**The Finished Product: La Coop Coffee House at 5505 1st St. NW, Washington, DC 20011**

This project has been a special one and a labor of love since day one. My husband Juan Luis started a coffee company La Coop Coffee Co. several years ago after we moved back to the U.S. from Guatemala. His goal was always to source coffee directly from members of his family and community in his hometown of Union Cantinil, Huehuetenango, Guatemala, all of whom are part of a coffee cooperative he formed there almost 15 years ago now. He started small- first selling to other roasters, then sharing other people’s roasting equipment while selling under his own brand at farmers markets and small pop-up events over the past few years. All of his hard work has now culminated in the opening of his first coffee shop and roastery in the Kennedy Street corridor of D.C.

Given our love for DIY projects, it was only fitting that the place we found to take the next step in this coffee business journey was an old house. I of course was thrilled about the design possibility of the property and we enjoyed taking on this new project together to make our creative vision a reality.

While the pandemic threw us for a loop, we opened July 1 to a welcoming community and are thrilled to bring Juan Luis’ specialty coffee and beautiful culture to our new neighborhood (just a few short minutes from our own fixer upper home).

Check out the photos below and some of the other posts up on the blog to learn more about the various pieces of our latest fixer-upper, the La Coop Coffee House.

Photo Credit: Amanda Archibald/Fotosynthesis

Most of the outdoor furniture we found was from World Market. The front door was actually a salvaged large window from Community Forklift that we retrofitted into a door and painted hot pink for a pop of color and to tie into the colors in our bathroom wallpaper.

Photos of Juan, his family, and members of his community and the cooperative he formed all line the walls of La Coop Coffee House, telling the story of this decades-long coffee journey- from growing up farming the coffee with his dad and grandpa that he is now roasting and serving in D.C.

We wove in small traditional Guatemalan elements into the design as well, including these hand-painted masks which we brought back from our last trip.

In the main room we used lots of neutral wood and leather tones mixed in with black and white to match the pattern on the coffee bags. We also used lots of salvaged materials, combined with new modern items like the marble tables and patterned chairs to create a contemporary look with clean lines, but with a sense of warmth. The countertop is a salvaged piece of granite from Community Forklift that we cut to fit our space. The Bussing Station (separate blog post on this one), also from Community Forklift, was also retrofitted from an art deco dresser.

Community Forklift salvaged countertop. Photo Credit: Amanda Archibald/Fotosynthesis

We love the clean lines of this George and Willy Menu Board. This one took a while to get up, but this design allowed us to make the best possible use of our space here so we had room to feature other products and merchandise, like the traditional Guatemalan hand-painted mugs.

While we kept the main service and seating area more neutral and black and white tones, we used wallpaper to create fun pops of color in both the bathroom and what we like to call our Jungle Room.

The vision for the Jungle Room and the Bathroom was really just to create a fun, Instagrammable space that people could enjoy. The wallpaper is all peel and stick/removable. We followed a Pinterest tutorial to create the board and batten in the bathroom and mixed in some of the same wood tones from the main room to tie everything together.

The Roasting Room. Photo Credit: Amanda Archibald/Fotosynthesis

Want to see what it looked like before? Check out some of the BEFORE and DURING photos below!

The La Coop Coffee House Project