Veneziano Coffee Roasters’ Perth Studio is a standout project that brings the art and education of coffee to the forefront in Western Australia’s capital. Designed primarily as a dedicated training hub and home base for the local Veneziano team, the studio will also open its doors to the wider community through its retail offering and host events such as post-run coffee clubs, product launches and competitions.

This social hub is bold in cobalt blue, one of the brand’s colours, and is perfectly conceived for retail and education. Designed by Tahlia Kossen, principal, Vacation Studio, the brief was required to deliver on many levels and through innovation and creativity, this designer has certainly exceeded expectations.

Vacation Studio was asked to focus the new design on the 60-square-metre Training Studio but also to integrate retail display in and around the area. The coffee tasting space is now more akin to a cool café and, with a dedicated retail nook positioned in a new angled wall and archway, product is displayed to perfection.

Many of the inclusions have been custom designed by Kossen and while they are more than fit for purpose, they reveal inspired thinking. For example, there are two different shelving systems in situ. The first is adjustable flexible shelving that can be reconfigured as products and seasonal promotions are introduced. The display shelves are positioned in front of soft curtaining that conceals the infrastructure of the system where fixings are bolted to the wall and then concealed by the fabric. Magnets adhere the edges of each opening and the curtains become a seamless floating wall that can be opened at will to assist with display changes.

The second system is blue-stained timber pods, two mirror-image workbenches on wheels. These independent moveable furniture pieces can easily be shifted and transformed, depending on the occasion, into a DJ desk with a coffee machine on top or even removed all together. With blue-tinted transparent PVC strip curtains in place of cupboard doors they are versatile and invaluable for events.

While the arch and the curve motifs have been used in many applications within the interior, the materiality is concise and Polyflor product is integral to the bold interior design.

Finishes were selected for their durability and the hero vibrant Cobalt Noppe Stud tile and wood-look Expona Flow in Toasted Oak Polyflor vinyl has been utilised as flooring throughout. However, Polyflor has also been used on the benchtop! Classic Mystique vinyl flooring in Delta Blue and Sorrel Bay provided the hue that Kossen required and while it’s not a common idea, expertly welded in place, this benchtop is serviceable and right on colour.

As Kossen comments, “I struggled to find a bench top with the saturation of blue that I wanted and the Polyflor colours are so vibrant, I thought why not, let’s use a hard-wearing commercial flooring for the bench top. It has been a great outcome and best of all, I didn’t need to compromise on my strong vision of this incredibly bold, blue monochromatic moment.”

There were some challenges on the design journey such as low ceilings and supplying water and power to the middle of the floorplate, but Kossen had a solution for both. Embracing the ceiling height, the designer has created an extruded grid system of LED panels in beige with the focal area painted in blue to reflect the form of the station below. In order to bring power and water to the middle of the space Kossen designed a spiral, extendable spine that emanates from the ceiling to the coffee machines that can be connected, disconnected and extended to any area of the room as required.

“One of the challenges was to run services across the already low ceiling so I leaned into the style of a 1960s office environment where low ceilings were deliberate and LED lighting panels were throughout. There are low-key, very intentional references to a 60s office in subtle moments throughout the space.” Kossen continues, “Another challenge was ensuring that everything lined up with the arches that were on the floor. So not only the flooring installer and the painter with the ceiling but the grid system had to be perfectly in line with the arch, as did the joinery.”

A genius inclusion is the insertable whiteboards, necessary for training, that are not white at all but a clear writeable surface. The panels have been inserted into the back of an elongated rectangular window with a double layer of moveable panels that slide in front. Some panels hold bronzed mirror to reflect the interior and others are changeable poster frames that hold Veneziano’s promotional and story-telling material. The numerous panels can be removed or added any time or slid across to conceal the whiteboard contents. It’s a brilliant idea that adds to the interior style.

Vacation Studio has made a petite space outstanding in form and function and created design that amplifies the sociability of coffee. While the journey of the coffee bean is the driving force behind this project, it is the interior where the making and tasting happens that creates the experiential.

And is the client happy?

Kossen says the client is thrilled with the outcome. “The new studio truly brings the playfulness of Veneziano’s brand to life, bold and distinctive! More importantly, it creates an eye-catching space for coffee-lovers to connect across Perth and surrounds – I’m so proud to have helped shape a space that will foster community in such a memorable way.”

Developing and heightening a brand through creativity is what good design is all about and at Veneziano Coffee Perth the experience is exceptional. Tahlia Kossen and Vacation Studio have created a little slice of blue heaven all washed down with a macchiato and helped put Veneziano Coffee Perth on the map.

Polyflor is the partner of The Retail Space category at the 2026 INDE.Awards.

Photography
Jack Lovel