Coffee Shop - The Makeover

Today I thought I would share some before and after pictures of the coffee shop. I can tell you that almost everyone seems to feel it is a warm and happy environment. I am happy that the younger generation has really taken to this place and yet the older generation enjoys the place with its vintage feeling.

It was not an easy process, but we did manage to keep it on the cheap side for such an endeavor.For around $25,000 USD we transformed the space you will see into the coffee shop. The money was raised by friends in the USA and we had special work teams from Chicago, Texas and Denmark who came to help work on it. The only part of the job that was done by professionals were the electrical and interior walls that had to be built. The entire design was "schemed" by my hubby and myself, and the work was all volunteer.

Room by room

The bar:
Before renovation this space was a small apartment used as a residence. The bar was built in the living area of this one bedroom apartment. There were some walls built in the kitchen space and the bathroom was renovated to become the staff bathroom. We used some existing cabinetry and removed the doors. We added scraps of wallpaper behind the cabinetry. Two small fridges were purchased and we built the bar around them, because we could not afford an expensive refrigeration unit. We "shabbied up" the bead board that we used around the bar and hubby framed out the entire project. We added a nice thick bar top of dark wood (the most expensive part of the bar area) and it made ALL the difference! Our friend Klaudia had just closed her coffee shop and so we were able to purchase her coffee machine and many other items for the shop at a very discounted price.
Above the bar you will see a tryptic. It is our friend, Spencer Green, a young musician and pastor's son. He inspired my husband and myself to develop the thoughts behind coffee shop ministry. We had so hoped that he would be able to be the first musician to play at the shops. He died of cancer, at the age 23, before the first shop was complete. We named the shops "Sweet Surrender" after a song that Spencer wrote about his faith.

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After:



The crazy wallpaper room:
Before renovation this room served as an English as a Second language office and classroom. It was a fairly institutional environment, and a bit sterile. While in Copenhagen I was in a coffee shop that had a wall of mismatched wallpaper and I had an inspiration of doing such a thing in this room to warm it up. The night before our volunteers hung this paper I had second thoughts. However, because I had already purchased twelve kinds of mismatched wallpaper, and hauled it all the way home, I decided we should just take a chance and go ahead. As it turns out this room is one that everyone talks about! The plates on the ceiling are cheap white plates from Makro (our Polish Costco)and they cost about $2.00 each. I saw this in a magazine somewhere. We cemented them with bathroom tile cement to the cement ceiling and it would take a hammer to get them off now. I do seem to remember that Katie, our amazing volunteer, had quite a time getting them to stick until we decided to tape them to the ceiling after cementing them. I love the way they pick up the light from the chandeliers. We did have to replace each light fixture in the whole place and we chose to use six completely different fixtures throughout the space. Another thing I love about this room are the vintage furnishings which were purchased at the local Flea Market. Our poor station wagon has looked like a gypsy cart more than once as we left the market, but we saved a TON of money by going vintage. I love the clock faces on the old mirror. I think I paid maybe $3 for the clock faces and then hubby found the mirror for $3, we put it all together and think it looks pretty special.

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After:







Music room:
This is the room where we have a small stage area for musicians. Part of our business strategy is that we want to reach out to musicians and have them play at the shop in a very intimate and friendly environment. The stage was built by a volunteer, James from Texas, and hubby carpeted it. The walls were all painted a very dark color called mulled wine by Dulux. It is a stunning color, very dark but warm at the same time. The bead board was applied by a group from South Texas, who also installed the art lighting and the art shelves. All the bead board was painted first with a gray green color and then whitewashed and distressed then waxed. The tables were an IKEA "hack" idea and were worked on by women from South Texas. They started out as just plain unfinished IKEA tables. We used soldering irons and burned the tabletop with patterns which were then painted and distressed and then topped with glass. No two tables in the shop are the same, and underneath each of the ladies who worked on the tables signed their name with a soldering iron. They are works of art! Again all the furnishings were flea market finds including the old sofa, which we bought for the equivalent of $70 USD.

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The conference room:
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Some part of the kitchen
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The ceilings in our shop are amazing and have intricate plaster moldings and beautiful plaster floral details. We have worked very hard to maintain anything in this historical building which was original to the house. The space is still heated by the original radiators and at times in winter we must use extra heating sources.

There were so many days when it felt we would never be finished.

Then one day...we were! :)

Thanks to all of our wonderful volunteers who made this place happen! God bless you for your gifts!