Barely a day goes by where I don’t see an interior that stops me in my tracks, sometimes it provokes argument with my instincts, sometimes it’s something that confirms my taste but is executed to a standard that, frankly, I am completely jealous of. I posted recently on some of my favourite cafes and restaurants in London where you can pick up a tasty brunch whilst drinking in design inspiration. Well, today I am sharing a new cafe space which in my eyes ends all other cafe spaces and we are travelling to Geneva to see it (not literally, though if anyone has a spare plane ticket I will happily drop along!). It’s the first time I have made a space (and not an item) a focus of my Design Crush series, so pull up a chair and a pastry and peruse the glamour with me, we’re there if we think it, right?

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You have probably heard of Laduree, the Parisian tea room and patisserie, that is famous for its multi-hued and multi-layered macarons and muted green art nouveau vibe, you may even remember seeing these macarons as Marie Antoinettes favourites in the Sophia Coppola film. I have loved Laduree since I first visited it with my good friend Tamla some 15 years ago in Paris and I drop by the London store about once a year for a small treat. This year it was on a particularly stark winter day in November when I popped in with my dear friend Jo to the Piccadilly branch and spent a lovely afternoon stuffing marron glacés  into cold lips on a chilly but life affirming walk around St James’. Those of you that are very well healed may also have Quai des Bergues at the Four Seasons, Geneva on their radar, I’m afraid I didn’t. But as of this season I most definitely do as all of these images you see are of the new Laduree cafe and bakery at the Quai des Bergues, Geneva.

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It’s a space that mirrors what I was talking about in my cafe article, a space where new trends are being put into practice, mossy green and purple tinged pink – check, velvet – check, brass hardware and finishes – check, but as with all great design this isn’t a space that has swallowed up the lookbooks whole. Check out the pattern on that chequerboard floor in the oval room (directly below), it takes chequerboard (which I love) to a new level, diamond cut to one side and truchet laid to the other forming a star at the centre. Bravo to that whole oval shaped room in fact. Those portholes, the lights,  the quilted velvet, the starry sky wall, and are they tiny white Canelés I see between the seats around the wall?! – too cute! It’s just all so lovely. I would liken the room to ‘If Wes Anderson made cafes…’ But I can’t since he’s opened his own dreamy cafe space in Milan (hoping to get to that this year) its kind of like punk meets candyfloss meets tea salon, no?

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It is designed by India Mahdavi, who you might know as the designer behind Sketch in London. It has all the hallmarks of her unique vision, though her usual baguette velvet seating has been updated to quilted which I think works really well here. The counter area, though less opulent than the cafe area, is a fantastically luxurious for such a hard working space, and a brilliant update of the essence of Laduree, modernising it’s pretty solid and unique brand into something translatable in the modern world is no mean feat and one which has definitely been nailed. I have such massive massive heart eyes for this space, it’s usually the macarons that bring me to Laduree, but in this instance it would most definitely be the setting. If anyone fancies taking me on a snowy mini-break there’s only one destination on my list…

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All pictures courtesy of India Mahdavi.