Hey, coffee lovers in the Hive!

I hope your week is going great or at least OK.

How important is the decor of a café? What is your favourite style of decor, and why?

See that prompt? ☝️ Interesting, right? Everybody has an opinion, I thought. Then I thought about it again.

My mind wanders as I try o find an answer:

For me, a cofee shop should give me a homey feeling, but not in the ordinary sense; it should be nice, with things I would like to put there if time and money were no object. However, the coffee shop I visit most often doesn't give me that homey feeling. At best, I like this one because it has very good lighting. I come here often because it's close to my house and is air-conditioned 🙊

👉1👇

La Panetteria

(Cumaná, Sucre state, my hometown 😌🔥)

As you can see, the vibe is "mall-like"; I don't know how else to describe it. Lots of light, lots of shine, smooth veneered surfaces, white ceiling, polished granite.

The used to have yellow and white tables...

...which I liked even when the centerpieces were fake plants.

Now they are vibrant orange.

I hadn't noticed that because of this orange color that hurts my eyes, I haven't come here lately.

And now they have these centerpieces with more orange and more fake plants.

I've found that I care about color a lot when it comes to coffee shops.

👉2👇

Il Pomodoro, Panetteria 🍅☕️

(Puerto La Cruz, Anzoátegui state)

...How nice it is to be surprised by the decor and paraphernalia in a new place, I thought. Then I remember that new it's not always better.

I completely fell for their beautiful Bougainvillea decoration, even with the impossible lime and moss 😂 Imagine my disappointment when I found out that they were fake 😒

I wasn't impressed by this place anyway, at least not visually. Now I know it was because of the colors. The palette is rather insipid, don't you think? Or perhaps it's just me, looking for the natural caramel of wood and the earthy colors of raw stone.

I like natural, raw surfaces, the organic, plants (and flowers, living flowers in their plants).

👉3👇

Garnier

(Lecheria, Anzoátegui state, where I work on the weekends)

Before I wrote this post, I never thought about the true reasons why I never went back to Garnier. At this point, I can tell you that for me, it is not only about the natural materials and colors that I want to find in the decoration of a coffee shop. It is also about the feeling. See that place below; I think it's nice, I really do, but it lacks soul. It feels empty; it feels empty even when it's crowded. This is because our voices resonate indoors. There's a lot of solid material, a lot of smooth surfaces, so the noise just bounces back. Not cool. PLus, the light coming from outside is a bit blinding; it gives you the feeling that you're in a huge box with a big window facing straight to the sun.

Instinctively, my eyes search for fabrics, crevices, folds. Everything here at Garnier's is open and flat.

👉4👇

La Bodeguilla 😄👏

(Lechería, Anzoátegui state)

This is a place that I like better than the previous ones. Its earthy colors and good lighting make my eyes happy.

Although the ceiling is quite high, it's black, which makes it invisible once you are inside.

The cafe area is bordering the place, next to the central food fair; there are shelves with products all over, cleverly used as space delimiters. The variety of textures, the different levels of the floor, and the overhanging and ribbed structures reduce a lot of the noise in the place and give even more texture to the light and shadows, making this huge establishment a super cozy place. Although I don't come here much, I always want to come back.

I've only been to a few cafes and have little to no experience when it comes to decoration, but I think I have been able, not without effort, to identify what I like in the decoration of a café; also, I've been able to determine how much decoration is relevant in making my experience pleasant or in making me not want to come back (like the bright orange I was talking about at the beginning of this post 😎).

Now, finally, here's a café which decoration I like a lot.

👉5👇

GreenHaus-Krause, Panes y Café 😄👏

(Lechería, Anzoátegui state)

I loved it since I saw its facade. It looks like a house because it used to be one. You can see their many plants in the front yard from outside.

GreenHaus (Bread & Café) has a sustainable aquaponic garden--you can find some of their fresh products in your order (which includes great pizza and amazing herbal teas besides their good coffee). You can take the tour before sitting down to enjoy their excellent coffee.