Location | East End, Adelaide, SA

Services | Interior Design

Completed | 2025

Photography | Samuel Graves

The clients wanted to elevate the Mary's experience for their loyal regulars by creating a new sophisticated and immersive space within their venue. Their vision was to transform the existing front bar area into a new cocktail bar where patrons could relax, enjoy a cocktail and connect.

The original fitout of the front bar had served them well for many years, but required a significant refresh. The clients wanted a more open, free-flowing space to better align with the relaxed nature of enjoying expertly crafted cocktails.

There were several significant challenges to this project, which made it interesting.

First, this venue is super high-volume, so the finishes and materials needed to be very resilient and hard-wearing while also looking soft and chic.

Second, the Synagogue building is state heritage-listed, so we needed to protect any original historic building features and fabric and to ensure that any interior works were easily reversible.

Third, the budget for this project was small, so we needed to be very mindful of changes and proposed new works, and we had to focus on maximising the impact of the money spent.

Lastly, and just for fun, the project needed to be constructed while the club was still operating to full capacity in the other rooms.

An Immersive Experience

We used colour and neon lighting in harmony with the space's architecture as a starting point to create an immersive experience.

Creating the Feeling of More Space

To amplify the feeling of space, we removed elements like their go-go cage and small stage to create more open space for standing. We used mirrors to emphasise patron capacity, making the space look vibrant even though it's small. We placed mirrors strategically to reflect the lighting lines and exaggerate the bold geometric forms of the deep-reveal arches. We designed the arches to offer private niches for patrons and also to create extra surfaces for light to play off, a stunning backdrop for the lighting design.

Protecting the Building Fabric

We intentionally kept the bulk of the work to joinery and furniture so we wouldn't disrupt the building.

The Budget

To keep the budget in check, we retained the bar and associated services and only updated the bar face and hob. We ensured that the most costly items were features that made a significant difference to the space, such as new resilient flooring, joinery, furniture, and lighting.

Timeframe

Construction of this project occurred while the clients were still operating the rest of the venue, so we needed to keep on-site construction time to a minimum. We only specified products that were in stock in Australia and with very short lead times, and designed items that could be manufactured quickly on-site, with minimal trades.