OUR GelatEria
Image: Fiona Storey
The Little Sky shop’s fit out was designed by the talented team at Ewert Leaf. Our brief was to create a welcoming space that reflected Bayside and a love of quality gelato while retaining as much of the building’s 19th century history as possible. Original elements such as the brick walls and the concrete floors were restored and coated using low VOC waterbased paints and sealers from Dulux. Curves were introduced through the profiles of the gelato counter, and the kitchen counter and pink pastel timber veneer wall. Blue tiles and blue ceiling paint at the rear of the shop bring the colour of the sky and sea inside and a solid, natural Tasmanian Oak bench, also finished in a durable, water based, low VOC coating extends the length of the wall. The bench seat is punctuated with pink seat cushions and terrazzo table tops on burnt cherry red bases.
The menu board with it’s bronze rails and black lettering was created using George & Willy’s Atelier Letter Board mounted on a custom painted backing board.
The resulting shop design was recognised through being shortlisted in a number of 2020 design awards including the Interior Design Awards - Retail, the Eat Drink Design Awards and the Interior Design Excellence Awards (IDEA) Hospitality.
Images below: Fiona Storey
Sarah Darby’S Little Sky wall art
Over the 2020 Melbourne lockdown 2.0 the super talented, and Bayside local, Sarah Darby from Sarah Darby Fashion Illustration helped us to bring some Brighton summer fun into our little shop. With assistance from Mads Francis, over three days our white brick wall was transformed into an artwork piece that’s all about friends, fun and, of course, one of the best places in the world, Bayside beaches including the famous Brighton Beach bathing boxes. Sarah not only creates murals but she also pens live illustrations and portraits amongst other things. We can’t recommend Sarah and her work highly enough, and now we get to enjoy her work every day.
332 Bay Street, BrightoN
Bay Street’s history dates back to the 1840’s and soon after the railway line was extended to Bay Street became Brighton’s main shopping centre. In 1863 Brighton had been made a borough and the town of Brighton was surrounded by market gardens. The architecture of Bay Street is a mix of “grand boom” style Victorian buildings interspersed with Edwardian, Art Deco and more modern additions. The building, in which Little Sky now operates from, is found in a row of red brick and cream shop fronts with pressed metal work awnings. The Brighton Historical Society informed us that in 1891 when there was no street numbers in our area of Bay Street there was a saddler’s and harness maker owned by John & Edwin. From 1923-1952, 332 Bay Street was home Ironmonger’s, then perhaps to a furrier (there was a large, walk-in metal safe in the shop) followed by Brumby’s the Bakers. Today at Little Sky you can still see the original brickwork and pressed metal awnings. Take the Bay Street Heritage Walk to learn more - you can find the signs dotted along Bay Street.
332 Bay Street Brighton, during Melbourne’s 2020 COVID Lockdown 2.0.
