This post is a hard one for me! It’s been said that a piece of artwork is never finished, and this is one of those things that I’ve been tweaking and changing for years now. But at the end of the day, it’s more fun to share progress than to wait for perfection.
Let’s start way back – Peter and I first started on this project for our home church. For the first few weeks or months we had an idea that we were going to make a “cafe” out of a room next to our student auditorium. We had a blank canvas – an open room with concrete floors, so anything was fair game.
In the first few rounds of talking this through, we hashed out several versions of this space.
- Dark and cozy, like a coffee shop.
- Wait, what about a bookstore? (me chiming in, “how are books ever fun?!”)
- Retro, like a diner
- How about just making it super eclectic / mismatched?
- Okay, better idea. We haven’t laid floors yet, so let’s just make it industrial.
Lol! Okay, it took us a little bit, but the biggest thing that helped was deciding what we would use the room for.
- Hosting students (junior high / high school) with snacks / food
- Creative space
- Team times – collaboration and teaching
- Small groups – tabletop areas where people could have more one-on-one conversations
From there, things started to really open up for me. We needed a space for food. We needed to make it feel fun for students. We needed to create an area for a team to pull together. We needed to make spaces for one on one conversations to happen.
Transformation really took off from there, and turned into this fresh / funky space that’s still always changing and upgrading! I’ve loved seeing all the different moments that can happen in here. The effort that you spend to create an environment is always worth it when it makes people open up in a new way.
Enjoy these before/during/after photos! I’d love to hear what you think in the comments!
before: tan walls, concrete, and cafeteria tables!
the first set of upgrades: paint, flooring, and some furniture arrived!
cabinets and countertops were the next installment to make an area for hosting food.
freehanding some wall art to illustrate our church name
finished! (for now!)
the white tables are great for hosting small groups; the high top table is a fun team space; the living room area is a cozier area to connect with folks
events!
