And So to Bed...

Hoteliers invest thousands in making bedrooms restorative sanctuaries, so why not steal some of their great ideas to emulate at home, asks Amy Bradford

Any hotel room you stay in inevitably invites comparisons with your own bedroom. How many of us have settled down to sleep at a boutique retreat and wished that our bedlinen at home was as crisply white, soft and possessed such a high thread count? Or that the mattress was as perfectly firm yet forgiving? Of course, the comparisons can be negative, too. Hotel lighting, for example, can be prone to irritating quirks – especially if it only functions with an electronic room key placed in a slot by the door, miles away from your bed.

Such experiences, good and bad, can be instructive. Aside from loved ones’ homes, hotel stays are one of the few opportunities we have to test out a different style of decorating from our own and ponder what good design really means. Though it may feel calm and understated, a well-styled hotel bedroom can be crammed full of ideas for improving your personal space, whether that means making it look better, feel more relaxing or simply work more efficiently.

Interior designers spend every working day thinking about how to make hotel bedrooms perform at their best. Kit Kemp of Firmdale Hotels, the woman behind Number Sixteen in Kensington (p114) and the Ham Yard Hotel in Piccadilly, has it down to a fine art. Her bedroom designs always feel cosseting, thanks to her flair for patterns that soothe the eye and textures that treat the senses. ‘Textiles are so important,’ she enthuses. ‘I love to put fabric on walls because it gives a luxuriously tailored but cosy feel. I also love very large headboards – they are a focal point in a bedroom.’

Cosy on down at Lime Wood in the New Forest

Bespoke headboards are often things we covet in hotels – and can be transformational in a domestic setting. Tom Bartlett of Waldo Works, who designed London hotel The Laslett, created custom-made headboards for its guest rooms ‘that hide all the messy, functional stuff, such as cables and USB plugs’ – eliminating the thorny issue of cable management with a stroke. Ben Whistler, who has a showroom at Design Centre Chelsea Harbour and has made custom furniture for Claridge’s (p107) and The Berkeley, is an expert at making upholstered headboards – as well as enhancing warmth and comfort and concealing utilities, they can muffle sound and help to keep your bedroom peaceful.

Many hotels create bespoke furniture for their projects rather than buying off the peg, a trick that can be particularly beneficial in bedrooms because it allows you to tailor storage for your possessions and keep clutter to a minimum (being surrounded by too much stuff is never restful). Several of the hotel designers we spoke to listed this as a priority, including Simon Rawlings, creative director at David Collins Studio, which styled the tranquil grey-and-white bedrooms at Lime Wood in Hampshire (p79). ‘Only furniture with a purpose should be in a bedroom,’ he says. ‘For me, it should be a calm place to unwind – not making too much of a statement yet oozing comfort. It needs to be intuitive; you should be able to occupy the space without instructions.’

Such thinking is entirely in tune with current research on sleep and relaxation, which says that keeping your bedroom relatively empty will help you to unwind. Such a space needn’t feel austere, however; look to Killiehuntly Farmhouse in Scotland to see it done cosily. The hotel is owned by Danish couple Anders Holch Povlsen and his wife Anne Storm Pedersen, so designer Ruth Kramer came up with a ‘Scandi-Scot’ aesthetic, using simple, finely crafted Danish furniture and Scottish textiles to add a sensual touch to the Georgian architecture. ‘Our mantra was “less is more”,’ Kramer explains. ‘We put only essential things in the rooms. Apart from a few fresh flowers, there isn’t even any scent – we use fragrance-free detergents to wash the linens and traditional Danish soap flakes on the wood floors.’

The Hoxton Paris prefers a pared-back approach

A 'Scandi-Scot' aesthetic is found at Killiehuntly

As you might expect, Killiehuntly’s rooms are low on tech. This reflects a trend in hotels for paring back on complex gimmicks and gadgets that easily date. Both The Ned in London and The Hoxton Paris favour retro Roberts radios over fancy sound systems, and for The Laslett (p111), Tom Bartlett used the wardrobe to hide electrical items like kettles and toasters, ‘getting rid of visual mess’. Of course, if you want to switch on your laptop or iPad, you can, but there’s a growing awareness among hoteliers that unplugging is the most restful thing you can do. The same wisdom applies at home, wherescreens that emit harsh, sleep-inhibiting light are often best kept out of the bedroom.

Lighting and plug sockets are another technological aspect that can make or break a bedroom. Hotels that do this well include The Hoxton Paris, where design director Charlie North installed classic lighting by French brand Lampe Gras and traditional brass-trimmed switches and sockets, located conveniently beside the bed. ‘We made the rooms feel cosy by having a mix of table lamps and bedside lights,’ he says. Guy Oliver, the designer behind Claridge’s and The Connaught, believes that bedroom lighting should always be ‘simple, intuitive, and dimmable, so you can create different moods’.

At home, this could mean having wall lamps or small pendants beside the bed, as well as table lamps for mood lighting and one bright, overhead fitting. The latter is essential, says Kit Kemp, so that you can see clearly when getting dressed. Her advice about planning hotel-worthy electrics is invaluable. ‘You have to decide where your bed will be before you can sort out switches and sockets,’ she says. ‘Don’t put sockets at ground level or you’ll be crawling around; have them at waist level. And it’s better to spoil one tiny bit of wall with lots of plugs than to have them all around the room.’

Most hotel designers agree that when it comes to colour and pattern in a bedroom, understated is best. This is partly because they need to accommodate so many different tastes, but it’s also an acknowledgement that certain palettes are just more relaxing than others. The reason we associate blue with tranquillity, for instance, has a scientific basis: receptors in our eyes called ganglion cells, which transmit information to the part of our brains that regulates body clock, are most sensitive to blue shades, which can thus reduce blood pressure and heart rate. Other cool shades, like grey, are good for the same reason. At Chapel House hotel in Cornwall, owner Susan Stuart has decorated with greys, greens and blues that take their cue from the surrounding coastal landscape. Similarly, at Lympstone Manor in Devon (p50), Maria Constantinou and Eris Koutsoudakis of Meraki Design used grey, duck egg blue and sapphire shades inspired by the plumage of local birds. ‘Having understated colours without too much pattern creates a soothing atmosphere,’ says Constantinou. ‘The beauty of referencing nature is that it is a great way to see colours that work well together.’

Where pattern is used, the best hotel rooms tend to do so in a restrained way. At Claridge’s, Guy Oliver confines it to the floor with feather-motif and striped carpets that nod to the hotel’s Art Deco heritage; similarly, at The Rosewood London, designer Tony Chi has used bold striped and checked carpets and kept the rest of the room simple, while at the Four Seasons Hampshire (p78), a damask-print carpet enlivens Martin Brudnizki’s otherwise pared-down rooms in soft yellows and greens. This clever design trick means that you can enjoy the pattern while you’re moving around the room, but it won’t disturb you while you’re in bed. Bedding itself is almost invariably white, which symbolises ‘luxury and freshness’, says Dan Roston, director of bedding brand Coze. His simple but fine-quality designs are based on years of experience supplying the hotel trade. ‘People often have busy or colourful bedlinen at home, but try plain white and see how it instantly smartens the room,’ he advises.

Perhaps our favourite hotel bedrooms are those with the unexpected touches that we dream of taking home – the freestanding bathtubs at The Ned, perhaps, or the quirky artworks curated by Ben Kelway Studio at The Laslett. As Martin Brudnizki says: ‘Your stay at a hotel is all about comfort, but it’s also an escape from your day-to-day life and an opportunity to experience something new.’ Inspiration awaits.

Lympstone Manor's bedrooms are inspired by its natural surroundings.

Intuitive lighting in the Princess Lodge bedroom at The Connaught.

The carpet adds another dimension to the otherwise quietly calm bedroom at Four Seasons Hampshire

Address Book

Ben Kelway Studio; benkelwaystudio.com Firmdale Hotels; firmdalehotels.com Killiehuntly Farmhouse; killiehuntly.scot Claridge’s; claridges.co.uk The Connaught; the-connaught.co.uk The Hoxton Paris; thehoxton.com The Laslett; thelaslett.co.uk The Ned; thened.com Lime Wood; limewoodhotel.co.uk Lympstone Manor; lympstonemanor.co.uk Four Seasons Hampshire; fourseasons.com Chapel House; chapelhousepz.co.uk Rosewood London; rosewoodhotels.com Ben Whistler; benwhistler.com Coze; cozelinen.com Waldo Works; waldoworks.com David Collins Studio; davidcollins.com Meraki Design; meraki.com Guy Oliver; oliverlaws.com Tony Chi; tonychi.com Martin Brudnizki Design Studio; mbds.com