Walking up the stone staircase to Pilkingtons on Shortland Street in Auckland’s CBD is like entering a secret garden. Elevated above the busy street and with the AIG building towering overhead, Pilkingtons manages to feel like an orangery, with floral fabrics, tooled timber and travertine banquettes, and lush, tropical interior planting. Designer Emily Priest of Cheshire Architects says this design has been a labour of love.

“We worked with the client through leasing, base and build: right through to the finished product. It has taken 18 months – with a few 19-hour days near the end – to get here. With this design, we wanted to take our passion for creating unique spaces to the absolute extreme, with nearly every detail designed bespoke.”

This agenda included the creation of a blue-and-tan citrus floral pattern, which has been used as a signature motif throughout the café. It appears on the menus and business cards (and the website), on the fabric of the perimeter banquettes and other stool and chair coverings, and right through to the back wall of the bar and in one of the bathroom cubicles.

Custom details can be seen throughout the café. The wooden beer-tap handles are crafted individually to look like deer antlers. The shapes of these were informed through working with 3D scans of collected twigs. The curved bar front is textured with handcrafted tooled timber. This timber is used also for the bar shelving and some of the banquettes and creates a sense of warmth and comfort.

A secondary floral pattern – this time in blue, green and purple – adorns the cushions and seat covers on the curved interior banquettes. These vivid colours are picked up in the planting and complemented by the timberwork. Staff members wear uniforms designed by Matt Nash, with bar staff in spiffy black aprons and bow ties.

Priest worked with landscape designer Philip Smith on the interior installation, going so far as to accompany him to the market gardens to pick out the orchids that grow amongst the banquette seating. Central to the café, a ficus benjamina affectionately dubbed ‘Little Ben’ reaches its branches to the ceiling, seeming to complete the sense that you are dining inside a conservatory.

“Our brief with the landscaping was to make it unique: not the same planting you see in most restaurants and foyers, but something that really complemented the design,” says Priest.

The ceilings feature a floral moulding and are painted a rich maroon red to contrast with the cream travertine floor tiles. “The unusual colour of the ceiling reflects a sense of fun, which was one of our aims in this design. We wanted to experiment, to push ourselves to be more whimsical and playful, and create something that Auckland hasn’t seen before,” says Priest. 

Because of the height of the ceilings, the lighting needed to be prominent. Priest worked with glass-blower Luke Jacomb to create the amber hand-blown glass pendants, which hang into the overhead space and provide a golden glow.

The bathrooms are stories of their own, each is designed to create an individual sense of luxury. With rough-hewn timber cladding and bespoke brass handrails, the wheelchair-accessible cubicle feels like a sauna. The other three cubicles are tiled – one in the signature blue floral print, another in rich green and the third in a vibrant maroon. Each one features a curved, tooled marble sink handcrafted in Italy, and bespoke brass accessories.

Outside in the courtyard, diners can relax on beanbags under floral sun umbrellas on an elevated lawn. The rest of the courtyard catches the sun and has a view down towards the street, as does the loggia inside. However, despite the floor-to-ceiling glazing on two walls, Pilkingtons is an intimate space, with a sense of whimsical fun evident in the design. This is not the kind of café where seeing and being seen from outside is the aim. But, in saying that, I am sure plenty of people-watching is done on a Saturday night.