Loom Café

Loom started as a weekend pop-up and needed a permanent home that still felt like a living room. The space was a 1990s apartment with low ceilings and a warren of rooms. We opened it into one long volume, kept the old terrazzo floor, and ran a twelve-metre table down the middle for the regulars who come to work as much as to drink coffee.

The roaster sits in the window where the bedroom used to be, so the street smells the coffee before it sees the sign. Counters are hand-cast concrete; the shelving is unlacquered brass and Hunsur teak; lighting is low and warm, and nothing is shiny. The terrace, under a climbing bauhinia, seats another twenty-four.

We worked with the owners' graphic designer so that the menu boards, the packaging and the architecture use the same two typefaces and the same three colours. Small cafés live or die on consistency; this one has been full since the second week.