Verve 5 Year Anniversary Party
This weekend we had the privilege of working with one of our very favorite clients, Verve Coffee Roasters. Verve makes the best coffee on the planet (seriously, if you live in Santa Cruz, go there, and if you’re ever passing through Santa Cruz, stop there to re-fuel, you’ll be like “Dang Gina! This is some good stuff!”). On top of being the best coffee roasters/cappuccino makers/smiley happy people, they also have an incredible aesthetic that feels so inviting and unique, and matches up really well with our style here at P&C.
So this weekend Verve hosted a 5 year anniversary party at their roastery in Seabright, CA complete with fresh wood-fired pizza, ice cream from the Penny Ice Creamery (YUM), delicious espresso drinks, a DJ spinning tunes, nothing-could-taste-better-than-this-ever Mary’s Cookies, and decor by P&C!
Get ready for a photobomb of this awesome event in 5 – 4 – 3 – 2 – 1!
Thank you Verve! Not only did we love working with you, but we had a great time at your event!
Were any of you there? What did you think?
Southwest Regional Barista Competition, Part 2
Now for the outdoor seating part.
That “coffee table” is technically a day bed frame. Technically schmechnically.
We stacked two side tables on top of each other to make it a bit more interesting. And clearly someone took the right side pillow up on its offer, cause it’s all smushed in this picture.
We used a shower curtain from West Elm to recover these bar stools and seat cushions on a couple of other chairs. That’s a tip a la Nate Berkus, because the fabric is made to be super durable, and they are usually inexpensive.
Then inside, along with the cardboard wall and dip dyed fabric wall, we did a big ol’ ceiling installation with paint sticks, burlap and brown paper chinese lantern things, and amazing cardboard pendant lights. We mixed lots of paint colors in slightly varying shades to achieve that ombre effect.
We clothes pinned all the paint sticks in my ever-so-organized-and-not-clutterd-at-all garage to an extension cord for drying. Which I really like using because extension cords don’t slip like rope or twine, so they are easy to keep pulled tight.
This thing sort of looks like a hot mess in pictures, but in person it was the bomb if I don’t say so myself. In person you didn’t see or notice so much of the cords and the lady-parts so to speak of the piece. Part of what I loved was the size and scale. It was just really big. And that is 200 paint sticks no joke.
The paint sticks were inspired by Anthropologie’s window display (don’t you love how “inspired by” is just a p.c. way to say stolen?)
Would you believe that this took about four hours to tie it all up and hang it from the ceiling?? What the heck!! Ten thousand years will give you such a crick in the neck! We had so much fun working on this and spending the two days with our new-found friends putting it all together. Our hipster circle of friends has been broadened. It’s always fun to find people who can stop in the middle of some serious decision-making to break-it-down-with-a-dance-jam to the tune at hand, then get back to business. And that was the Southwest Regional Barista Competition.
South West Regional Barista Competition, Part 1
Miss Pomp and I were hired by Verve Coffee Roasters, the hosts of the competition, to create three temporary walls, an outdoor hangout area, and a ceiling installation in a big open industrial building downtown in Santa Cruz.
Remember the sticks? That was just the beginning. Verve definitely has a look and feel that is pretty consistent- vintage, industrial, uncluttered, organic, unique. So we wanted to stick with things that felt true to who they were. We went back and forth on several ideas, one of them being this but with more neutral colors-
But then we realized while we would indeed end up with something amazing, we would also end up going coo-coo-for-cocoa-puffs-crazy with how much time this would take. Verve always has unique and creative ways of displaying things, so these walls had to be interesting and the Zoey Deschanel’s of the temporary wall world, but, also easy to transport and move for two not so buff ladies. Although I would like to add we have been taking Pilates. Uhh. And did I mention they needed to be 22 feet long and 10 feet high?? Yeah.
So we landed on dip dyed fabric walls and cardboard. I’m sure your face looks like everybody else’s did when we told them we were using cardboard. But you’ll see.
We’ll do a “How to dip dye fabric” post later, but this was the end result-
Looks dinky in the picture, but this thing is huge. It was easy to make, and the nice thing about this kind of look (organic), is that the imperfections are what make it. That “undone” touch that is not super sleek works with it. But you can’t be too messy or it just looks, well, messy. This is ripped muslin fabric staple gunned to long pieces of wood and suspended from the ceiling with twine. It still lets light through, and by spacing the strips of fabric slightly it is more interesting than just a fabric wall.
Ok, now the cardboard wall. We had access to free sheets of cardboard and thought we could easily build something cool with the natural look of the brown cardboard. This cardboard was crisply and pristinely cut- no creases or used lookin’ stuff. That’s no good. Here’s what we built-
We were stoked with the way this came out. We made chains with zip ties, which are the bomb by the way because you can so easily adjust the height to make it level. We used metal rings to hold the panels together, and used a nail and hammer to make the holes they went it. We used spray adhesive to stick the circles on in a pattern that was similar to a dandelion being blown in the wind. I know. No sane person would realize that. We’re ok with that. We know we are delusional.
Making the circles brown kept the look toned down, and made it more of a textural thing. Very Verve.
Ok. I think that’s enough for today. Stay tuned for a Part Two, featuring the ceiling installation and the outdoor stuff.
1 comment