SAVANNAH, GA
The Osteria project was the creation of a custom acoustic ceiling installation for an Italian restaurant inside Oakridge Golf Clubhouse. The designer wanted a series of wood-textured sound clouds shaped and finished to anchor a large indoor faux pergola, paired with a nighttime-courtyard lighting design and cascading greenery. CSI Creative supplied ten custom waffle-folded clouds in a Warm Teak wood finish to complete the ceiling.
Evelyn Scott, Design Principal at FOWD Interiors, was designing Osteria, an Italian restaurant at Oakridge Golf Clubhouse in Savannah, GA. Her plan called for filling a ceiling grid with lush greenery to create, in her words, “a very large indoor faux pergola installation.” Large chandeliers and individually hung Edison bulbs were planned throughout the space for what she described as “a nighttime courtyard effect.” With a 20-foot ceiling and oversized chandeliers, she wanted hanging greenery in mixed lengths, from 24 to 72 inches, to hide the metal grid at the shorter end and build what she called “the romantic trellis feel amongst the hanging bulbs.” Evelyn described Osteria as her first biophilic installation at this scale.
Evelyn Scott had a clear vision of an experiential space: a large indoor faux pergola filling an 8-foot by 48-foot ceiling grid, where guests dining beneath oversized chandeliers and Edison bulbs would feel like they’d stepped into a nighttime courtyard. The value CSI Creative set out to deliver was a wood-textured acoustic ceiling that could carry that weight — a real trellis feel, not a flat panel with foliage attached to it — while still doing the acoustic work a working restaurant needs.
Working with CSI Creative, Scott’s team specified custom waffle-folded sound clouds (CLD-WFD-001): eight at approximately 96.5″ x 50.5″ and two at approximately 96.5″ x 96.5″, finished in SND794 Warm Teak and hung via individual cable suspension. The two larger sections were sized specifically to flank a pair of existing oversized chandeliers, letting the clouds fit around the fixtures rather than requiring them to be removed and rehung. Before committing to the finish, Scott had samples mailed directly to her Savannah studio for review; after internal deliberation, the team settled on Warm Teak. The greenery and the acoustic ceiling ultimately became two separate purchasing decisions once budget constraints emerged, but both made it into the finished room.
A warm, immersive social environment beneath a floating landscape—where guests dine under layers of greenery and light while remaining visually connected to the golf course beyond. The biophilic canopy creates intimacy within the large architectural volume, while curved seating, natural materials, exposed structure, and expansive glazing encourage guests to relax, connect, and stay.
Before production could begin, CSI Creative issued formal shop drawings for the Osteria clouds on July 13, 2023. These are the fabrication-ready documents that define exactly what gets built: the two custom sizes (96.5″ x 50.5″ and 96.5″ x 96.5″), the SND794 Warm Teak colorway over an SND109 Macadamia core, the waffle-folded panel geometry, and the individual cable suspension hardware — down to the aircraft cable, joining plates, and eyelet fixings used to hang each cloud. The client’s signature and approval on these drawings, dated July 14, was the gate that released the order into manufacturing.
Making the wood read as real.Before any of the logistics, there was the design challenge sitting underneath everything else: the waffle-folded clouds had to hold their own in a room built around chandeliers, Edison bulbs, and hanging greenery — anything that looked flat or synthetic would have broken the effect. The team worked through wood grain direction and finish options until landing on SND794 Warm Teak, sized into two custom dimensions specifically to flank the room’s existing chandeliers rather than require them to be removed and rehung. The goal wasn’t just an acoustic panel overhead — it was a ceiling guests would read as part of the architecture.
Splitting a scope that didn’t fit the budget.Early in quoting, it became clear the original vision — clouds and greenery combined into a single canopy — priced out far beyond what the project could carry: filling out all five 8’x8′ grid sections that way would have run roughly $102,400, by the client’s own math. Getting the project moving again meant separating the two elements into distinct purchases, with the acoustic clouds proceeding through CSI Creative and the greenery sourced and installed on its own track.
Choosing a finish without a reference photo.Layered on top of that, the finish decision stalled internal approval: with no past installation photos of the Warm Teak wood texture available to settle the debate, the client committed to it sight unseen, prioritizing a tightening lead-time clock over further back-and-forth. There was no reference image to offer, and the schedule couldn’t absorb more delay — so the team worked through it honestly, on faith rather than proof.
CSI Creative shipped the completed order on August 28, 2023 — three days after the original August 25 target ship date — with a physical and digital installation guide and a wrap-up packet covering warranty and maintenance instructions. On site, installers worked from a lift to set the waffle-folded clouds into the ceiling grid before threading the greenery and lighting through the structure. The finished space bears it out: Warm Teak clouds integrated into the ceiling, greenery cascading through, and chandeliers strung with individual Edison bulbs running the length of the room — delivering the nighttime courtyard effect the design called for.
Fast, hands-on decisions — splitting the greenery from the cloud order, choosing a finish that had never been photographed before, tracking every wire transfer and shop-drawing turnaround closely — kept a complex custom installation moving on a tight runway, and CSI Creative’s production team matched that pace at every step. The completed space delivers exactly what the design called for: Warm Teak waffle-folded clouds threading through cascading greenery, chandeliers and Edison bulbs glowing overhead, and the nighttime courtyard feel first sketched out in June carried all the way through to the finished room.
The finished space answers all three: the Warm Teak clouds read as part of the architecture rather than an applied panel, the greenery split off from the order still made it into the room alongside them, and the finish chosen sight unseen holds up exactly as hoped. Chandeliers and Edison bulbs glow through cascading greenery, waffle-folded clouds trace the ceiling grid, and the nighttime courtyard feel first sketched out in June carries all the way through to the finished room.
Bring the same wood-textured warmth and acoustic performance to your next project. Explore CSI Creative’s waffle-folded ceiling clouds and wood texture finishes, or connect with a rep to begin your custom solution: Waffle Grid 001 | Wood Textures
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