Layers of a Luxury Look
This week I accompanied my husband to a conference at a resort hotel in the Texas Hill Country. Through a reservations mix-up, we ended up in one half of a luxury suite! It was a huge corner room on the top floor, with its own foyer and two balconies – but it was the living/dining area of the suite, so it didn’t have a real bed, only a fold-out sofa bed with a thin mattress. I had a roll-away bed brought in, but it was pretty bad too.
But the great views made up for the bad beds.
The view from one of the balconies.
The next morning, as I was sipping coffee and trying to wake up, I started noticing the textiles in the room. Normally when I think “hotel room textiles,” I think of either huge swirly prints on shiny polyester in painfully outdated hotels, or of lovely plain white linens in mercifully updated hotels. But this room was different. I could see that the patterns were actually woven into the fabrics, instead of printed. There were throw pillows that looked handmade, with fringes and tassels. Everything coordinated, but nothing was matchy-matchy.
I got up and took a closer look at them all. I realized that the design team’s goal had been to capture the feeling of the old ranch house that stood here before the resort – where possessions would have been brought in by different people, over decades. But because they were designing for a hotel rather than a home, the team had to come up with cost-effective techniques and commercial fabrics.
This is the outside of the hotel. The limestone white and sky blue colors are repeated throughout the decor inside.
This upholstery fabric was on two armchairs. The barn red accent color is repeated throughout the room, but in different patterns. It’s pretty boring, but still, I like the square and rectangle pattern. I could do something with that idea.
This is the dining chair fabric. The nubby cream yarn in the simple pattern gives it a special touch, while also hiding snags and wear!
The curtains had the look of old, worn brocade, with tassels on the valence, but as I looked closer…
…I realized that the fabric is actually printed to look faded and just a little tattered…
…and the “tassels” are actually wooden beads.
The really labor-intensive fabrics were used as accents in the throw pillows.
This pillow echoes the curtain pattern.
The bead trim also repeats the trim on the curtains. The red threads had a band of wire crocheted through them – maybe to provide stiffness to the loops?
The same fabric is used on a bench across the room, but in the opposite colorway. Or is it just the back?
This chair ties together many of the colors in the room. This pillow has red trim too, and the design looks to be hand-embroidered…
…but it is really woven in.
I have never seen a weave structure that leaves the little shadow effect around the edges of the design. I think it gives a bit of a three-dimensional effect.
I didn’t see any of these same fabrics used anywhere else in the hotel, but all the fabrics in other areas would also coordinate with these. I enjoyed seeing the creative ways that the design team gave some new twists to decorating tradition.
Wow! I’m definitely impressed!!! Thanks so much for sharing….you are an excellent “observer”!!!!!
It was different to “observe” modern commercial fabrics – I’m used to textiles, whether new or antique, that feel very touchable – these had more interesting design ideas than in most hotels, but they still had that signature hotel feel of being Scotch-guarded to death! 🙂
Well………I guess you found the “positive” among the “negative”. Motels/hotels are really just a necessary evil in my world!!!!
This is going to inspire me to pay more attention! I just sort of assume that there will nothing of interest in public spaces but you prove me wrong!
I know what you mean – I am a big fan of checking out the fabrics in people’s clothing in church or in jury duty, but I never expected to find so much detail in a hotel!
Interesting…Love those woven critters and trees in the pillows. Some hotels can surprise you as you noted, while others, well, lets just say they are just a hotel!
Some hotels seem to have been designed with the theme of “Let’s make them itchy and uncomfortable so they don’t stay too long!” 🙂