House of Salad by Metaphor // Bangkok, Thailand.

Metaphor Design Studio have drawn inspiration from the artist’s studio for this Bangkok restaurant, House of Salad. Embracing the slightly dishevelled quality we typically associate with an artist’s space, it’s reinterpreted with an almost cinematic approach. The result is a hazy, dreamlike den that captures the imagination.

The suspended balloon lights illuminate a subdued pallette, casting a sepia toned wash across the space. Sketches are sprawled over the walls. The curtain rod bows under the weight of the drapery. This is not a space about neatness and precision but the rush of free flowing ideas. With no access to views beyond the walls of the tenancy, the space is internalized. Frames demarcate where windows could to be, inviting us to colour the details with our imagination.

An open kitchen is located centrally, housed in an open timber frame. The glass house like structure is a stage for the choreography of cooking.

By centring quite literally on the idea of an artist’s studio, there is a danger of crossing the line into theme restaurant. In truth, I’m slightly uneasy about the prints of sketches by European Masters. They teeter uncomfortably close to that line. Yet the theatre of the space is so captivating that there’s a willingness to run with it and be swept away into this otherworldly place.

Text by Ella Leoncio for Yellowtrace.

[Photography by Nuttee Thongjang. Images courtesy of Metaphor Design Studio.]