Four ways to give your bedroom the luxury hotel treatment

Giles Kime explains how hotels can teach us how to stay ahead of inspiring design trends and how we can transform our bedrooms into design masterpieces.

The great advantage of the hotel is that it is a refuge from family life,” wrote George Bernard Shaw. There is no doubt that there must be a clear distinction between them; hotels shouldn’t be too homely (otherwise why shell out?), and houses shouldn’t look like hotels, because that’s where the madness lies – mini-fridges, trouser presses, “flawy wallpaper” and the mysterious practice of piling industrial pillows on the bed. .

However, there are lessons to be learned from why we love hotel rooms. One of them is a sense of order and calmness, which is perhaps the most unpleasant fruit. The enemy of peace is too many things; clothes, books (other than the ones you read), dusty things you bought on vacation because you thought it would add character.

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Four elements of a luxurious hotel bedroom to decorate your bedroom at home

Reading lamps

They allow you to read while your partner is napping (or vice versa).

Benches at the edge of the bed

Very important when packing/unpacking/putting on shoes

high headboards

The perfect way to create drama (and bring in pattern and/or glamour)

shaving mirror

Why, oh why, don’t most people have this house?

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However, if you may be committed to rampant eclecticism in the rest of the house, it makes sense to channel your inner minimalism into the bedroom. Along with self-discipline, a walk-in closet, ideally adjoining the bedroom or bathroom—or at least within reach—will certainly help.

The other great joy of hotel rooms is that they are a world in miniature, not least because you’re much less of an annoyance to staff if you rarely step out the door. As multifunctional exercises, they can be exemplary, often serving as a bedroom, bathroom, living room, dining room, home office, and cocktail bar where one can exist in a parallel universe. Again, don’t try this at home; too much fuss can be too expensive a service in a domestic context. Moreover, the rise and fall of tea production demonstrated that Heath’s Robinsonism did not work in the bedroom (an early incarnation, an early morning waiter designed by Ron Grumble in 1930, depicted an open fire).

The really important lesson to be learned from good hotels is not so much multi-functionality, but how much forensic attention has been paid to every last detail; additional reading lamps, bedside stools for luggage or shoes, small but perfectly shaped pieces of furniture such as console tables that could well serve as desks, reduced upholstery that creates a feeling of comfort and which, together with heavy drapes and blinds, serves as a magically absorbing sound.

Another thing that luxury hotels understand better than anyone is comfort. Founded in 1904 (and a Royal Warrant holder since 1929), Hypnos is run by the fifth generation of the Keene family, whose client list ranges from big names like The Goring, Browns and The Lanesborough in London to the more fashionable. newcomers including Soho Farmhouse, Oxfordshire as well as famous country houses such as Calcot Manor near Tetbury, Gloucestershire.

Carolyn Mitchell, director of interior design at Hypnos, says there is a growing desire among residential clients to draw inspiration from hotel design. Popular features include oversized shaped headboards, a style pioneered by Firmdale’s Kit Kemp, as well as high-quality handmade mattresses, deep sofa bases and features such as wool or alpaca mattress toppers.

In addition to wool, the company also pays great attention to natural materials, including cotton and hemp. “With almost 120 years of experience in making beds using traditional crafts and natural materials, we have realized that they are the key to comfort on many levels,” she says.

However, as influential as hotel interior design has been over the past decade, the wilder extremes should probably stay there. Rooms that look breathtaking in an Instagram post tend to be an aesthetic construct that has no real place in everyday life, like a tasting menu at a Michelin-starred restaurant. Luxury hotels are a fantasy designed to take us into a world of high-pressure showers, scented ointments, and craft gin miniatures with invisible creatures that open caps, refill water bottles, dim lights, and collect discarded clothes when you’re not look. . If it had ever been a reality, the fantasy would never have been the same.

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Giles Kime asks if “digital pop-up” is the answer to the homogeneous home.

Reports of the death of the British ceramics industry are premature, says Giles Kim.

The new book extols the virtues of rattan and Giles Kim is completely sold.

Finally, says Giles Kime, help is at hand for anyone blinded by the Byzantine complexity of architectural lighting.