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Design Dilemma: The Hotel Suite Design Trend

There’s been a design trend in the works for several years now — that is the desire to turn our homes into a hotel suite. You see the trend everywhere —hotel style bedsheets and duvet colors, hotel styling of bedrooms, even accoutrements such as coffeemakers and small refrigerators in the bedroom!

What’s behind this desire for the boutique hotel look? Most likely something to do with wanting to feel pampered. Although many of us may be in debt up to our eyeballs with declining wages and job prospects, it’s nice to feel that there’s a safe, luxurious haven at home. It’s a small bit of pleasure, but pleasure nonetheless. And so, if you’re after this look yourself, here are a few suggestions to ramp up into true hotel style.

Consider wall-mounted sconces and wall-mounted bedside tables.

Hotel suites often choose the most efficient mechanisms for furnishing the bedroom. Part of that efficiency comes in simple wall-mounted sconces, that allow for reading in bed or other task lighting, along with wall-mounted bedside tables that allow for increased floor space and easy cleaning. The bedroom above and below is a great example.

Here’s another example:

Create zones for relaxing, computer work and TV viewing.

If you want to take your bedroom the full distance, you can take another page out of the boutique hotel playbook: create zones in your room for conversation and relaxation, work on the computer, and for TV viewing. In the Spanish hotel room below in a building designed by Frank Gehry, there’s room for a living area, a study and for sleeping as well.

Here’s another bedroom that does much the same thing:

Invest in a top of the line mattress.

A luxury hotel offers mattresses of the utmost quality and comfort. You’ll need one too if you hope to replicate the look and feel of a hotel suite. Below, a suite at the Mama Shelter in Lyon, France offers free on-demand movies, a refrigerator and a work desk.

Clear the Clutter.

One thing that makes hotel rooms so restful is the lack of clothes heaped on chairs, and books, cups and magazines stacked on dressers and bedside tables. If you want your bedroom to feel more like a hotel, get rid of any trace of clutter that would impede on that peaceful feeling!
Below, check out a clutter free room of a hotel in Lucerne, Switzerland.

Add some mood lighting.

More than any other element, lighting is important to creating a restful mood in your bedroom. Light should come from several sources. For example, wall sconces, general overhead lamps, a reading lamp or table lamp on a desk or bureau. The  hotel suite above makes use of dramatic lighting embedded at the top and bottom of a glass wall that serves as a sort of headboard as well.

Add the extra touches.

So what are the “extras” that make your bedroom feel like more than just a place to crash? How about fresh flowers in vases, extra plump pillows on the bed, plush robes for lounging and a bowl of mints or chocolates at bedside. You may not be able to afford a room at the Ritz, but with a little thought, your own bedroom can feel just as nice!

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Intriguining Ideas in a House Shaped Like a Bridge

The Connecticut home designed by Joeb Moore+ Partners Architects is supported over a void like a bridge.

The entry bridge echoes the Kent Falls setting – a series of cascades with many man-made wooden bridges across them.

Entered on a second floor bridge from higher ground in the back, a living room below offers an inviting glimpse inside.

This ground floor living room is actually an outdoor room with the comforts of a fire and movie screen “under the bridge.”

The house spans the landscape with a central skylight bringing the tender northern light into its center.

A sculpture inside upends and repeats the bridge theme.

The living and dining bridge – open on two sides – is parallel to the meadow and the valley.

A concrete foundation pillar anchoring the living-dining bridge into the hillside also functions as a chimney.

These structural bridge foundations become pillars in the interior above.

The master bedroom is set at one end where the bridge touches down, creating a grounded feeling.

An altogether interesting concept.

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The Contemporary Pearl of the Mediterranean

Sculptured slabs of white stucco embrace the blue Mediterranean skies in La Perla Del Mediterraneo by Spainville.

A dramatic architectural style perfectly reflects its elemental setting.

Surely the Greek gods of ancient fables will ascend these lime-washed stairs to the crest of the craggy mountain.

The structure is centered on a swimming pool jutting out on the second floor.

The placement of the pool creates a view as if from an eagles nest.

But actually, the house is set on a grassed plateau.

Its magic is part of its setting, near the heights of the mythic mountain.

The contemporary home is defined by complex interrelationships between the generous geometric volumes.

The weight of a surprising pergola in cast concrete is opposed by its sprightly white stucco finish.

The white respects the traditional lime-washed architecture of the Mediterranean, but takes the vernacular far into the future.

A pleasing and contemporary space for whiling away timeless Mediterranean summers.