Design Cues Designer takes new Bangor poolroom beyond pub mirrors and beer signs

When Chad Bazinet contacted set designer Chez Cherry this summer, he had a laughable request: Turn the cavernous space that once housed Jimmy V’s into a sleek, upscale pool hall – in two months.

Cherry didn’t laugh.

Instead, he got to work designing Classics, a multilevel, tournament-grade room in Bangor that Billiards Digest magazine recently named one of the world’s top 10 billiard rooms of 2003.

“We did want to do something that was different, that wasn’t your normal pool hall type of thing,” said Cherry, a British-born designer who lives in Orono. “We got away from the pub-mirror, beer-sign type of look.”

Far, far away. Classics doesn’t fit the smoky, dim pool hall cliche. The walls are mossy green and terra-cotta orange, softly lit with lamp sconces that Cherry designed and made. The tables are separated by small, bar-style tables held up by columns stained to look like pool cues. And a 30-gallon freshwater aquarium serves as a focal point behind the bar.

“It’s a bit Euro, isn’t it?” Cherry asked during a recent tour of Classics.

And it is – the space has an urban, sophisticated feel that sets it apart.

“Originality is what we’re after,” Cherry said. “We didn’t want an off-the-shelf look.”

Though the pool room is open to recreational players, Bazinet also wanted to hold tournaments there, so Cherry had to work within space constraints. Bazinet, 27, is a pool aficionado who previously worked at Russell’s, where Cherry had redecorated the billiard room. When he set out to open his own venture in Penobscot Plaza, he knew that if anyone could transform the space, Cherry could.

“[At Russell’s], he took a plastic bag and a bucket of paint and turned it into a really nice room,” Bazinet said.

Given his background in theatrical design, Cherry knows how to do a lot with a little. Before he came to Maine, he worked in scene shops in Los Angeles, garnering four Emmy nominations for set design on the HBO series “Tracey Takes On.” He also has designed backgrounds and interiors for theme parks and casinos, such as Walt Disney World and MGM Grand hotel in Las Vegas. He moved to Orono in 2001 to work as a professor in the theater department at the University of Maine.

Though he no longer works at the university, he’s still setting the scene for local theater companies, and his work was most recently featured in Ten Bucks Theatre’s production of “Terra Nova.” In addition to his work at Classics and Russell’s, he also is planning a design for the Orono night club Ushuaia, which plans to add a restaurant.

“All design is dealing with the same thing – it’s really line, color and texture,” Cherry said.

At Classics, line, color and texture come together in unexpected ways. Green and orange aren’t a natural pair, but the colors complement each other, and they’re subtly echoed in the light fixtures, on the mosaic tile bartop, and in the back-lit glass blocks that accent the bar.

“We just wanted to get away from the particular colors people use in a pool hall,” Cherry said. “The orange was a wild choice but I think it works.”

The billiards theme manifests itself in the woodwork, from the columns to the liquor shelves, which are held up with pool cues. Custom-made panels accent the metal stair-rail, which leads to a balcony where people can overlook the pool tables while getting away from the hubbub downstairs. Faux-finish accents by a local painter complete the look

“We had excellent local craftsmen – good craftsmanship,” Cherry said. “It’s definitely not thrown together. Most everything we used in here we bought locally and all our guys are local guys.”

Though they used area craftsmen, the design was inspired by metropolitan pool halls such as Boston Billiard Club. Cherry took that idea and then let his imagination run wild. The result is an eclectic mix of design elements that come together to form a harmonious whole.

“Just call me Frank Lloyd Wrong,” Cherry said, laughing.

At Classics, that’s just right.