The colours and textures of a nearby nature reserve inform the interior of this Sydney cafe and restaurant designed by local studio Lot 1 Design.
Located at the base of a multi-residential building in the Sydney suburb of Sutherland Shire, Gumbuya is a cafe by day and restaurant by night.
Run by executive chef Noel Melan, the name of the eatery comes from an Aboriginal word that means meeting place.

Its calming interior is inspired by the suburb's nature reserve and features natural colours and materials such as broken stone flooring, blackwood timber tables and cladding, pale-blue glazed clay tiles, and muted green plaster walls.
An arrangement of dried native plants is suspended over a large communal dining table that sits at the centre of the 150-square-metre space. A series of smaller square tables surround the communal table as well as soft banquette seating and window bar seating. The kitchen, which is open to the restaurant, runs along the back of the space next to the bar.

A series of bi-folding timber-frame windows run along the facade on both sides of the entry door allowing the restaurant to be opened up to the tree-lined street.
The same pale-blue tiles that line the bar inside the restaurant are also used to clad the facade so that the exterior has a visual connection with the interior space.
Tammy Miconi, principal of Lot 1 Design, told Dezeen that the use of natural materials and colours, as well as the restaurant's connection to the street, help the space ...