The Reserve : nightclub revamp 2012

The ‘Storm Wall’, the ‘Methode Champenoise’ wall and the Tony Duquette style club.

The Reserve is a Cape Town nightclub located in the historic 150 year old ABC building in Adderley Street, Cape Town. The building, which was once a bank, has ceilings that are almost twelve meters high, walls clad in marble, all the original brass fittings and spectacular antique chandeliers. The interior was extensively revamped in 2011 by interior designer Manuela Candido.

As you enter the building into the bar, a flamboyant Tony Duquette-style room is your first stop. The walls of the first bar are painted in both flat colors in various shades of green with palm tree murals and parrot monkeys as accents. Other interior accents include leopard skin and floral fabrics, palm tree cocktail tables, pink duco tables and other vivid pops of colour.
The Bar is pure fantasy, with its proudly kitsch 1950’s Palm Springs look, while the lounge is reminiscent of a Munich-style 1930’s burlesque room. This called for wall décor that would add to the glamour rather than fade into obscurity – and look shimmery and sparkly at night.

STORM WALL
The witty and wild Tony Duquette sytle interior called for a confident idea that would be an appropriate backdrop to the palm trees, parrots and pink tables. The manipulated look of the Earthcote Storm Wall treatment creates the perfect mood. This ‘agitated’, spontaneous, hurricane-like look occurred when diluted acrylic wall paint was applied over Earthcote Worn Leather. The lime from the Worn Leather base coat kept burning through, bringing intense movement to the surface.

HOW TO:
Brush on two coats of Earthcote Worn Leather ‘Gemsbok Tan’. Using a roller, apply one or two coats of Midas Envirolite 220 in the same colour as ‘Gemsbok Tan’ – try ‘Bleached Wash Table’ from the Midas 300 colour palette, diluted 50:50 with water.

THE HURRICANE
Cape Town had been in urgent need of an up-market club for discerning patrons that want to escape, live the dream and have fun. What better place to do all of that in than in a building where you can feel the history as you walk in. The Reserve is tucked inside a 150 year old building with ceilings that are almost 12 meters high, the walls are clad in marble and the space is absolutely incredible.

Andrea Graaf Interior designer to The Reserve describes the club as “a fantasy of creating two different areas that patrons can explore and enjoy, while always admiring the different visual and sensual elements.”
As you enter the building into the bar, the patron will experience a wild ‘Tony Duquette’ styled room.