Image Credit: Shalom Interiors

The world's greatest creators have long known that some of the most powerful ideas start with a drink in a bar. 

Phoebe Waller-Bridge workshopped Fleabag in a pub at Edinburgh Fringe, turning wine-fuelled monologues into an award-winning British comedy-drama television series. Taylor Swift wrote the lyrics for her eighth studio album Folklore at the White Horse Tavern in Rhode Island. And American comedian, musician and filmmaker Donald Glover (aka Childish Gambino) found inspiration for his hit surrealist television series Atlanta by observing people in low-key Los Angeles bars.

Bars are the original incubators for creativity and connection, a neutral ground where ideas flow as freely as conversation, and where the atmosphere invites bold thinking and unexpected collaborations.

It's this timeless tradition that Krineshen Reddy, founder and director of Shalom Interiors, taps into in The Line Avenue Bar, this year's spectacular reimagining of the annual Decorex Bubbly Bar. The Line Avenue Bar will be open throughout Decorex Cape Town from 5 to 8 June at the Cape Town International Convention Centre and Decorex Joburg from 24 to 27 July at the Sandton Convention Centre.

‘I didn't want to simply design a beautiful structure,’ Reddy explains, ‘I wanted to create a conversation piece, something provocative and aspirational, a place where past and future collide, where narrative meets material.’

Image Credit: Shalom Interiors

The Line Avenue Bar takes conceptual design to the next level, starting with its most dramatic design element: a golden seam that splits the bar directly down the middle, with a different design concept on either side of the divide. The golden line is inspired by the Japanese art of kintsugi, or ‘golden joinery’, which involves repairing broken pottery using lacquer and dusting the cracks with gold.

Look closely at this gleaming divide and you'll notice etchings that reference South African heritage, healing journeys and cultural evolution. It's Reddy's way of saying that our fractures, both personal and cultural, deserve to be highlighted rather than hidden.

On one side of this golden boundary is a realm of darkness. Rich, textural black-on-black finishes envelop you in what Reddy calls ‘the velvet calm of midnight’. Charred timber, matte metals, obsidian panels and black velvet create a space of shadow and sophistication, punctuated by the lilt of atmospheric jazz.

Cross the golden threshold and suddenly you’re bathed in an eruption of vibrant colour, high-gloss surfaces, brushed brass and custom Ndebele-inspired graphics. The lighting shifts subtly throughout the day, mimicking a sunrise-to-noon transition, while upbeat Afro house and neo-soul music set a completely different emotional tone. 

Even your champagne experience changes depending on which side you choose. Order on the black side and receive edible black champagne pearls in what Reddy calls ‘metaphors for hidden joy, small moments of opulence within resilience’. On the colourful side, the champagne is served as a tribute to joyful chaos, with edible white, litchi-flavoured champagne pearls that adds even more sparkle to this spectacle.

Reddy’s other inspiration behind this feature is equally bold: The Line, a 170-km-long smart city in Saudi Arabia housed in a single building that proposes a radical rethink of urban life. ‘The Line is a conceptual rebellion against urban sprawl, against the idea that more space equals better living,’ he says. What drew him to The Line was ‘all of it: the architecture, the intent, the global impact’, he says. ‘But more than anything, it was the disruptive innovation behind it. What really pulled me in was its cognitive approach: how it uses AI and data to respond to human behaviour. That’s the future. And as a creator, I want to be part of that conversation.’

Image Credit: Shalom Interiors

What truly sets The Line Avenue Bar apart from conventional exhibition refreshment spots is how it invites participation. Visitors are encouraged to touch, sit and move between the two worlds – to experience design not as passive observers but as active participants. This interactivity extends to the installation's sustainability credentials, with over half of the structure made out of repurposed wood, salvaged from older hotel and restaurant projects. ‘It's a subtle way to say our future is built on the shoulders of our past,’ Reddy explains.

At the upcoming Decorex shows in Cape Town and Joburg - events that are designed to accelerate business growth and bring diverse creative minds together - The Line Avenue Bar is the ultimate ice-breaker. So pull up a chair, order a glass of bubbly and chat to the person next to you. Who knows what collaboration might be born over a drink?