Warakubune is a sushi restaurant in San Francisco, the type with boats that circle around the bar, allowing diners to pick and choose whatever they like. It’s located in my old neighborhood near Church and Market, and my husband and I used to eat there nearly every Friday while we were dating around 20 years ago. Nowadays, it’s a little out of our way to go, so we haven’t eaten there for years, but it still holds very special memories for me.
For the trim on the facade, I chose a dark brown like the one I remember on the real-life restaurant. To provide some contrast, I’m using light tan paint for the inset areas, which will complement the wallpaper I’ve chosen for the interior, as well as the flooring and some of the other accents. The main interior trim will be stained red chestnut, which I also think goes well with my wallpaper, so I needed to stain the door frame to match. (Once the door and windows are in place, the reddish brown stain won’t seem so out of place.)
Instead of doing a stucco effect, like on my other shops, I used strips of 1/4″ x 1/16″ balsa wood as wood siding.
The real Warakubune has some brown grillwork above its single window and door. I tried to recreate that effect using 1/8″ x 1/16″ bass wood. The signage will be displayed over these sections.
Initially, I wasn’t planning on putting the tan wood siding under the grillwork, but I’m glad I changed my mind because this area is still quite visible.
Here are the side and back walls.
