Project Team

design: Owner - Lisa Kelly

Although Lisa Kelly wished to create an informal relaxed experience she also wanted to enforce the concept that this is not your regular bar. This is achieved visually through the décor.

Upstairs 1806 Bar (main Bar) is set in the form of a theatre, where the bar is the stage, the bartenders the performers serving classic cocktails.

Downstairs she wanted to create a less grand and polished environment. The feeling that behind the scenes of a great theatre, all is not what it seems. A modern offering to complement upstairs …with a twist.

This was achieved by creating an engaging environment rich in theatre props but with an air of derangement, almost Alice in Wonderland-esque. It is no longer enough for a venue in Melbourne to merely serve a great product to thrive but also provide an interesting environment to ensure a strong customer base.

“After project managing the 1806 fit out I took a lot of what I had learnt and applied that to The Understudy,” commented Lisa. “My key consultants were my two husbands !!! Yes, my ex husband Andrew Yaeger is a property developer and has been invaluable when it comes to getting things done and my current husband Glenn Kelly is my rock …I have a vision and he makes it happen. He is a great tradesman who takes pride in his work.

Unique features include the entrance which is via a 100-year-old recycled Indian wardrobe, which Glenn painstakingly cut down and installed.

“My pride and joy is the entrance to this bar and it’s also my biggest worry,” said Lisa. “Its age and the nature of it, it’s not really suitable for a high traffic environment with alcohol involved. But we will fix it as it becomes damaged - hopefully it will prove us wrong and stand the test of time …after all it has already lasted 100 years.”

Lisa is particularly proud of the pPuppets - two jokers and a rabbit - which she describes as an unbelievable find and just what she was looking for.

However her prized find was a chainsaw carving chick named Angie Pulglaze who she commissioned to create the amazing centerpiece and some wonderful cameos, which are scattered around the bar.

“The key elements of the door, the puppets and the seating were the starting point in the design,” Lisa said. “The rest had to flow and be functional …the smaller details are a work in progress …with a bar like this it takes time for it to be totally completed. As you find new objects and live in a space it is always changing and improving.”

This space is very small and quite dark and so the walls and floor were lifted with light timber and black-strapped timber to add a bit of character.

To soften the space the lighting was tweaked and the puppets added the texture the space was lacking.

Angie works with recycled timber so all the key props are in timber.

“I initially got Angie to design a long timber communal bench which would stretch from the bar to the centerpiece,” remarked Lisa. “But when it arrived it was far too narrow to hold a drink and a plate opposite each other. So this is now the main bar and it fitted in perfectly, as if it was made for that job …wish I had thought of that!”

Colour-wise, the two spaces 1806 and The Understudy need to complement each other. Working with the theatre theme upstairs 1806 is gold, red, black and antique /old world. Downstairs needed to be a contrast and so the key colour scheme is purple, silver and quirky.

Initially the venue installed typical dimmable down lights but they quickly changed the filters to colours to give the space a bit more ambiance and character.