Canadian design duo Coryn Kempster and Julia Jamrozik have created a playful all-blue cafe in a century-old house in Buffalo, New York, with an optical illusion staircase.
Named Tipico Coffee, the cafe's identity was formed with the intention of designing a space that encourages social interactions and supports local craftsmanship.
The cafe's main bar is grafted from reclaimed furniture
Reclaimed furniture and lighting made from construction-site string lights feature alongside an oversized staircase to nowhere which forms amphitheatre-style seating.
The cafe's main bar is made from ten reclaimed wooden tables sourced from classified advertisements website Craigslist.
The main bar encourages social interactions
The tables are grafted together and painted in sky-blue, forming a unified bar which runs along one wall of the cafe. "The process of designing the cafe really started with the idea of the social infrastructure of the grafted bar," Kempster and Jamrozik told Dezeen.
Swivelling stools encourage random encounters between customers and staff

Groups of circular olive-green garden tables and chairs, as well as built-in blue benches, make up two intimate seating areas behind each side of the bar, which are separated by a wall.
The tables and chairs used are purposefully outdoor furniture. This means that the seating can be moved onto an exterior patio in the summer months.
Tipico's atmosphere is a mix of indoors and outdoors
Various scattered potted plants blend...