour of the paint”. 





But Greenheart Espresso goes way beyond appearances: it’s a place where patrons feel at home, far from the fast-food chains, a people-friendly café offering a menu that reflects the territory.

Project: Matt Woods Design
Location: Sydney, Australia
Year: 2014
Photography: © Sam Ali, Courtesy of Matt Woods Design