US studio Atelier Cho Thompson has contrasted soft and bold finishes in this restaurant in New Haven, Connecticut.

Atelier Cho Thompson designed the restaurant to occupy a space in a historic building located near Yale University. Called B-Natural Kitchen, it serves up a menu filled with local and fresh ingredients.

Bright white-painted walls and ceiling provide a backdrop to details that include graphic plant-themed wallpaper, vibrant paint colours and a mix of materials.

Tamboured wood fronts the rounded bar and service counter, which is topped with a multi-coloured terrazzo counter.

A series of banquets, a communal dining table and bar counters are designed to accommodate a combination of eating, socialising and working.

Three semicircular plywood cutouts decorate the walls behind the seating banquette. Plywood also forms the worktop of a row of bar seating and tops a long family-style table.

"The total design aesthetic of the restaurant became a juxtaposition between crisp forms and gentle curves, between handmade materials like terrazzo and industrial materials like powder-coated steel, and between soft neutrals like concrete tile and bright hues like pink cushions," the studio said.

Other furnishings in the space are readymade table stands updated with pink paint, pastel-green patio chairs, black bar stools and mismatched pendant light fixtures.

Some of the walls are coloured a dark greenish-blue to provide a contrast to paler elements. These include a mix of paint and dark wallpaper patterned with illustrations of salad leaves.

In the bathroom, white tiles are filled with pink grout and coupled with a white terrazzo floor and pink wall.

Other details of the project are a wooden pegboard wall used for displaying the cafe's series of branded products, which include artwork, T-shirts and tote bags.

In addition to styling the interior, Atelier Cho Thompson also designed the cafe's new logo and signage, which it said takes cues from farmer's markets.

"We began with the restaurant's primary mission: to serve fresh, seasonal food to a youthful clientele," said the studio. "We developed approaches to branding and to interiors in parallel, each taking cues from the motifs of a farmer's market."

Atelier Cho Thompson was founded by Christina Cho Yoo and Ming Thompson and has offices in San Francisco and New Haven.

New Haven is best-known as the home of Yale University. American studio HVS Design and London-based Alexander Waterworth Interiors have designed the boutique hotel The Blake, not far from the Ivy League school.

Photography is by Samara Vise.

Project credits:

Architect of record: Seed NH
Millwork fabricator: Hugo and Hoby