Design Inspiration: The Sideways Coffee Shop

This is an Alice in Wonderland style coffee shop all the way. The pictures below might even make you a little dizzy! A new coffee shop, part of the Despresso chain of coffee shops, recently opened a block away from the New York Public Library at Bryant Park.

The owner, Eugene Kagansky, decided to have fun with the 500 square feet that he had on Madison Avenue and 42nd Street. He wanted to create a memorable, unusual, creative place for people to grab their morning and afternoon coffee. He gave the designers at Nema Workshop a budget of $500,000 (for only 500 square feet!) and asked them to create a library inspired sideways coffee shop. The designers took pictures at the library and printed them on glazed tiles, which cover the ceiling, wall and floor. It all looks like flip-flopped library shelves.

The big white lights are even mounted on the side wall, but when you look at it sideways, you see that they are made to look as if they are hung from the ceiling. Some of the people who have visited the coffee shop say it’s barf-inducing in real life. Hmm… I’d still like to check it out. Mr. Kagansky plans to open more unusual coffee shops in the future, and he says his next one will be upside down. I’m getting woooozy just thinking about it.

[via New York Times]