The O’Hara family purchased the Fairfield Hotel in July 2011 and soon set about refurbishing the venue. Most of the interior layout was done from research into other successful venues and knowledge of what works well in the hotel market. In regards to the design of the Green Peppercorn restaurant, the family worked closely with the restaurant owner and operator, Tona Inthavong, to ensure that they were both happy with the outcome, using a lot of his ideas to design a unique, modern restaurant space with a quirky edge.

The aim was to transform a tired and derelict hotel into an enchanting space to relax and unwind. Making the most out of the huge floor space of the Hotel was a challenge.

The most unique feature of the Hotel is the massive indoor/outdoor entertainment area featuring a state of the art TAB area and a comfortable VIP Lounge. The Green Peppercorn Restaurant is full of exciting features, starting with the size. It boasts a 100+ seat main dining area, plus a forty seat private function area. The unique birdcage lighting was an idea of Tona Inthavong’s. Suspended from the ceiling the birdcages cast shadows from the lighting to provide a unique setting. Decorative screens have been scattered throughout the space to section off areas to create more intimate spaces. Powder coated pressed tin surrounds the bar and creates a modern finish.

Most of the planning and concepts were derived from sketches on paper whilst an inspiration board of other interiors they liked from various blogs and magazines was useful.

Initially the family had discussions with a few consultants but their design concepts completely pushed their budget beyond its boundaries so they were unable to implement these.

On the Hotel side of things, the lighting was aimed at being neat, clean and energy efficient and so LED downlights were chosen for this area. The restaurant needed something more. So, they decided to go with large feature lights that were organized through BSeated Global.
Down-lights are scattered throughout the entire room to provide additional lighting when required and leave a clean modern finish. These are on a dimmer switch, so that they can always control the ambience and mood of the restaurant.

Capital Designs Works provided all of the joinery for the Hotel and bars. This has been very effective in enhancing the clean, modern feel of the TAB and entertainment area. For the restaurant furniture two 

Australian companies - BSeated Global and HC Group - were chosen. Tona Inthavong went on sourcing trips to Thailand to organize the unique statues and artworks from an international Thai supplier for the true authentic Asian style feel.

The monochrome colour scheme provides a clean palette of black and white. The restaurant has fantastic natural light so they wanted the interior wall colours to be dark tones. Rich flocked wallpaper in grey and black tones and a warm grey paint for the majority of the walls was chosen. Wooden tables were selected to add character to the room and galvanized metal chairs in black and white tones add to the mismatch eclectic styling.

The main talking point amongst patrons of the restaurant is unique Tuk Tuk (authentic thai taxi) which was imported from Thailand and sits next to the bar. They have created a novelty out of this unique item and have a dress up kit next to the tuk-tuk for patrons to wear a hat or oversize glasses and take images of them inside the taxi.

The O’Hara family is thrilled with the transformation that has taken place at the Hotel and the restaurant owner is also very pleased with the design aesthetic.

Venue Music Systems was commissioned to provide a complete AV solution including background music to the new restaurant, entrance and function areas.

The main obstacle was the lack of space in which the equipment had to sit as there was no room for a rack. This was overcome by using a four zone multi input mixer amplifier from Cloud also with the provision of zone microphone inputs.

The background music system is an on line player from Mosaic Media with an extremely small footprint with no need for external monitor, keyboard or mouse as all scheduling and music updates are performed on line. The playlists are profiled to the venues music brief.

The end result was a quality sound through Bose ceiling mount speakers throughout and an extremely user friendly control system that is designed for the present with enough capacity to expand as the venues requirements change through time.