San Carlo Champagne Bar is the jewel in the crown of Selfridges Manchester Trafford’s refurbished accessories hall. The key to this project was striking the right balance between the bar and retail areas, so we set about creating a lighting scheme that marks out the bar as elegant and inviting yet maintains a seamless transition from the wider retail lighting strategy.
A bubble-inspired chandelier by WonderGlass is the star attraction and unlike more traditional chandeliers, it reflects internal and external light to create a shimmering feature. With this in mind spotlights were placed around the edge of the installation to pick out the textured glass, and to provide illumination to the bar countertop. The spotlights are mounted onto track systems that mirror the retail lighting, but warmer light levels have been used to differentiate the bar area and give it a more intimate feel.
For the bar itself, decorative lights pepper the counter for soft, low-level illumination, while integrated lighting illuminates the display bottles on the tiered shelves. A wash of light from under the counter highlights the textured marble surround and carefully placed task lighting around the counter allows bartenders to clearly see what they’re doing.
Next to the bar are lush blue sofas framed with fluted glass. Here we lit the frame from below to emphasise the textured glass and create a visual boundary between the bar and retail areas. Stylish lamps add the final touch and create pockets of intimacy.
Images © Charles Hosea
