Mad Nice
We love when our clients come to us with wild ideas for their projects —we can take it from there.
A lot of the design firms we work with on a regular basis have something in common:they value and include bespoke furniture and fixtures in nearly all of their projects. Parini—a growing interior design firm based in Detroit—is one of these clients.
When they approached us to help realize the key lighting and fixture moments in Mad Nice, a new restaurant concept by Heirloom Hospitality, we knew it would be a fun one. Parini’s plan’s spec’d a few showstopper pieces that were perfect for our blend of design and manufacturing aptitude.
These included ten foot high arches which would loom over the circular booths and support basket-like light fixtures, a series of LED linear pendants some pushing twenty feet in length, and a set of enormous floor to ceiling shelves.
As is often the case with our most trusted clients, these pieces were not much more than elevation drawings with a couple notes when they were presented to us, and each had their challenges as well as opportunities for further design development.
The arches required integrated hardware to facilitate the hanging of a the light fixture as subtly, securely, and easily as possible. Additional care was taken to ensure the monolithic pieces could be disassembled for ease of finishing and transportation without unsightly hardware comprising the original design intent.
The linear pendants presented an especially significant challenge as we endeavored to find a way to make an object twenty feet in length and only 6 inches square rigid, free of sag, and light enough to be hung from nearly invisible aircraft cable. Additional care was taken to coordinate effectively with the install team to ensure the fixtures were hung without problem and up to UL standards.
The shelves were the final addition to the space and perhaps one of the most impactful. We took inspiration from the rest of the space and saw an opportunity to push the design further. Our take includes 5-foot wide shelves of solid white oak pierced by the steel upright and supported on an inset bar. The effect is that of near- weightlessness creating an intriguing intersection of material and negative space. While it wasn’t the easiest path forward, we think it is a striking one that was worth the extra effort.
Building on our partners ideas and working closely with them to make something better than good is what Donut Shop strives to do with every project.