Right Now, Everything Is Cake

"When you walk into Cento, a popular raw bar in Los Angeles, you might not immediately think "cake," but you'll feel like you stepped into one. The walls ripple with a thick, tactile plaster applied in layered brush strokes, creating ridges and curves that draw guests to reach out and touch them. The texture might remind you of waves crashing on the shore. Or the paint daubs of an impressionist painting. Or, if you're familiar with the world of baking, maybe you'll think of meringue."

"Having worked in professional kitchens, Miradi designed a specific method in collaboration with plaster workers, using a trowel in a brushstroke style with a particular thickness of plaster mud to achieve a uniquely layered look. While the raw bar's walls, ceiling, tables and back bar are entirely enveloped in white, rippled plaster, the seafoam-colored central bar offers contrast, with a texture that Miradi calls a "butter soft finish." It inspires visitors to ask questions."

"It inspires visitors to ask questions. "Is it wet? Is it dry? Is it malleable? Is it hard? Is it soft?" Buttercream-inspired walls. Buttery countertops. Fabric drapery that resembles classic piped icing. These aren't just Miradi's current style choices. Much of the design world is embracing confectionery aesthetics for a tactile, maximalist look that also feels cozy and not too serious. The question isn't why-cake design is fun, interactive, immersive. What we wonder is, why right now?"

Confectionary-inspired design deploys frosting-like plaster, butter-soft finishes and piped-icing textiles to craft tactile, immersive interiors. At Cento in Los Angeles, layered brushstroke plaster evokes meringue, waves and impressionist paint daubs. Designer Brandon Miradi adapted kitchen techniques and collaborated with plaster workers to apply a specific trowel method and plaster thickness for a uniquely layered effect; a seafoam central bar provides a contrasting "butter soft finish." Designers are embracing confectionery aesthetics across spaces to achieve a playful, cozy, maximalist mood that prompts sensory curiosity and physical engagement, with historical echoes in 18th-century Rococo.

Read at Architectural Digest