Australian designer Matt Woods has transformed an industrial space in Sydney into The Rabbit Hole organic tea bar, pairing the building's original features with whimsical elements (+ slideshow).

Woods hoped to take advantage of the inherent architecture, and uncovered the existing timber ceilings and original brick walls.

These newly exposed elements were then painted white to reflect the natural light flooding in through large windows, framed with dark-coloured metal.

"The softening of this masculine architecture is achieved through the white washing of these newly exposed elements," said Woods. "The addition of enlarged northeast facing windows allows light to flood in to the interior."

Related story: Australian prison converted into a cafe lined with colourful tessellating triangles
Influenced by Kintsugi ? a Japanese art from based on the celebration of imperfections found in ceramic objects ? Woods created a monolithic counter from shards of crushed tiles and a display using a series of balancing Kintsugi bowls.

"The Japanese art of Kintsugi forms the foundation of the new design elements," he said. "This is most apparent in the specialty tea display where, like spinning plates on top of a circus performers pole, custom designed Kintsugi bowls sit delicately above turned oak timbers."

A chandelier by Chilean artist Valeria Burgoa is made entirely of empty teabags and hangs above the tile-clad serving ...