The Garden of Eden, situated on the first floor of flagship luxury department store, Daniels, is a family-friendly restaurant serving plant-based food. The brainchild of entrepreneur chef, Manjinder Bhandal, the eatery opened its doors just 4 weeks after the aforementioned held the initial briefing meeting with Print Station.

“Manny had a really strong vision about the culinary side of the restaurant. He wanted to challenge any misconceptions surrounding vegan food and was particularly interested in introducing delicious plant-based dishes to families with younger children. He showed us the space, explained what he wanted to achieve and then left it to us to come up with a creative concept all the way from the logo to the interiors. He had seen some of our previous work for hospitality and was impressed.

“As a creative production business that delivers design, printing and installation services, we are used to tight turnaround times. Our in-house designers created three mood boards, which we presented to the client. From here, we adapted elements of each to produce a final design – a contemporary uplifting space that also had a gentle subtlety about it, nothing too hectic or overbearing. We wanted to create a Soho House style escape that catered to the needs of parents and their children,” says Print Station director, Rajan Chonkaria.

CMYUK applications advice

In keeping with the Vegan ethos, Print Station wanted to source non-traditional materials that displayed eco-responsibility. Rajan reached out to his contact Joel Willcock, CMYUK’s Commercial Director (Materials) for advice on the best eco materials to use for the job.

PVC-free Kavalan Gecko 320GB Greyback was chosen for all wall areas. Made from polyester, this textile is perfect for one-piece wallcoverings as its available in rolls up to 5m wide. Specifically developed for interior designers and architects, it can be pasted or used in display systems. With B1 and EN13501-1 fire ratings, it is also EN-71, 33P, ROHS, REACH compliant and is Life Cycle Assessment approved (LCA).

As a water-based top coated textile printed with UV inks for this job, sticky little finger marks on walls around the children’s’ play area can be removed by using a damp cloth. Most wall murals are paper based which means they can’t take too much washing, but as Gecko is polyester-based, it is far more durable.

“Kavalan is a new product for us. Joel gave us the confidence and reassurance to use it and we’re really glad we did. The colours really pop, and installation was really easy. Once it was up on the walls you could see the difference between it and the other products we’ve used in the past. The installers really liked handling it, and our print manager loved it so much he said we should just use it for everything!” says Rajan.

Joel also recommended the use of other eco-alternative materials for the project that Print Station had not used before. These included UTACK Gel Film Ultra Clear, a PVC-free polyester film featuring a unique gel adhesion coating that is easy to remove and reapply. Suitable for instant high impact window graphics and glass design, it was utilised for front window and glass escalator barrier graphics, in addition to stickers for glass.

The department store’s main lift was dressed and branded also using UTACK Textile Blockbuster. This is a self-adhesive PVC-free block out textile that features a repositionable adhesive. Tough and durable, this textile has a non-reflective face, is wrinkle-free, doesn’t shrink when printed and leaves no residue when removed. It holds EN-13501-1 fire rating and recommended for clean, dry debris-free surfaces.

“All the materials used for this job were recommended by CMYUK. We wanted to use the best materials for this project. There’s such a large footfall throughout the store and along the high street, we wanted to make sure there were no compromises,” says Rajan.

Jaw on the floor

Manjinder and the proprietors of the Daniel’s family-owned flagship were extremely impressed with the results. “It’s Manny’s first ever vegan restaurant and when he saw what we had created and installed, he said ‘Guys, you’ve bought this to life for me.’ The store owners loved it too, saying it exceeded their expectations.

“Before starting this job, we visited numerous high street café and restaurants to look at the interiors and so many of them were using traditional vinyl. We took the opportunity to do something different and the Kavalan one-piece wallcoverings were the showstoppers. It’s amazing what a premium feel and elevated aesthetic they can bring to a space. We were slightly concerned about the installation of such large pieces as we hadn’t used it before, but Kavalan is light, has a little bit of stretch, and very easy to handle, so we needn’t have worried,” says Rajan.

The Success of the Garden of Eden in Royal Windsor will determine whether the eatery will launch in other sites, as Daniel’s has stores in both Chiswick and Ealing.

Says Rajan, “We’re so glad we went with the alternative materials recommended to us by CMYUK because not only do they do justice to the design, but they are also eco-friendly, which is something we really want to promote.”