Wood, concrete, and a year’s worth of work is what comprises Beanery, a Muslim-friendly cafe tucked away in Taman Tayton View, Cheras. 

This relatively new eatery was created by 26-year-old Brendon and his family. With no real knowledge or expertise in the F&B realm, it took them about a year to renovate the space. 

With a background in ecommerce marketing, he had been working for another company when starting work on Beanery. Paired with his newness to launching a cafe, there ended up being some delays in the process. 

But through persistence, Brendon managed to bring his vision to life, offering a cafe where industrial and natural aesthetics coincide.

A natural combination 

It’s quite on trend these days for cafes to retain the exposed concrete look, softened by wooden textures. With the addition of plants, this ends up creating a cohesive design story where rawness seems to be the operative word. 

While Brendon himself doesn’t have much expertise when it comes to interior design, what he doesn’t lack is passion. He’s always been intrigued by architecture and design, and thus brought a lot of his own ideas to the drawing board. 

Most of Beanery’s layout and design ideas come from Brendon himself, but he worked with a close friend who is an interior designer to figure out the specifications, measurements, and technicalities, ensuring that his creative vision comes to life in a reasonable and functional way. 

The idea to incorporate exposed concrete stemmed not from an aesthetic desire, but a practical one. 

“Actually, I just wanted to lower the cost,” Brendon shared with furnished.my. “But it turns out, as I continued, I added on a lot of wooden furniture, and it became something quite natural.”

A touch of customisation 

Visiting the cafe ourselves, it was obvious that Brendon gave a high level of attentiveness to the details of the cafe. Even the light and fan fixtures had elements of wood incorporated into it. 

The cafe owner shared that he actually went to Indonesia to customise the furniture in his cafe, tailored to his specifications to fit the space layout he wants. About 80% of the furniture are custom-made, while the remaining are ready-made pieces. 

Contrasting against the warm wood elements is of course the cool concrete. But to give a visual break just the wood and grey tones, Beanery also features white stucco walls as a neutral middle.  

Wood also goes well with rattan, which Brendon uses sparingly in some of the chairs. We also loved the framed pieces of wooden wall art. 

If you’re looking to use wood in your designs, remember that different species and tones of wood will give varying results. 

For Brendon, he decided to use a mix of different wood species, namely mahogany and teak (or jati). While mahogany is more of a straight-grained, reddish brown wood, teak is lighter and more neutral temperature. 

A place of solace

More than just aesthetics, Brendon hopes that his cafe’s design translates into calm, soothing emotions. 

For the owner himself, Beanery has become a place of solace where he can settle his mind, think of his next movements, whether that be for Beanery or his ecommerce job. 

Thankfully, he shared that a lot of customers have shared positive things about the space. 

With a positive reception thus far, the cafe is working on offering more hot food items soon. Looking ahead, Brendon hopes to expand the Beanery brand to more outlets. Hopefully, each of them will have designs that are just as intriguing—if not more. 

  • Learn more about Beanery here.

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