16 February 2004

Silks Coffee Lounge’s 30m-long Florence Broadhurst Feature Wall

Silks Coffee Lounge in the heart of Sydney’s legal belt, a few doors down from the Supreme Court, decided to make an impact by papering a 30m-long wall with Solar wallpaper from Signature Prints’ Florence Broadhurst range.

The coffee lounge’s owners, Gary and Helen Baris, wanted a feature wall with a difference for their new venture which opened in February 2004 at 170 Phillip Street, Sydney, Australia.

When Helen Baris saw Florence Broadhurst wallpaper, she said “I just fell in love with it”. She chose it because of the history behind the designs and because it was “Perfect for what we wanted”.

Solar is ideal for their feature wall because “It is dynamic without being overpowering,” she says.

David Lennie, CEO of Signature Prints, explains how Solar ended up in the coffee lounge:

“When we first met Helen and Gary, we looked at their project and immediately showed them the Florence Broadhurst wallpaper collection. The design Solar was the stand out! After countless colourups to achieve a balance, the end result is there on the walls of Silks for all to see. Solar is not a design suited to scaredy cats – be brave and the end result is simply WOW!!”

For their wall, Silks ordered 10 rolls of wallpaper (each roll is 10m long and 71cm wide). Their total order of 100m covers 71 sq m.

The technical description of their wallpaper is: Solar on brushed silver mylar in a light and mid-mauve colourway.

Fulfilling the order was a challenge for the production team at Signature Prints. “This was an absolute bitch to print!!!!!!!!!!! Solar often is, but in these light colours it was EXTREMELY difficult to get a ‘perfect’ print” says one unnamed member of the production team.

And David Orford, production manager, says:

“Handprinting a two-colour geometric wallpaper design in the middle of a Sydney summer poses a few problems for our production team.

There are a number of variables such as temperature (inks drying too fast) and humidity (inks not drying fast enough) which have to be taken into account when trying to produce a quality product.

However, to see a Broadhurst design hung in a space such as Silks, on such a grand scale, is hugely rewarding to us as printers.”

For all Signature Prints media enquiries please contact:

Roger Balch
email: media@signatureprints.com.au or phone the number given on the Media Lounge home page.


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