John and Peter Canteen - Total Venue Design

Project Team

design: BKH

The stunning transformation of Sydney’s historic CarriageWorks continues with the arts centre, now home to a white, bright and welcoming restaurant. John and Peter Canteen is a catering business that has expanded to serve lunch and dinner.

BKH has designed a space with white fringe trim hangs from scaffolding and studio lights and there are striking black and white print cushions and stripey banquettes. It’s a glamorous yet comforatble affair.

Iain Halliday of BKH has referenced 1970s domestic spaces within a rustic industrial shell. Surfaces are deliberately fresh and predominantly white with strong black and white graphic patterns in

the form of Marimekko and Fornasetti print to cushions, tabletops and banquette upstairs. Furniture is also classic mid 20th Century; Saarinen and Scandinavian spindle back chairs all painted gloss white.The main dining area sits stage-like on a raised podium with a banquette surround, mirrored above by a box truss holding stage lights fringed, theatre style, with slit drapes, creating a form of “vertical containment” and a sense of intimacy.

A central, round Carrara marble-topped table acts as a foil to the otherwise square tables in the main dining area to prevent the space feeling overdesigned.