Five details that make a LEGO modular café look real

A bare counter and a coffee machine will read as a café, just about. What turns it into somewhere you would actually stop is the small stuff, the things a real café owner would never leave out. Here are the five that do the most work.

1. The menu board. A café without prices looks like a showroom. Give it a board and it starts trading.

2. The loyalty card by the till. The tiny human detail that says people come here often.

3. A poster or two on the back wall, so the space feels lived in rather than staged.

4. A sign in the window, opening hours or a daily special, which gives the frontage a voice.

5. One imperfect touch. A slightly crooked chalkboard, a mug left out, because real places are never perfectly tidy.

Every one of these is a sticker on The Daily Grind sheet, and cutting them out and placing them yourself is half the fun.

LEGO® is a trademark of the LEGO Group, which does not sponsor, authorise or endorse this shop. Stickers come on a sheet for you to cut out and apply yourself.