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Greg Carelli, proprietor of the Carelli's of Boulder Ristorante Italiano, knows that when it comes to restaurant interior design, economy and inspiration can walk hand-in-hand.
The restaurant, located in Boulder, Colo., started out in 1991 as Carelli's Cafe, a 1,000square-foot, one-man, grilledsandwich operation, where the menus were taped to the walls.
Eight years, three expansions and one full remodeling later, it has evolved into a highly popular, comfortable casual-dining destination. Most notably, Carelli's latest and most extensive face-lift was accomplished for less than $70 per square foot, including new furnishings and equipment and upgrades to paint and finishes in the back-ofthe-house.
When Carelli embarked upon his most recent revamp in mid- to late 1998, he sought to upscale his eatery without sacrificing its essential "neighborhood restaurant" feel - a misstep that might have frightened off his longtime customers. He turned to architect and designer Jeff Sheppard of Denver-based Roth Sheppard Architects to grow and reshape his operation into one that would reflect his new menu's higher price point while retaining the intimate, familiar ambience his customers have come to expect.
"I wanted to go in a different direction," Carelli said. "It wasn't so much about wanting to increase the price point as it was about doing something new, upscaling service and pumping up the decor."
Carelli's of Boulder Ristorante Italiano currently is a 110-seat, 3,500-square-foot family-style Italian restaurant. Its interior is modeled in a warm, earthy palette that combines blond and dark cherrystained wood surfaces, stained concrete floors, classic brick textures and wall tiles of elegant Manitou slate. Many elements and fixtures are enhanced with natural-style birch and metal accents and illuminated by a combination of direct and indirect low-voltage lighting.
"Our choice of materials came from making sure that everything we picked had a kind of natural-looking finish to it," Sheppard said. "Everything is about natural materials."
One of the advantages of that emphasis on natural or naturallooking materials, according to Sheppard, is that nearly all the wood used inside the restaurant is actually inexpensive birchveneer plywood that was stained and finished to resemble more expensive woods. The bar top was fashioned from equally affordable alderwood and finished to look like dark cherrywood.
The tabletops are draped with red-and-white checkered undercloths, over which are...