Why Hotel Decor is the best Inspiration
Well I don't think we need to get Freud on board to see why I'm drawn to hotel decor at the moment what with all the renovations I’m doing, but I will also say that hotel design has always been a key part of my design process. Ideally visiting but when that's impossible then wandering round the corridors of the internet works too.
They may not be the place you go to learn about storage, as they mostly only have a fairly minimal amount, but for layout and style they often can't be beaten. After all so many of them from the most affordable Premier Inn to the most luxurious boutique hotel will have to have a bathroom, a desk or dressing table and often an armchair or larger seating area so there's a lot going on.
Last week I looked at layout and this week I wanted to just show you some gorgeous rooms which might inspire you for your own places and spaces in terms of colour and pattern. And, of course, if you can find a vacant room you may even want to visit in person.
Above is a room from The Mitre Hotel, which was done by Nicola Harding (and you can read an interview with her here). The reason I wanted to include this particular room, which you may find a little startling, is that it'a a great way to see how you feel about strong colour before you commit. So you could stay there for the IRL experience. Or you can just drink in the details above. The first thing I noticed was actually the double blind at the window as I have a similar issue in my bathroom and was contemplating using mirror or window film for the lower half of the window as I wasn't sure about two blinds. Now that I have seen it done I think it could work and particularly since I saw this cafe curtain rail from Devol....
Of course the other thing is the colour. It's all brought together by the plain upper blind and the colour blocking cushion while the darker greys knock it all back a little. Even the piping on the chair in the bay window is part of the overall scheme. Now you may not like orange for your own home but if you are drawn to bright colours and yet still a little scared, this is a good way to see how to do it - you can always swap the orange for emerald green, yellow or cobalt blue for example.
This is the Glebe Hotel in Devon, where the design was done by Studio Alexandra and, once again, there are ideas you can take from here. Baths in bedrooms were a thing of the early 2000s and while they have, largely, fallen out of fashion, you still see it in hotels - partly (and I'm guessing here) where you want to instil a sense of luxury but the room doesn't allow for a bathroom big enough to add a bath.