Digital Textile Solution: Kin Shop

Interior Design Admin -- Interior Design, 4/1/2012 5:43:00 PM

“You can introduce so much texture by using textiles and patterns,” says Eskayel Creative Director Shanan Campanro, when discussing her thought process behind creating wallpaper for Kin Shop, a Thai restaurant on New York’s Sixth Avenue.

When Gregory Okshteyn, owner and director of Studios GO, approached Campanro to create wallpaper for Kin Shop, the design concept was already in place: watercolor.  Not an easy task. “It became a challenge to find alternatives to the standard geometric or floral patterns that are so prevalent in the marketplace. We needed something more creative, artistic, and organic,” says Okshteyn, architect and interior designer for the restaurant. “I searched for finishes that had the transparent, flowing, and luminous qualities of water color paintings. Luckily we found Eskayel.”

Because of delays in construction, said Campanro, the interior design phase was super fast, yet the owners wanted everything custom and unique—a process that’s anything but quick. Thankfully, “digital printing means awesome custom capabilities, and ease of coating everything to pass fire codes and other regulations,” said Campanro.


But the walls were only half the work involved in designing the interior.  Okshteyn wanted the custom watercolor design, Madagascar Moss, to be on the seats as well.  To accomplish this, Campanro sat at a computer with Studios GO to create banquette coverings that were essentially the inverse of the wallpaper. “We fiddled around with the elements [of the wallpaper design], enlarged them, reversed the colors,” she explained. “Because it’s so watercolor-y it was a little complicated.” But the end result was such a hit that the is now available to the public.