A Home Café Built Over Time: Coffee, Architecture and a Lifetime of Stories with Will
From carefully researched brewing equipment and second-hand furniture to vintage speakers and coffee souvenirs collected overseas, Will’s home café is a deeply personal space that brings together his love of design, music and hospitality.
A Friendship Built on Architecture, Faith and Coffee
Some friendships develop around shared interests. Others grow over decades, evolving alongside careers, families and passions.
I’ve known Will for around 30 years. Our friendship began through church, continued through architecture school, and expanded into a shared appreciation for photography, design and, eventually, specialty coffee.
Throughout his architectural career, Will has moved between design and project management. More recently, he’s taken time to explore another longstanding interest: coffee culture.
That curiosity has found a home in his own kitchen, where he’s created an intimate home café that has been evolving for years.
It’s not a conventional café fit-out. Instead, it’s a collection of personal experiences, practical design decisions, cherished objects and ongoing experiments.
Designing a Café Around Everyday Life
For Will, the home café is about much more than making good coffee.
It’s a place to welcome family and friends, share conversations and enjoy life’s quieter moments.
Rather than beginning with a complete design concept, the space has developed incrementally, responding to changing needs and discoveries along the way.
Working within a limited budget, Will and his family sourced much of their furniture through Gumtree, Facebook Marketplace and second-hand finds.
A pre-loved IKEA bench became the kitchen island, while two non-functioning wine fridges were repurposed for storing tea and coffee supplies.
As the coffee collection grew, so did the need for better organisation.
An overhead shelf was introduced to free up valuable preparation space, improve workflow and display an assortment of pottery, cups and coffee accessories.
Lighting also became an important consideration.
Drawing on his architectural background, Will experimented with affordable lighting solutions from IKEA and Bunnings to create a warm atmosphere while providing practical illumination for coffee preparation.
The result feels collected rather than manufactured, with each addition contributing another layer to the space.
The Ritual of Making Coffee
Will’s fascination with specialty coffee began when he discovered how dramatically flavour could vary between cafés and award-winning roasters.
His interest gradually shifted from conventional milk-based espresso towards hand-brewed filter coffee.
For his 30th birthday, he received a Hario pour-over coffee set, which remains an important part of his daily ritual.
He appreciates the simplicity of the process: freshly ground beans, carefully measured water, temperature and timing.
During our visit, Will demonstrated his approach using Indonesian specialty beans.
He weighed approximately 12 grams of coffee, ground the beans by hand, rinsed the filter and allowed the grounds to bloom before completing the pour.
The entire brewing process took around two and a half minutes, although the preparation itself was equally important.
For Will, hand-grinding coffee is almost therapeutic.
He continues refining his technique through conversations with baristas and visits to specialty brew bars.
His home café also includes an espresso machine purchased during the COVID-19 lockdowns, when visiting cafés became impossible.
That machine opened another chapter of experimentation, allowing him to develop his milk-based coffee skills at home.
Coffee Experiences Collected Around the World
One of the most interesting aspects of Will’s café is the collection of objects displayed throughout the space.
Almost everything has a story.
Among his favourites is a specially designed two-way coffee cup from Urban Coffee Roasters in Hong Kong.
Its two differently shaped drinking edges are intended to provide contrasting sensory experiences, encouraging drinkers to explore the coffee’s sweetness and acidity.
Another treasured cup was brought home from Colombia by his wife, Izzy, following a work conference.
These objects represent more than souvenirs.
They’re reminders of places, relationships and memorable encounters with coffee culture around the world.
Displayed on open shelves alongside ceramics and gifts from friends, they give the home café an identity that couldn’t easily be reproduced through conventional interior styling.
Where Coffee Meets Music and Architecture
Beyond the brewing station, the café extends into a comfortable listening and gathering space.
Bookshelves contain architecture publications, novels and personal memorabilia. A piano reflects the family’s musical interests, while a collection of vintage audio equipment adds another dimension.
Particularly meaningful are the speakers Will inherited from his father.
Dating back to the late 1980s, the speakers travelled with the family when they migrated to Sydney. After years in storage, Will restored them to everyday use.
Today, they provide the soundtrack to a space he hopes will become a gathering place for friends who share his interests in coffee, jazz and vintage audio.
The room also accommodates family music practice, Bible study and casual conversations.
It’s a flexible environment designed around living, rather than a single commercial purpose.
A Home Café That Continues to Evolve
Perhaps the most compelling quality of Will’s home café is that it remains unfinished. For a look back at our initial visit to Will’s home cafe, see here
There’s always another brewing technique to explore, another piece of equipment to research or another improvement to make.
His approach demonstrates that meaningful café design doesn’t necessarily require a large budget, expensive materials or a perfectly coordinated interior.
Sometimes the most interesting spaces emerge through patience, experimentation and the willingness to reuse what already exists.
Will’s home café reflects 30 years of friendship, architecture, faith, photography, travel and a growing love of coffee.
And ultimately, its greatest achievement isn’t the equipment or the furniture.
It’s the welcoming environment he’s created for sharing good coffee, music and conversation.
At Best Cafe Designs, we believe the most memorable cafés tell a story. Will’s home café reminds us that those stories can begin right at home.
