Inspired Play Cafe

Commercial build-out

A bright, kid-focused cafe in Merriam. Lighting and electrical built to handle high traffic, long hours, and the kind of place families spend their afternoons.

What ThreeCo did

• Build-out lighting
• Build-out electrical
• Built for high traffic and long hours

At Inspired Play Cafe in Merriam, Kansas, ThreeCo did the build-out lighting and electrical for a bright, kid-focused cafe built to handle high traffic, long hours and the kind of place families spend their afternoons. It is the example on our site of a cafe build-out on the Kansas side of the metro, and the photos below show the finished space: the counter, the seating area and the play area.

What a cafe build-out asks of the electrical

A build-out turns an existing suite into a new use, and the suite was rarely built with that use in mind. A cafe that is also a place for children to play is two kinds of room under one roof: a counter that serves drinks and food, and an open room where children play while their parents sit, talk and work for hours.

The electrical has to serve both. Power belongs where the counter equipment actually sits, not where the old layout happened to leave a receptacle. The seating area needs outlets where people really sit with phones and laptops. And the lighting has to make the whole room feel bright and even from the morning until closing, because a family deciding whether to stay another hour notices a dim corner.

Built for high traffic and long hours

A place that is open long hours runs its lights for most of the day, which is why LED fixtures are now the usual choice on a build-out and why the energy code asks for lighting controls in a new space. Steady foot traffic means switches, receptacles and covers that stand up to being used all day.

Where children spend time, the details change. Receptacles within reach need to be tamper-resistant, which the electrical code requires in many spaces children use, and cords and equipment are kept out of the play area. Exit and emergency lighting are laid out for the new floor plan, so a busy room can be cleared safely if the power goes out.

Lighting a room with an open ceiling

Many cafes and shops leave the ceiling open, as the room in these photos does. That looks good and makes a room feel taller, but it leaves nowhere to hide the wiring: every run is in view, so it is routed neatly along the structure and planned as part of how the room looks. Track lighting is common under an open ceiling because the heads can be re-aimed when the furniture, the menu board or the displays move, without new wiring.

What the photos show

The photos on this page show the finished cafe: wooden toy shelves and cubbies in the play area under an open ceiling, with track lights running across it; the counter and food case with track and recessed lights overhead, the espresso machine, a TV and the lit wall sign; and the seating area, with long tables, lounge chairs and a leather sofa beside the storefront windows.

Opening a cafe, shop or restaurant in a leased space?

Tell Watt, our AI assistant, the address, what is going into the space and when you plan to open (the chat on this page), or call (816) 730-9100. It is worth doing before the lease is signed: whether the existing service and panel can carry the new use is one of the biggest unknowns in a build-out. ThreeCo works on both the Missouri and Kansas sides of the Kansas City metro, for owners, for tenants and as the electrical subcontractor for general contractors. Our CEO, Bob DeFries, whose background is in electrical engineering and architectural design, works on the lighting layout on build-outs, and Jason Strange, our COO and Master Electrician, signs off on every job.