A new living for Leuven Coffee and presents at M

M director Peter Bary explains how this came about. "We thought it was important to have a comfortable place in the museum where you can relax before or after your visit. Both the public and our staff also told us that our reception area could be a more inspiring and welcoming. Our shop is now located beyond the ticket counter. That is not the right location. You’re meant to come into a museum shop at the end of your visit, not at the beginning. We have very interesting books and articles on offer, but people cannot find them. That's why we decided to go for that new concept: we take down the wall between the museum and the café, and we merge all the reception functions. The result is a museum shop where you can have a cup of coffee, and where you can also buy your art gifts, for example."

"At the same time, we want the new place to become a kind of living room for Leuven. You can sit in the free area of M, there is free Wi-Fi, you can have a piece a cake... We hope it will become a meeting place in the city. For art lovers, of course, but also for everyone else. Everyone is welcome."

Cake and books

Interior designer Lies Van Kerckhove (Fragmenture) was commissioned to design the new interior. She explains which choices she made and why. 

Lies: "For those who know M well, the new coffee corner shop occupies the space of the former café, plus the spot in the reception area where the grand piano now stands. The wall between the two will be removed. You will be able to have coffee and cake or maybe a glass of wine, but it will certainly not be a café or restaurant. I have arranged the space so that the shop embraces the catering area. You are literally sitting among the books and the museum goodies drinking coffee."

"As an interior designer, you always work in a format laid down by the architect. M is a very high-quality building. The challenge was to respect that grand architectural space while creating an intimate, welcoming feeling. In its collection presentations, M often works with the basic colours red, yellow and blue, as well as with stainless steel and shades of gold. I used that toolbox of elements to evoke a homely feeling. Of the three basic colours, yellow is the one that best represents cosiness and warmth. So that is the colour I picked. It recurs everywhere in the interior: in the furniture, the counter, the floor, the walls... There are also golden brass elements, for example in the counter, and stainless steel skirting boards."

Made-to-measure

"There is also a fair amount of okoume in the interior. This is a reddish wood type that is also part of M's house style. It was in the past mainly used for formwork has more and more been popping up in interiors. It goes well with the yellow, with the gold colour and with the stainless steel."

"Everything is made-to-measure. Work will start in May, although of course with Covid you can never be entirely sure. But if all goes well, we'll be all set before the summer."