Goodies is a vegan café in Minsk, Belarus, designed by Anna Lazar Studio. Occupying just 35 square metres, the interior brings a sense of openness to a compact setting through pale colours, slender furniture and carefully considered light. The project centres on the experience of spending time in a small café: choosing a table, watching coffee being prepared and settling into conversation. Its restrained architecture provides a quiet setting for these familiar activities, with texture and proportion giving the space its character.

The modest floor area makes the relationship between individual elements especially important. A substantial counter gives the interior a clear focal point, while the seating remains visually light. Tables, chairs and pendant lamps establish smaller places within the room without breaking its overall continuity. This balance allows the café to feel intimate at the scale of a single table and open when viewed as a whole. The eye can move between the furniture and the surrounding architecture, helping the room feel less enclosed.

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Tonal Interior Rhythm

A palette of warm white, ivory, muted cream and soft beige connects the architectural surfaces with the furnishings. The colours sit close together, allowing changes in texture and shadow to remain visible. This tonal approach gives the interior a consistent background while leaving room for small variations. Pale surfaces respond to daylight, and the warmth of the palette softens their appearance. Against this setting, the everyday contents of the café, from cups to the activity at the counter, become part of the composition.

Vertical rhythms on the walls and counter fronts introduce a more precise architectural order. Their repetition adds depth to surfaces that might otherwise appear flat, creating fine transitions between light and shade. These details also draw attention to the height of the room. Kept within the same restrained colour range, they bring definition without fragmenting the interior. The counter and walls consequently feel related, even though they serve different purposes, and the repeated lines give the space a recognisable visual language.

Soft Curved Furniture

Rounded tables and softly curved upholstered chairs bring a gentler geometry into this ordered setting. Their shapes make each seating arrangement feel approachable, while slender supports preserve views across the floor. Upholstery adds a tactile quality that becomes particularly important at close range, where guests encounter the interior through touch as much as sight. The furniture provides a softer counterpart to the architectural lines around it. Its scale and light appearance help maintain the balance between physical comfort and a sense of space.

Natural light contributes to the café’s atmosphere throughout the day. Tall windows reinforce the vertical proportions and allow daylight to reach the pale interior. As the light changes, the texture of the finishes and the relief of the architectural details become more or less pronounced. The limited colour palette makes these gradual shifts easier to notice. This gives the room a changing character within a consistent design, with the same surfaces appearing brighter, warmer or more softly shaded at different moments.

Intimate Pendant Lighting

Pendant lamps introduce a second, more local scale of light. Their delicate silhouettes sit above the tables, giving each seating area a sense of definition within the open room. The fixtures remain visually light enough to preserve the impression of height. Their placement connects lighting directly with the activities below, bringing attention to the tabletop and the people gathered around it. Together with daylight, they help establish the balance between the café’s airy overall character and the more intimate experience of sitting down.

Reflections add another layer to the interior. Mirrors, glass and glossy surfaces catch light and extend views, while matte finishes and upholstery give the eye quieter places to rest. The interaction between these surfaces creates depth within the limited footprint. Reflected fragments of furniture and light introduce movement without requiring additional objects. This is especially useful in a small room, where every visible element affects the whole, and where a measured approach to decoration helps preserve a clear sense of the architecture.

Sculptural Coffee Bar

The bar is both a working area and the main sculptural element. Its clean outline and detailed front give it a strong presence, while the uncluttered composition keeps coffee preparation visible. The daily activity behind the counter becomes part of the guest experience. Artwork and restrained decorative objects add individual character around this functional centre. Their limited presence allows each piece to be noticed, while keeping the relationship between the bar, seating and architectural surfaces easy to read.

Goodies offers a setting for an unhurried pause within the city. Its small scale brings the details close to the guest: the curve of a chair, the texture of fabric, a reflection or the light above a table. These encounters give the café its warmth and make its restrained design feel personal. The gentle atmosphere complements the café’s focus on vegan food and hospitality.

Fact File

Designed by: anna_lazar_studio

Project Type: Café Interior Design

Project Name: Vegan Cafe Goodies

Location: Minsk, Belarus

Principal Designer: Anna Lazar

Photograph Courtesy: Vitalina Voroshkevich

Firm’s Website Link: anna_lazar_studio

Firm’s Instagram Link: anna_lazar_studio

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