Restaurant Elias operates in the Joensuu Orthodox Parish Office and they wanted to do a little facelift in their restaurant space. They wanted the biring some structure to the big, open space with room dividers, the buffet table needed new table tops and another serving table next to it, and they wanted to add tables for customers.

The restaurant space itself is impressive: the hall is 5 meters tall and decorated with Orthodox art. As a contrast, we wanted to bring clarity and light colours to the new furniture that were made from white-waxed ash wood with beautiful grain.

The customer had found reference pictures that we used as the basis for the room divider design. Our trusted blacksmith friend Sami from Pesälän Paja made the metal “window frames”, which we complemented with the wooden bases. The frames for them are solid ash wood and they are clad wth ash panel. It felt crazy to draw and make 2.3 meter high dividers, but when they were brought inside the actual restaurant space, the size was perfect to make the space more cozy and less “hall-like”.

Sami made also the metal legs for the new dining tables, to which we fitted the round tabletops with chamfered edges. The round shape is probably never the ideal choice for maximising the number of seats, but in this case it was the solution for arranging the tables neatly in this space – and for adding variation and feeling even more.

In this project, we enjoyed making a set of furniture for a large space. The same material and the chamfered edges bring the different pieces together. On the other hand, sharp edges and round shapes contrast each other. One thing is for sure, however – that the food here is exquisite!