Mr Frankie’s owners wanted to offer Frankston South’s increasingly younger crowds a café and weekend wine bar with an edgy, cool vibe – with no need to travel to inner-Melbourne to find it. The brief entailed still retaining a bayside feel, just without an obviously coastal theme.

Saturated colours resonate with natural beachy tones. A pale peach wall render forms the backdrop for layered terracottas, ranging from sandy through to rich red earth and burnt edges, with mustard accents. Bold, deep blues – from wall treatment and denim upholstery to marmoleum tables with powder-coated bases – and a painterly swathe of tealy green offset the fleshy hues and pick up the concrete floor’s gravelly greys.

The scheme celebrates a fusion of curved and rectilinear elements throughout the space and is set up to support a lively day atmosphere but an intimate, relaxed feeling at night. Arch patterning echoes through rounded double pendant lights, which lead toward the rear kitchen window. These juxtapose against repeating triangular elements in both existing trusses and new, crazy paving-inspired geometric floor painting.

Colourful wall panels were created to continue the graphic exercise, as well as to house integrated lighting that achieves low-level lighting in the evenings. Textural applications were also important in achieving a sense of vibrant balance: smooth and rough meets shiny and reflective; perfect and imperfect suggests familiar and new.

To mitigate the long, narrow space – and create a journey for patrons moving through it – zoning was key. A banquette runs the length of one wall, while the other side is broken up by the terrazzo-tiled coffee bench. Low round granite tables opposite high bar seating toward the rear enable patrons a better view back through the front windows to the streetscape.

Awarded a Commendation in the Best Cafe Design Category at the Eat Drink Design Awards 2020.

Shortlisted in the Hospitality Category at the Dulux Colour Awards 2020.