Cafe Oswalds, Cranstons Penrith
2021 • 180 sqm • 90 cover cafe
Project Overview
Cranstons’ café was originally created as part of the Foodhall extension and had become a highly functional, high-footfall space, particularly during lunchtime service. However, the interior had become monotonous and dated, with uniform table and chair layouts and minimal visual identity. The space needed to be refreshed to feel more current, more inviting and more aligned with Cranstons’ brand. The goal was to widen the café’s appeal beyond its lunchtime audience and attract more customers for relaxed cake-and-coffee visits in the afternoon, without losing the strong trading capacity the business relied on.
The brief was to transform the café from a large, open and noisy “canteen-style” space into a warmer, more varied environment with a stronger customer experience. Jane’s approach focused on breaking up the floor plan into smaller, more intimate zones using physical structure and a diverse mix of seating types.
A key part of the redesign was introducing a more flexible layout: booths and banquette seating, lounge-style tables and chairs, high seating and smaller tables for two. This improved the overall atmosphere while also increasing efficiency, ensuring couples didn’t occupy four-person tables and allowing capacity to flex naturally with demand.
Design details also brought in brand personality and storytelling, including festoon lighting, planting and curated props to soften the space and create a more relaxed feel.
The refurbishment was completed during the second COVID lockdown, requiring careful specification of materials and furniture suitable for a high-footfall café environment. Table finishes needed to be wipeable and durable, balancing practicality with the desired design aesthetic.
Operationally, the café needed to remain a 90-cover space, meaning Jane had to introduce structure and intimacy without reducing overall capacity. She worked closely with the café team, drawing on their day-to-day frustrations to make practical improvements, including slight layout changes to enhance service flow and a dedicated back-of-house tray clearing area.
The refurbished café was transformed into a warmer, more inviting space with a far stronger customer experience. By introducing structured zoning and varied seating, the layout now feels more intimate and comfortable, while still supporting the café’s high-volume trading.
Design details strengthened the connection to the Cranstons brand, including booth fabrics chosen to mirror the pattern of a traditional butcher's apron. Jane’s innovative metal frame structure created natural breaks and added privacy throughout the café, while also providing a feature element from which softer festoon lighting could be suspended. Planting and carefully selected props helped soften the space and bring added personality.
Alongside the visual transformation, the redesign delivered practical operational improvements, including a dedicated water station (to allow customers to help themselves), enhanced customer flow and a back-of-house tray clearing area to improve front-of-house service efficiency. The result is a refreshed café environment that both customers and staff love, supporting ongoing commercial growth.
From Our Client
"Cranstons worked with Jane to fully refurbish our 90-seater café during the covid lockdown. Jane completely transformed the space from a large and noisy open canteen to a trendy relaxed eatery with lots of private spaces.
We particularly love the innovative metal frame she designed which creates more privacy throughout the café and from which beautiful festoon lighting is hung. Alongside enhancing the visual appeal, Jane worked closely with our café team to ensure the space was as practical as possible, her advice on the best materials and furniture to use in a high footfall environment was invaluable.
Our customers and team love the space and the café has gone from strength to strength commercially. I’d highly recommend working with Jane for any commercial design projects you are considering."
JANE SILBURN,
BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT DIRECTOR, CRANSTONS BUTCHERS + MAKERS
