Local practice Fabled Studio has designed the interiors for London’s Socca restaurant, adding hand-painted murals informed by the French Riviera.
Fabled Studio co-founder Tom Strother describes the eatery as “a pocket of Southern France in Mayfair,” with a playful and whimsical interior that complements the French Mediterranean menu.
“Both the menu and the interior are inspired by the Côte d’Azur and Nice,” Strother told Dezeen. “They have a laidback attitude but with French finesse.”
Fabled Studio restored the original terracotta tiles on the facade of Socca‘s Grade II-listed building, as well as maintaining its ornate ceiling mouldings.
The main dining area, named the grand salon, is decorated with wood panelling on the lower portions of the walls while a warm-toned stucco finish covers the upper portions.
Informed by French painter Raoul Dufy’s depictions of Nice, artist Mark Sands hand-painted blue-toned murals onto the walls to frame the hung artworks.
Dark wood parquet covers the floors and short cream curtains were used to separate the dining room’s navy-blue leather banquette seats.
The curtains are suspended from bronze metal rails, with matching metallic details dotted around the room in the form of fixtures and lights including the whimsical shell-shaped sconces.
To the side of the dining space is a bar topped with Breccia Violetta marble. This backs onto a trio of arched mirrors in a wooden box frame, stretching up to the same height as the picture rail moulding that encircles the room.
Beyond the grand salon is a second bar space with oxblood leather seating and murals depicting illustrations of leaves and faces.
At the rear of the restaurant is a second dining space named the petit salon, designed to have a cosy, almost residential appearance.
The petit salon is dominated by green hues, found across walls and seats to differentiate it from the other dining space.
“We did this to give it a different identity and unique personality to the grand salon,” said Strother.
More hand-painted murals by Sands adorn the walls, including curving frames, faces and curling vines informed by artist and poet Jean Cocteau.
Downstairs, the bathrooms were also designed to have a “residential ambience” with striped wallpaper, marble vanities and bronze hardware.
Fabled is a London-based interior design practice founded in 2011 by Tom Strother and Steven Saunders. Socca is the sixth restaurant the practice has completed in collaboration with restauranteur Samyukta Nair of LSL Capital.
Other London restaurants recently featured on Dezeen include 20 Berkeley, with Arts-and-Crafts-style interiors by Pirajean Lees, and an Italian restaurant designed to mimic the glamorous atmosphere of a 1980s Italo-American trattoria.
The photography is by James McDonald.
