The right kind of hotel—the best kind of hotel—does things better than you. The towels are thicker, the carpets deeper, the drapes actually keep out the light. The beds are in league with Morpheus. The bathroom amenities would make a Puritan weep.
It's a fusion of form and function so successful, a growing number of guests are replicating hotel décor in their houses. From color and fabric to furniture and fixtures, hotel living has conquered the home.
"We get a lot of questions from guests about the décor of the hotel," said Lucy McIntyre, a spokeswoman for The Standard hotel in Los Angeles. "It's hip and chic and appeals to a wide range of people."
Popular items at The Standard Hotel in Los Angeles are the metallic beanbag chairs and Andy Warhol print drapes. Photo courtesy of The Standard.
Silvery beanbag chairs and suede floor pillows add a dash of retro wit. Andy Warhol print drapes, inflatable sofas and hanging Baleri egg chairs help the shag carpet on the ceiling of the lounge and the electric blue Astroturf around the pool make sense.
Borrow both practical and whimsical ideas
Practical ideas like a high-speed Internet connection, multiple-line phones and a small fridge stocked with a whimsical array of snacks are touches easily translated into the home. Giant cacti in oversize white pots seem to float against a white wall.
"It's design you can live with," McIntyre said. "People really love it."
At the luxurious Post Ranch Inn in Big Sur, Calif., a good percentage of the items in the guest rooms, such as pillows, mattresses, soap dishes, comforters and flower vases, are for sale in the hotel's Mercantile Showroom.
"The guests literally love the room and want to recreate that look in their house," said Terry McPartlan, a clerk at the hotel.
Peter Greenberg, travel editor of NBC's "Today" show, discovered how much he appreciates hotel design and décor when he began rebuilding his Los Angeles home, which suffered heavy damage in the 1994 Northridge, Calif. earthquake.
In the course of a conversation with his architect, Greenberg, author of "The Travel Detective," the uber-guide to getting the most from your vacation, cited details from 47 hotel rooms.
He had ideas for everything from the bedroom, bathroom, kitchen and living room to closets, a phone system, door locks, door bells and the swimming pool.
It was a first for Santa Monica, Calif. architect Garth Sheriff. "These were items and concepts that were resortlike or hotel-like in that they were luxurious, but they were not high-priced," Sheriff said. "They were things whose function was really thought out, like the deluge shower head, beds on platforms rather than on the floor, entertainment centers with doors that rotate out of sight."
Detail from hotels make the home comfortable
When finished, the house was homey yet remarkable for the quality and comfort of each detail. And logical to Greenberg, who has traveled to 120 of the world's 187 countries and figures he spends more time on the road than at home.
"Every time I was in a really cool hotel, or a really cool hotel room, I'd say, 'I'd love to have that one day,' " Greenberg said. "So when it came time to conceptualize what I wanted in my home, I already knew what I wanted."
What Greenberg wanted was the legendary king-size bed from the Four Seasons in New York and the tiles from the Four Seasons in Hawaii, the 15-inch ceiling-mounted shower head from London's Savoy, the bathtub from the Peninsula in Hong Kong, a sink like the one in Caesar's Palace, a toilet like the one in Tokyo's Park Hyatt, door locks from the St. Regis in New York and a pool based on the one from the Westin Hotel in St. John, U.S. Virgin Islands.
"As crazy at this sounds, why not?" Greenberg said. " I had a direct line to the CEOs and general managers of those hotels because, after 15 years of traveling, I knew them all. All you had to do was ask, and yes, I could buy it. And so can anyone else."
Manufacturers are well-known names
A bit of research turned up household names for many of the items. Kohler, Viking and Sub-Zero are staples of kitchen and bath design. Kahrs flooring, Karastan rugs, Closets by Design, Sealy for the mattress, Nortel phones and Howard Miller clocks are within every decorator's reach.
More general details, such has how to make a small space feel larger, can also be copied from hotel rooms. And when it comes to child-proofing, hotel designers are masters.
"You always have to think about how things work when you throw kids into the mix," said Greenberg, whose entertaining ranges from intimate dinners to parties for 300 guests. "I did things like put rubber bumpers behind each door, so when kids go running through the house slamming doors, the walls are protected."
And the finished product?
"It all works—it's homey and very comfortable, " Greenberg said. "And of course we have a three-night minimum."
Labels: area rugs, ideas
