Varnish is an indulgent project for owner Andy Freeman. With multiple venues opening in the CBD he wanted to avoid the collared shirt, white linen tablecloth, stuffy and uptight scene.

The desire was to create a space that creative types, secretaries, white collar, musicians and fashionista’s, can meet and feel comfortable and not out of place.

It was this ethos that was behind every decision at Varnish on King from concept to completion. The ambience required was that of a basement broody feel paying homage to the location and building history.

The biggest obstacle with the project was hitting ground water when installing the sewer pump.

Freeman admits that the space was planned and programmed with flimsy sketches that were passed to a draftsman to draw up for him. He states that feel and flow is very important in this industry. You must feel warm and welcome as well as transported into the creators mind.

Freemand did his best to keep the space “period” using recycled timber and bricks etc to make a lot of the additions seem as if they were existing structural.

Raw brick/timber and leather was a no brainer. Once the render was removed the room screamed timber. The ceiling is Tasmanian oak which is quite a feature and gives a lovely warm lineal effect.

Freeman says it is the ceiling that really ties the concept together as it is multidirectional from the front door to the rear door… everyone loves it, he says.

Lighting wise, there are rise and fall pendants over the bar, orange glow from sourced filament globes and uplights along the walls to highlight the brickwork. Lighting and music are the two most important things in this venue.

Being an American whiskey bar an 8mtr recycled Oregon slabs were used as the bar top. This continued through to all recycled Oregon doors and door frames.

When it came to choosing a background/foreground music system for Varnish, leading Perth based Audio Visual integrator Mega Vision went with an Apart system because of the great performance, ease of operation and value for money the Apart range of products represent.

The main system comprises eight MASK8F full range speakers powered by two CHAMP-ONE amplifiers with the back of house running four CMX20T ceiling speakers powered by one PA240P constant voltage booster amplifier. All this is controlled by the cost effective and intuitive PM1122 dual zone mixer.

Andy Freeman elaborates “The venue design allowed for exposed speakers to be positioned below our decorative ceiling. The Apart system we selected at Varnish look great! Style and design was very important! With our broad spectrum of music genres and styles, they stand up very well and are super easy for all management team to use and understand. Very user friendly.”