Carden Park is one of Cheshire's most established country house hotels, a 1,000-acre estate with two golf courses, a spa and a reputation built over decades. Until now, it lacked a dedicated fine-dining offer. The Vines changes that.
WDC Spaces was appointed to design and deliver the full interior and brand identity for Carden Park's first premium restaurant. The brief was clear: create a space that could hold its own against the best dining rooms in the country, while remaining distinctly rooted in the Carden Park estate.
The reference point for The Vines was Mayfair, London's most concentrated cluster of high-end restaurants, where environment and brand identity carry as much weight as the food. That standard shaped every decision we made.
The design covers the complete interior environment: ceiling detailing, wall panelling, and a bespoke commissioned carpet that anchors the room visually and acoustically. Branding runs through every guest touchpoint, from the restaurant's visual identity to the printed menus. Nothing was sourced off the shelf. Every element was specified or created for this space.
For hotel and leisure developers, this level of integration matters. A fine-dining restaurant is not just a revenue stream; it defines how guests perceive the entire property. When design and brand are developed together from the outset, the result is coherent in a way that refits and rebrands rarely achieve.
The Vines is the latest in an ongoing collaboration between WDC Spaces and Carden Park. Previous projects on the estate include the Shooting Lodge and the Sculpture Park, each requiring a different design response to the same setting. That accumulated knowledge of the estate, its guests and its ambitions informed the approach to The Vines at every stage.
This type of long-term partnership is becoming the preferred approach for leading hospitality operators. Rather than engaging a different agency for every project, they invest in an ongoing relationship that develops a deep understanding of their brand and objectives over time. The result is a faster, more informed design process and greater consistency across the entire portfolio.
Hospitality guests make decisions quickly and form impressions immediately. A restaurant interior that feels considered and intentional signals quality before a single dish arrives. One that feels generic or mismatched with the wider property undermines the room rate, the F&B revenue, and the brand.
The Vines demonstrates what is possible when interior design, brand identity and environmental detail are treated as a single brief rather than separate commissions. For developers planning a new F&B concept, a hotel refurbishment, or a standalone leisure destination, it is a useful benchmark.
The Vines proves what happens when interior design and brand identity are built together from day one. If you're planning a new F&B concept, a hotel refurbishment, or a standalone leisure destination, WDC Spaces can take it from brief to opening night. Start the conversation.
Created on
May 28, 2021
Last updated on
June 18, 2026
