Collection by Isla Wright

Design Your Living Room like a First-Class Hotel Room

In some cases, the cosy and elegant hotel room is the best part of the holiday. Still, one may ask what makes lux hotel rooms different from our living rooms back home. Check out some of the tips below to see what can make the difference in your case. One thing is certain – you don’t need to break the bank in order to create a personal resort-room that reflects your personal tastes, but still keeps the elegance of the most prestigious boutique hotels.

Rule No1 – keep it simple

A living room that is cluttered and over-decorated can look messy, despite the expensive and chic items you bought. Whenever you step into a hotel room, you see that it has a small number of carefully selected pieces. Keep the furniture basic with only a few pieces such as a sofa, chair and a rug. When it comes to decorative items, less is always more. No matter how eager you are to show off your collection, keep only a few select pieces on display. You can always add more seating for different occasions, but on regular days, fewer items will make the room look cleaner and bigger.

Camouflage the TV

A huge black flat screen TV on the central stage can easily undermine your sophisticated luxury effort. If your budget isn’t cut for one of those fancy mirror TVs, décor specialists at apartmenttherapy.com suggest minimizing the impact of your screen by building a gallery wall or a salon-style art arrangement around it. The TV won’t disappear but it will partially blend in with the artwork and fool the eye. Alternatively, a dark TV screen is likely to fade into a dark accent wall. This is an idea that works on any budget.

Use neutrals

Since hotels need to accommodate a large number of people’s tastes, neutral colours are considered the safest bet for a baseline palette. If you opt for a focus wall, paint three walls in neutral, and choose a darker more dramatic hue or a wallpaper for the fourth. This kind of contrast is also welcome on drapes and pillows. Warm autumn colours like burgundy and deep green, work well until spring comes, when you can replace them with crisp green and white.

Display local art

Many luxury hotels make a point of hanging an oversized piece of art on one of the walls. You can easily imitate this chic look without spending much. Browse through flea markets and thrift stores or even better, visit galleries and studios of the artists in your area. It’s always better to have your art done by someone in your area than to have a cheesy reproduction. If you are decorating on your own, check out these ingenious DIY wall art ideas at theshabbycreekcottage.com .

Oversized furniture

Even if your room is small, a few over-scaled pieces can make it surprisingly comfortable. Don’t be afraid to mix modern glamour with a bit of old-style restrained elegance. Combine a luxury lounging sofa, like the ones from kingliving.com.au , with a traditional leather-shade side lamp and a period coffee table. Although upmarket hotels stick to more traditional carpets or large rugs, a bold zebra print rug can create a perfect holiday escapist feel.

Add some silhouette

Without a three-dimensional object with an interesting shape or unique silhouette, your room can easily become a sea of straight lines and circles. A tree-root or a carved stump coffee table or an eclectic side chair can act as pieces of art themselves. Apart from being a big hit these days, faux taxidermy is a great way of adding some drama without hurting a living thing. People at cozybliss.com have some unexpected and artistic ideas for you. After all, a chrome rhino head can’t go unnoticed.

While you should definitely decorate the living room according to your own personal tastes, it often carries the risk of over-cluttering. On the other hand, tricks that boutique hotels use to furnish their rooms can give you endless inspiration for achieving a neat and luxury look that can still be highly customized.

Ferguson’s prized Voido rocking chair is positioned by a living-room window that affords views of the small town and its beach. Designed in 2002 by Ron Arad for Magis, the Voido is blow-molded entirely from polyethylene.
Ferguson’s prized Voido rocking chair is positioned by a living-room window that affords views of the small town and its beach. Designed in 2002 by Ron Arad for Magis, the Voido is blow-molded entirely from polyethylene.
Livingroom
Livingroom
Livingroom
Livingroom
Both a gallery and a residence, an Antwerp home redefines the boundaries between public and private, art and interior design.
Both a gallery and a residence, an Antwerp home redefines the boundaries between public and private, art and interior design.
The living-room sofa is by the New York–based designer Stanley Jay Friedman.
The living-room sofa is by the New York–based designer Stanley Jay Friedman.