By Nicola Walker
Freddy’s is the latest addition to Edinburgh’s late-night bar scene, celebrating live music across two spacious rooms. The venue promises ‘a combination of live music, signature serves and cocktails and world class beers’. It has been beautifully designed in collaboration with ARKA Design Studio and the creative minds at Too Gallus.
The interior is contemporary, yet warm and welcoming, with moody lighting, exposed brick and cosy corners. Karen Hamilton from ARKA tells me, “We wanted to create a space that was fully inclusive and unpretentious. A warm atmosphere where the customer could relax and watch live music but that could also have a real party atmosphere depending on what entertainment was on.
“The main theme throughout was a laid-back industrial look but we added aspects to create a vintage Hollywood feeling. We used a mixed palette of reclaimed brick and timber, vintage lighting, luxurious velvet, playful show lighting and neon signs.
“Working with Too Gallus was amazing as they came up with all the phrasing used on the neon signs that run throughout the venue. They also worked with the colour palette I was using and took the dark emerald green, which is now the Freddy’s signature colour, and used this through all the branding. It really was a collaborative effort.”
The first room I entered has that real industrial feel, with cool white lighting and clean lines. The main feature of this room is the bar. This has a completely mirrored canopy and a rear wall that creates a ripple effect. It has been finished with bright white LED lights, metal grating and a white neon sign stating, ‘Show Me The Money’!
The front of this bar is adorned with decorative plaster, which at some points is finished with a swirling design and at others is left in a contrasting distressed state to create depth and texture. The bar has a black marbled top, and this material has also been used to create some of the tables around it. These have rounded corners, a slick trimmed finish and are fitted with metal lamps.
The left-hand side of this room is monochrome in colour with a feature wall that has been painted white, over the bare brick, with a huge black ‘It’s Showtime Baby’ mural in the centre.
This is partially covered in fine metal grates in keeping with the industrial vibe. There are also large pillars covered in smart shiny green tiles and finished with a metal trim. This beautiful tiling is a theme throughout the venue.
The other walls are a mixture of exposed red brick, painted black brick, reclaimed green brick and rustic wood panelling. The seats in here vary from black leather fluted booth seats, a mixture of dark green or tan leather quilted chairs of differing heights, and a large brown Chesterfield corner sofa. There is a smaller stage tucked into this room which is suitable for solo artists or acoustic acts.
This stage floor and the surrounding wall areas are made from different types of reclaimed wood creating a rustic feel. The lighting in here is fabulous and comes from various reclaimed factory style wall lights, some glass oval domes and other metal ones, which appear like pipes coming out the wall with metal shades on the end.
There are also some more unusual cell lights with test tube filament light bulbs and eye-catching red neon signs. The second room is quite different – although some of the design features overlap, it feels much less ‘bar’ and much more ’venue’. The stage area, affectionately branded in white as ‘Centre Stage’, is clearly meant for larger bands and is the main feature of the room. Also, both the lighting and interiors in this room create a warmer feel.
In fact, there is an almost amber hue to the lighting. The stage itself is surrounded by wood clad walls with red velvet curtains and of course a large ‘Freddys’ neon in the very centre. There are also eye-catching large bulbs which are fitted all the way around stage giving it that real oldfashioned showbiz feel.
The painted brick, green tiling and wood elements are echoed in here, but the pillars have a bare stone effect and the red brick walls have been distressed with 
plaster. These walls are up lit to highlight the detail and are also decorated with more unusual lights and even have disco balls adorning them.
The seating here is a mix of tan or green leather low booth style seating that runs around the walls of the room, green leather and metal cylindrical bar stools and some higher wood/metal chairs to accompany some raised tables.
The other tables are smaller metal frames with round bare wood tops that almost remind you of the top of a barrel. There are also two cosy booth areas tucked in to either side of the stage which feel like VIP areas with tan curtains on the walls and more red neon signs. The bar in here is smaller than the other bar and is slightly more understated. However, it fits seamlessly into the design with a long, almost gold looking bevelled tile front.
The green metro tiling, which has been fitted vertically here, makes for a smart backdrop to the gantry. There are large glass orb lights running the length of the bar.
There are loads of small details throughout Freddys design which have clearly been carefully chosen to fit the vision. They have seamlessly blended the contemporary industrial look with comfort, considered lighting effects and a vintage feel. This makes the most of the space for customers to enjoy the varying range of live music acts and DJs that they already have lined up for the coming months!