Interior Design

At Charlie Foster’s, people come for the coffee, and for us, but stay for the vibe, and also for us. We’re a pretty great team, but enough about the obvious. Today we’re here to talk to you about our inspiration for our unique and striking interior design.

The inspiration behind our design all started with our beloved Slayer Espresso machine, which you can read about in our Charlie Foster’s Slayer Espresso blog to know more about how we designed it, and why we adore it so much. Once we slayed the Slayer, see what we did there, we knew that we wanted to center the design of the shop around it. Our goal was to keep everything on-brand; we didn’t want to have any elements that strayed too far away that things wouldn’t mesh well together. Thus, we mimicked the color scheme of the Slayer and stuck with the colors red, pink, white, and natural birchwood.

When you walk in, you’re automatically taken to Charlie Foster’s realm of coffee magic with our pink tinted windows. Outlined in a red trim, it is hard not to see our coffee through rose-colored lenses (because you’ll love it!). Though it’s something that can strike the eye almost immediately, it was actually the last step in our design process. We couldn’t take the heat, but didn’t want to get out of the kitchen, so we knew that tinting the windows to help control some of that natural light was the move. By chance, the window tinter had a piece of red film in his truck, and asked if we wanted to try it. Of course we said yes.

If it isn’t the pink hued light that catches your eye first in our shop, then it will be the bright pops of red and pink contrasted with the clean and pristine white. A lot of coffee shops are grunge with darker color schemes. At Charlie Foster’s we wanted to break that mold with something fun, fresh and welcoming. The red and pink chairs were our way of bringing the pizzazz. Pink, not only being Hollie’s favorite color, is bubbly and playful, while red adds an edge because of its powerful appearance. To keep it classy, we accented these colors with the light natural birchwood that you’ll find on some of our tables, chairs, cabinets, and Charlie Foster’s Little Free Library. We used white, as well, to ensure that the environment wasn’t overbearing on the eyes.

As you travel further into the store, you’ll be able to see that we kept it very modern industrial in order to maintain a simple, but appealing theme. Another element that we took into consideration was functionality. Practical furniture that did not make us sacrifice style or comfort was important to us, and we think we achieved that well. There are spots for everybody from group areas with a couch, to a smaller table that could seat one if you’re looking for me time. We also have barstool seating that allows you to chit chat with our baristas and get the latest on some of our events, like Charlie Foster’s EV Car Meet, and our seasonal menus, like Charlie Foster’s Dream Team. Whatever seating arrangement you need, you can be sure that you’ll be comfortable.

Showcasing the design of the whole shop was so important to us that we skimped out on wall decorations, except for one bright and fluorescent piece. On the very back wall of the store, we have a natural birchwood trimmed light show. We call this wall, The Light Wall. It is a really cool piece that showcases a variety of color gradients in different moving patterns and, while it is eye-catching, it pairs well with our design, not stealing an ounce of attention from it. We put effort and care into our shop design because we wanted the best. This comes down to the glasses we serve our coffee in. Taking the time to make everything cohesive was not an option for us. You can expect your modern industrial seating to be paired with glassware that matches that. And, if we’re honest, some pieces in the design were coincidental. Our pink grinder, for example, usually only comes in two colors, but one month the manufacturer suddenly had pink and buying it was a no brainer.

All in all, Charlie Foster’s design was not a one day process. Like Austin said, it was all one step at a time. The next time you stop by, take a moment to sit down and enjoy one of our coffees in house and embrace Charlie Foster’s magic in its totality.