The ALH Hotel Group found @ qubed design via their website while they were searching for new and up and coming designers that could bring a fresh approach to their business and who could offer big design company ideas at small design company pricing.

The Ranch Hotel, one of their 285 licensed venues, is a large and very busy suburban pub located in Eastwood NSW, with a diverse range of customers consisting of local families, students from the adjacent Macquarie University and corporate types from Macquarie Park. With such a mixed set of customers it was important that the design be able to cope with the number of patrons attracted to this day and night venue.

The existing colour scheme, one that the ALH Group inherited, consisted of brown on brown, quite uninspiring! From the outset @ qubed design chose a dark and moody colour scheme as the space is very large and ‘barn’ like and could handle darker tones and would wear well in this very busy bistro.

As the space is heavily utilised by its clientele the biggest concern from their client was that they select innovative, high performance finishes that could withstand the high traffic, food and drinks spillages.

The Bistro specialises in steak and wine, therefore @ qubed design chose this theme as their basis for their colour and finish selection. They chose black and charcoal colours, shiraz burgundy reds, flame orange and highlights of champagne (for the decorative screens), chrome (for some of the furniture pieces) and gold (gold fabric for some of the seats and the interiors of the custom bell pendants) to make the space more glamorous, punchy and contemporary.

This was a simple refurbishment with minimal elements but lots of custom detailing.

When it came to the carpet @ qubed design specified a new Interfaceflor product from the Stonecraft Collection: Bertola, Muscovite. It is a moss green coloured carpet with a slight black patchy pattern, perfect for hiding stains in this kind of environment. The selected colour is rich, it flows well in the space and is in contrast to the overhead horizontal surface, a bright white slatted and waffle ceiling.

The carpet pattern blends in with the selected finishes and does not have a bold pattern with multiple colours as is often used, but a colour and pattern that was classic and elegant to ground the large space.

Finishes were specialised: the existing timber wall panels were sanded back and stained black (but not too dark that you couldn’t see the natural grain), the new joinery banquettes were stained black and had ribbed glass privacy screens to create more intimacy for diners (reminiscent of New York diners/bistros), the table tops were custom stained and hand limewashed and the large group dining tables were whitewashed also.

@ qubed design incorporated custom made large decorative custom laser cut metallic champagne spray painted coloured screens to help break up the large space and add a bit of elegance.

All screens were designed by @ qubed deisgn and constructed and installed by Pure Creative Group.

The two custom made oversized black and white fabric wrapped rectangular pendants, all downlights were from Modular, the ‘Naked’ slim black and gold linear lights were also from Modular and the Lutron dimming system were all provided by JSB Lighting.

The eight custom made Black and Gold Bell pendants were provided by Pro Light.

Table bases were specified from and provided by Café Culture. The Kaleidos chair (Black plastic and chrome) was specified from Ciami Brevatti, and supplied by Chairbiz, a new product to Australia. The Billiani Doll Black stained timber chair (also a new product to Australia), custom made table tops and custom made chrome lounge chairs were specified from and provided by Hughes Commercial Furniture.

All joinery and banquette seating was designed by @ qubed deisgn and constructed and installed by Pure Creative Group.

High performance upholstery fabrics were specified from and provided by Kvadrat Maharam, Loop Textiles (by Mokum) and Radford Furnishings.

@ qubed design were fortunate to have an open minded client who was willing to share their vision, get involved in the design process and selection of innovative and new products.

Nightlife provides managed music and advertising solutions to the ALH Group and the Ranch Hotel is an excellent example of a venue getting the full benefit of the system and loving it. Manager, Sean Day, describes the HDMS (Hard Drive Music System) as a critical ingredient in their entertainment offering - his team uses and relies on Nightlife every day. From the one HDMS, the venue is able to control the audio and visuals across four main areas to match the way these spaces are used throughout the day and night. On their big entertainment nights (Wednesday & Fridays) everything switches over to Nightlife and the Nightclub and Public Bar take things up a notch. In this space, the music is just right and the venue doesn’t need high tech DJ to be able to play the right music. The Ranch also uses the variety of music provided by Nightlife to cater for a wide range of functions, again saving on bringing in external entertainment and providing a valuable tool for selling their function space.

Along with providing music to suit the newly created bistro (and also their gaming area), The Ranch has reduced their public performance fees by switching over to Nightlife’s compliant solution. Whilst there a range of compliant options for music in designated dining areas available, Nightlife’s model is the best choice for those venues that still want to play good quality music from recognised artists. In addition to managing the music content at The Ranch, Nightlife also plays a vital role in promoting various in-house specials and events. The HDMS provides a platform for the venue to easily do localised advertising and Nightlife also distributes group wide content as guided by ALH Head Office. All of this is backed by 24/7 phone support and like all Nightlife clients, ALH has one dedicated Nightlife contact (Andrew Kong) to ensure consistency in music and advertising to its sites around the country.