7 minute read
Ultimate Bedroom Suites
from UD Magazine Nº5
by UD Magazine
Sometimes it’s nice to dream, even when wide awake. And with the thin line between superluxury hotel rooms and what we would actually like in our own homes almost disappearing in recent years, we take a look at three UDesign bedroom suites that are such stuff as dreams are made of.
Text by Sophie Gatward-Wicks
Advertisement
THE OLIVE SUITE
The first is the Olive Suite, and yes, that’s a real 75-year-old olive tree in a real bedroom that you see in the picture on the right. In fact, it’s so real that it’s open to the sky - hail, rain or shine. It is, perhaps, the ultimate expression of UDesign’s philosophy of bringing the outside in.
“When it rains, it rains in the middle of your bedroom,” Jason Harris, CEO and Creative Director of UDesign, laughs, quickly adding that the tree, of course, is separated from the room by walls of glass, making what looks like a room built around an olive tree.
“Basically, it’s having a cube of nature right in your bedroom, illuminated at night to become nature’s sculpture. You can lie in bed and watch the weather change from close-up.”
Simple bed, wooden flooring, minimal lighting and a perfectly placed armchair that swivels out or in as one’s mood changes. This is what just enough is all about: no need for further decoration
But there is a second focal point in this extraordinary bedroom: a sheer rock face behind the bed, dominating this part of the room with subtle stone tones and textures that make further decoration unnecessary. It is, in fact, solid stone cut in sections and installed on the wall, so perfectly done that one would be forgiven for believing that the room had been built against a rock face. This stunning design shouts in a whisper, as design becomes art.
“These natural materials will never date”, says Jason, “and we try to achieve the delicate balance between the natural and the man-made, where the finished design develops rather than sticks to an overplanned format. The materials are alive, and they tell you what to do next.”
THE MANHATTAN SUITE
One should go to sleep with a symmetrical mind, and this is symmetry at its best. Shades of the baroque, especially in the wallpapered panels on both sides of the fireplace and the circular mirror, a little art nouveau in the hanging brass lamp and four armchairs, and the rest as minimalist as possible to make the whole thing work. But once again, it was not exactly planned this way.
“The lovely purple side-tables reflect the colours of the wallpaper panels on both sides of the fireplace, which themselves stand out by the subtle use of back-lighting,” says Jason. “It could be in a private house, or in a six-star hotel in Las Vegas or London. It’s not a massive size, but just right for the furniture it contains, and remember, we don’t go to bed these days just to sleep. We go to check our ipads, watch television or read, and we need the bedroom to be designed accordingly. We make an overall plan but we don’t allow it to get in the way of great design. If something occurs to us along the way, we take it on board. One thing tends to lead to another, and if it happens to contradict an established design style, so be it. The result, and nothing else, is important.”
The ceiling is high, the architectural lines clean and straight, the lighting and decoration down to the basic essentials for a luxury bedroom suite. The baroque style carries through to the bathroom, where a full-size statue of Venus de Milo stands beside the window looking in. She likes what she sees: a free-standing bath, a small round table to place your champagne glass, a simple but elegant towel rack and a wine-red velvet stool, all overlooking the wonderful view of the city.
The twin hand basins, finished in gold, reflect the perfect symmetry of the bedroom. The shower room, with the same towel rack and an egg-shaped lavatory bowl, is a minimalist dream.
THE HUDSON SUITE
The Hudson Suite is another masterpiece of understated interior design, from its subtle light browns, greys and off-whites, with contrasting dark lines in the window frames and some fittings, to its elegant almost Mondrianlike shapes and layout.
Positioned just over the flowing waters of the Hudson river, its view is so spectacular that very little, least of all a television set, is allowed to distract us from it. The sleeping area is divided from the bathroom by an architectural element that holds, on one side, the twin wash hand basins and round mirrors, and on the other side, the vanity unit that can also serve as a place to prop the digital devices we all carry and expect to have space to use these days.
But there are hints of varying styles here too, if you look closely, in the use of natural and manmade materials and how they are used. The decorative panel holding the large ceiling lamp, the rectangular marble panel behind the bath, machined to give it its vertical stripes, and the Oriental picture on the wall. The bath and tap unit have a distinctly traditional, almost industrial, look.
“As a company, we don’t have an instantly recognisable style,” says Jason. “But we do have a feeling, and when you feel it then you know it: this is us. The only way to create new styles is to do what you believe needs to be done, by being adventurous and innovative, by accepting the concept of fusion and taking full advantage of the best of what life’s experience throws your way.”
If you’d like to create your own “Ultimate Bedroom Suite” contact UDesign, they can make your dreams come true, literally!
udesign.es
