How does coffee industry competition shape cafe interior design?
A coffee shop has drawn divided reactions online after building a small rockery and an oval water pool inside, with lit ceramic candle holders floating on the water. As mist rises, the holders drift and clink softly against each other. Some viewers called the design elegant and ahead of its time, while others compared it to a funeral hall, a bathhouse, or a hot spring.
The debate reflects a crowded coffee industry where shops compete on price, service, or distinctive decor that invites photos. Bean quality and affordable pricing appeal to one group of customers, service details to another, and memorable spaces to younger visitors. The article traces the design from its inspiration to its visual effect, without resolving whether the concept lands as intended.
The coffee industry is becoming increasingly crowded these days, and to stand out among the many shops, quite a few cafés have started to get creative with their interior design. Some focus on value for money, some compete on service, and others rely on distinctive decor to draw young people looking for a photo op. One coffee shop has built a small rockery and an oval water pool inside, with ceramic candle holders floating on the water, each holding a lit candle. As mist swirls around, the candle holders drift gently with the ripples, colliding with soft, crisp clinks. The owner may have intended to create a dreamy, cloud-like atmosphere, but after netizens saw the photos, opinions were divided: some found it elegant, while others mocked it as looking like a funeral hall, a bathhouse, or even a hot spring. From its source of inspiration to its actual visual effect, what kind of experience does this shop's design really deliver?
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In recent years, more and more cafés have opened, and competition among peers has grown increasingly fierce. To attract customers into the store and encourage repeat visits, many owners are working hard to build a unique identity for their shops.
Some cafés focus on the product itself, emphasizing bean quality and price advantages, so customers can drink good coffee at an affordable price; some pay more attention to service details, striving to make customers feel the warmth of home; others put their efforts into spatial design, creating a highly recognizable atmosphere that's perfect for young people to photograph and check in.
Recently, one café pulled off a little stunt to create a memorable impression. Inside, there's a small rockery, and beside it an oval water pool that takes up nearly the entire space, filled with water. On the surface float several ceramic candle holders with candles inserted. When the white mist rises in the shop, the candle holders move slowly with the water's ripples, adding ambiance through candlelight while producing crisp clinks as they bump into each other, giving customers the wondrous feeling of being among the clouds.
This distinctive style had many netizens praising it as high-end, commending the owner's avant-garde aesthetic.
However, after seeing this netizen's post and photos, onlookers in the comments section had mixed views.
Some netizens dug up that the owner's "stunt" was likely imitating an installation by a French artist; others said, "This design existed in the lobbies of many Western art museums seven or eight years ago"; and still others believed it mimicked the ancient literati's "floating wine cups along a winding stream" game played while composing poetry.
Some netizens didn't care about the source of inspiration and simply expressed their first impression: "This thing really looks like some kind of Western funeral hall," "A bit like the ferryman of souls in Pirates of the Caribbean," "The candles really make it look like a Zhongyuan Festival water lantern," "Like an Indian blessing ceremony."
More netizens thought that drinking coffee beside this mist-shrouded pool, anyone who didn't know better would think a bathhouse had joined the coffee race: "Roman imperial bathhouse?" "A bit like a hot spring," "Before I opened the full image, I thought it was a northern bathhouse."
Beyond all that, netizens had other opinions about this café as well.
Health-conscious netizens said, "Wouldn't you get rheumatism after sitting there too long?" "I have heavy dampness in my body—I couldn't sit in a place like that for even a minute." Netizens concerned about food safety worried, " This smoke is contaminating the food and drinks I ordered." A netizen who wanted to visit and study there thought the café's design was meant to prevent customers from "occupying seats in the café to study."
Some netizens' attention wandered from the café's signature water pool to the wall behind it, offering critiques of the wall: "The plaster isn't even smoothed out," "The paint is about to peel off." Some imaginative netizens, inspired by the misty white scene, thought of "the Queen Mother of the West's peach banquet," "The Jade Emperor would think he's back in his old home."
In the increasingly competitive coffee scene, cafés that want to stand out always have some ingenious feature, so that customers associate coffee with their shop. The owner designed it this way not only to attract customers for photo ops, but also to give them a different experience.
For this café with its unique aesthetic, would you want to visit and check it out?
Image source: Xiaohongshu
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The above content is compiled by CoffeeHunters, a coffee news website.
