Elton Group’s WoodWall was the perfect aesthetic and technical solution for the new Adelaide Sofitel Hotel’s 9th floor restaurant, which opened late 2021.

Aligning with the hotel group’s French origins and seeking to unite the cities of Adelaide and Bordeaux, both renowned for wine and churches, Garcon Bleu is modelled on a 19th century Parisian brasserie, with timber panelling, mosaic tiling and salon hung art. Spanning the entire 9th floor of the hotel, the restaurant is impressively fitted out: the warmth and grain of timber veneer balanced with marble, glass and polished metals, with panoramic views of Adelaide and the Hills beyond adding to the sense of opulence. Generous and spacious, the restaurant ceiling hovers above 4m high walls finished in full height custom stained oak veneer.

The selection, sourcing and authenticity of the timber veneer played an important role in bringing the design to life. To coordinate with the selected French parquet floor, Elton Group worked with Sofitel’s developer Palumbo to create a custom stained oak, WoodWall, which matched perfectly.

Sourced from over 4m long logs and sequence-matched, the flexible and paper backed WoodWall veneer allowed perfect joints to be crafted, which would not be possible with other forms of timber veneer. Pre-finished with a timber polish, elegant solid timber mouldings were added and stained to match WoodWall, creating a traditional fielded panel aesthetic.

The timber veneer’s ease of application was combined with clever detailing to conceal service corridors and fire doors. WoodWall timber veneer is not only the most cost-effective way to achieve a fully timber lined environment but it also doesn’t need the space otherwise required by traditional framing and substrates, thereby, significantly adding to the floor area available for both circulation and FOH functions.

Unlike many timber panel systems, WoodWall is Group 1 Fire-Rated, making it perfect for all commercial applications.

A holistic, quality veneer with a perfect polish finish, and defect-free in sequence-matched runs, WoodWall is the most sustainable of our timber resources, using less than 3% of the timber used in a traditional panelling project.

Project: Garcon Bleu, Sofitel Adelaide

Design: Palumbo

Photography: Dave Ascoli