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Swallow Cafe, Williamsburg, Brooklyn

Our studio designed furniture for the first two Swallow Cafes in Brooklyn, and we’re thrilled that they keep thriving and spreading their wings.  The interior design for this one was a real pleasure.  For this one, we focused on artisanal concrete, paint, resin, steel, and reclaimed wood surfaces.

Coffee house interior design
Coffee bar design

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Swallow Cafe – Tripoli, Cobble Hill, Brooklyn

Our studio designed furniture for the first Swallow Cafe in Brooklyn, and we’re thrilled that they keep thriving and spreading their wings.  We’ve now built 3 cafes for them, the most recent being this conversion of the Tripoli space in Brooklyn, NY.  It features an empire revival storefront, with a complexly textured interior that highlights the space’s original murals.  The natural and airy space has a French window prep area, rustic raised and earthy seating to make the most of a small platform against one wall (which now feels like a perfect place to perch), and understated surfaces that seamlessly integrate marble, artisanal concrete, paint, resin, and reclaimed wood in this beautiful space.

Interior

Sweet Chick Restaurant, Williamsburg Brooklyn

Since opening, Sweet Chick has been featured everywhere, from Zagat to The New York Times. See their website for the full list. This location, on Bedford Ave. was the first (of two) we designed. The owners added the Southern flair by choosing thematic vintage wall decor.


Creating The Interiors:

Making Man From The Woods Signature Bench Design
Making Man From The Woods Signature Bench Design
Installing the backbar in Sweet Chick
Installing the backbar in Sweet Chick
Installing the stepped bottle display in Sweet Chick
Man From The Woods Geometric Shelves
Concrete Moon technique with stripes of reclaimed woods
Man From The Woods’ signature Picnic Table Design from the Weather Bespoke Collection
Making Man From The Woods’ signature Picnic Table Design
Picnic Table Elements
Man From The Woods’ signature Picnic Table Design
Man From The Woods’ signature Picnic Table Design
Antique cupboard stripped and ready to be turned into a patchwork backbar
Bar counter install
Concrete Moon technique under resin with stripes of reclaimed woods
Bidding the bar farewell

A visual walk-through from Zagat:
https://youtu.be/ljUE2bnNmcU

East Wick, East Bushwick, Brooklyn

Man From The Woods did the interior design and production for East Wick restaurant. We integrated architectural remnants, fixtures, and reclaimed wood.

Interior Design Elements:

One of a kind booth seating
OOAK restaurant benches
Metal salvaged from historic movie theater
resin inlay tables
Conjoined booth benches
Intricate wrought iron balances the wood
Vintage lighting adorns the entryway
Shelves behind the bar
Reclaimed tin ceiling used to coat the bar.
Refinished tin from the 1800s
Refinished tin from the 1800s
Resin coated brushed tin
Custom built bar
Man From The Woods Picnic Table
Man From The Woods Picnic Table
Man From The Woods Picnic Table
Man From The Woods Picnic Table
Assorted seating
Custom Bench
Custom Extra Long Restaurant Bench
Showcase window booth
Custom Man From The Woods Bench
Custom Man From The Woods Bench
Raised Window Table
Dining area near the front window
Vintage lighting, concentric squares tin ceiling
Vintage lighting, concentric squares tin ceiling
Vintage lighting, antique mirror
Wrap-around server station connected to bar

East Wick Restaurant Exterior Design:

Creating the elements for East wick Restaurant’s Interior and Exterior Design:

East Wick was the first artist friendly restaurant on the South side of Graham Avenue in Brooklyn, with stunning handmade furniture design.  We scoured the Northeastern United States for beautiful antique elements to include in the restaurant’s design, and found treasures like a 5′ x 2′ French mirror, and beautiful Empire revival tin panels.

Sabra Plant Launch, Richmond, Virginia

In another grand event, conceived and produced by Papush (see their work here), we had the opportunity to build an entire world food market for Sabra Hummus, using repurposed woods for all of the booths. Spread across two large tents, each stand sold street food from the region it represented. The innovative production designer made sure that every element of the wardrobe and produce accurately displayed the flavor and culture of the region it represented.

Lula Bagel, Brooklyn

We built Lula Bagel a sage green formica cabinet / counter with reclaimed wood, and shelves to hold their bagel boxes.

Restaurant counter
Sage green formica counter with reclaimed wood details.
Shelves for bagel boxes
Shelves for bagel boxes
Sage green formica counter with reclaimed wood details.
Barista and juice counter
Sage green formica counter with reclaimed wood details.
Sage green formica counter with reclaimed wood details.
Refrigeration unit surface

Construction Phase:

cabinet unit
cabinet unit
cabinet unit
cabinetry detail

Fine Art Frames, NYC

Custom frames for artwork.

Frame collaboration with artist Sarah Zar
Frames for Into The Forest
Custom frame awaiting painting
Custom frame awaiting painting
“Dirigibles In Training”
“Conversion on the Commons”
“Abjection In the Flowers”
“Empath’s Horizon”

Bryant Park Cosmetics Booth, NYC

We design and build the woodwork for these winter market booths annually (5 years running).

Spa style furniture
Storage and display units
Beauty counter with rinsing stations
Cosmetics display
rustic cabinets with clean formica tops
crisp and organic
recycled wood collage
Geometric hardwood standing shelves
Routed display shelving unit
Building additional units for next year
Stand alone decorative tabletop shelves

Pops of Brooklyn

Interior furniture design and build, 2009.

Facade window display furnishings.
Bar counter, top of angled corner. Salvaged column and woods, wrought iron, and artisan’s concrete.
Bar counter with wrought iron corner.
Bar counter, top of angled corner. Salvaged column and woods, wrought iron, and artisan’s concrete.
Bar counter, top of angled corner. Salvaged column and woods, wrought iron, and artisan’s concrete.
Bar counter, top of angled corner. Salvaged column and woods, wrought iron, and artisan’s concrete.
Bar counter, top of angled corner. Salvaged column and woods, wrought iron, and artisan’s concrete.
Bar counter, top of angled corner. Salvaged column and woods, wrought iron, and artisan’s concrete.
Bar counter with railroad ties and historic moldings.
Bar counter with wrought iron corner where the wood is joined.
Reclaimed lumber and artisanal concrete bar surface.
Old timey register counter.
Bar counter egress. Salvaged column and woods, wrought iron with historic remnants
Angled rough hewn bench detail.
Bench detail.
Small restaurant tables, round and rectangular. Forest Corners angled bench.
Small restaurant tables, round and rectangular. Forest Corners angled bench.
Restaurant table base detail.
Bar counter egress. Salvaged column and woods, wrought iron.
Restaurant tables (rectangular tops) and bench, all made from reclaimed woods. Half-booth seating.
Restaurant two-person tables with seats (one leg), all made from reclaimed woods.
Restaurant table, recycled wood.
Restaurant table (top view), recycled wood.
Restaurant bench and tables (rectangular tops), all made from reclaimed woods.
Restaurant two-person tables with seats (one leg), all made from reclaimed woods.

Lula Bean Cafe, Bushwick

Old school Brooklyn cafe
Angled shelves
Small Cafe Shelving Unit, repurposed wood.
Triangle shelf
Iron and wood sugar station
Storage
Coffee shop counter
Rustic plank shelves
Cafe counter bar front, recycled wood.
counter corner detail
Created Murphy door for existing frame
Top of door folds out into a prep surface.
Standing tables
Sugar station
Exterior view of Lula Bean Cafe

Music Studio, Ofer Tiberin Collective

For this music studio, we created an ergonomic work station from beautiful vintage materials.
We also built an intricately tuned QRD Diffuser, custom designed by Ofer Tiberin.

View from above with radiant spokes
Custom design
Full desk view
Completed ergonomic console

Stromboli Pizza, Union Square, Manhattan

We redesigned Stromboli to honor its classic New York history.

stromboli pizza woodwork by man from the woods wall panels

Existing woodwork was replaced and the walls were covered with interlocking pieces of recycled wood from around the city.

Before
After

The cooler was resurfaced as part of the redesign.

Before
After
After redesigning the fridge
Fridge connection detail
Antiqued wooden panels replaced the drop ceiling, adding warmth.

12 Chairs, Manhattan

Patchwork table tops from reclaimed wood to warm up the space:

tabletops for 12 Chairs before finish (wip)
Twelve tabletops for 12 Chairs (wip)
Patchwork historic woods with food safe finish
Rich toned tabletops before installation

TalkSpace, 5th Avenue, NYC

For two days, two giant inflatable domes were placed on 5th Avenue, Manhattan. Passers-by were welcomed to enter the domes, sit down and dive into a session with a Talkspace therapist.  They were covered widely by USA TODAY, Huffington Post, Globes, Ynet, Layla Calcali, Signon, Mizbala, Orly & Guy and  AOL.

We were commissioned to do the woodwork and some of the structure, by our long-time collaborators, Papush, a studio known for bringing the extravagant WoW factor to high end promotions in NYC and other major cities around the world.

“Talkspace is a startup that wishes to make therapy more accessible and affordable. Via a web and mobile chat application, it connects users from all over the world with therapists, easily, anonymously and at a low price.In order to promote the startup, we teamed up with Alon Seifert, with two goals: raise the awareness to the availability of mental health services at the age of touch screens and send out the message that mental help is nothing to be ashamed of, but should be transparent.This is what led to the idea of the transparent cubicles.”
– Papush

Swallow Cafe, Bushwick, Brooklyn, NY

Man From The Woods has designed and created the custom woodwork for all three of Swallow’s New York locations.

Coffee bar counter.
Small, angled cafe shelving unit
Cafe bar counter detail, made with artistic, tinted cements and reclaimed woods.
Tables made from reclaimed woods with sewing machine base stands.
Cafe bar counter detail, made with artistic, tinted cements and reclaimed woods.
Cafe bar counter detail, made with artistic, tinted cements and reclaimed woods.
Front of cafe bar (detail).
Front of cafe bar (detail). Collaged woods.
Front of cafe bar (detail). Wrought iron and reclaimed woods.
Long sturdy bench with angled back, made from reclaimed woods.
Long sturdy bench with angled back, made from reclaimed woods (detail).
It’s a Great Day For Coffee
Community table made from reclaimed woods with sewing machine base stands, and Toledo chairs.
The Neighborhood

Instagram Favorites:

Candid cafe shot taken by patrons.
Candid cafe shot taken by patrons.
Candid cafe shot taken by patrons.
Candid cafe shot taken by patrons.

White Oak Bed

Custom built, sturdy White Oak Bed. Solid hardwood with accordion base slats.Custom hardwood White Oak Bedframe with accordion base slats in shop