Ester’s

Stoke Newington, N16

Design: East JR

We were delighted when Ester’s owners, Nia and Jack, got in touch about refurbishing their beloved neighbourhood cafe.

Ester’s is more than a place visited in passing, it acts as both a hub for the tight-knit community of Stoke Newington, and a destination for specialty coffee, seasonal produce-led foodies alike. We kept this in mind from the creative brief onwards, and what followed was our most immersive project to date. As such, all designs and build was handled by us, with a single outsourced addition of beautiful Pause chairs.

Creating a spacious environment was the highest priority, as the cafe continues to grow in popularity. The feeling of space is possibly the biggest success story in this cafe re-fit, with both the Ester’s team and their customers feeding back on the spaciousness they can feel whilst inside.

The materials in use vary from Viroc (a compound of wood fibres and cement from Portugal), chosen for its utility and bright colour, to the Microcrete for the bar, which can be produced in any colour, patination or texture – so versatile it can also be used on floors and for kitchen sinks. We used Fenix laminate on grey engineered wood for the tables which was a very deliberate choice.

Other white laminates would have reflected too much light while Fenix has a nano tech structure which reflects almost no light; it's so matte that a computer mouse won't function on it. All lighting here was designed specifically for Esters. Soft ambient lighting minimises shadows, keeps the lines clean and avoids glare. The 360 Blobi lights made from grey silver mirror glass are one of our own products, they are not a perfect circle but a softened, amorphous blob.