Episode 3 - Hotels

Two Briefs

This week we had to prepare two briefs and prepare to install only one of them. Also note that there was a bank holiday weekend, so this week was a day shorter, adding to the drama of sourcing for a project on an already tight deadline and budget. 

Brief 1: Refined, Elegant designs that evoke a sense of Subtle Glamour and Understated Luxury

Keywords:

• Refined elegance
• Subtle glamour
• Classic interiors
• Graceful decor

Brief 2: Decadent Maximalist designs that evoke a sense of Drama and Opulence

Keywords:

• Decadent and opulent
• Maximalist
• Striking interiors
• Contemporary chintz

 
Key notes:

• If you know my personal taste, you would know that the first brief is more in line with my own aesthetic, and I was honestly petrified of getting the maximalist brief as I know that maximalis interiors take a lot of time to edit down multiple design elements and patterns and colours. Especially when considering having to add a contemporary chinz element! Nonetheless this was the brief I was allocated, so I wanted to try and rise to the occasion. 
  
• Each room must include a tea & coffee station, a dressing table for getting ready & a TV.
  
• FR treated fabrics and black out linings on curtains are a requirement.
  
• £2000 budget 
• The initial set of measurements and details we were sent about the rooms were inadequate and we had to wait till mid week to get more details - regardless we had to get designing. The room I was allocated was long and narrow, and to add insult to injury had weird bathroom pod in the corner, and a sink in the room. 

Design Development

My biggest bug bear with the room was the void above the bathroom pod - it looked so ill considered and made the room feel very boxed in. We couldn't remove this unfortunately and also I felt there was too much furniture in the room with a very bulky wardrobe and an odd coffee table.  So my approach to this space (as with every space) is to find the appropriate functional solutions for the design dilemmas - i.e. the void above the ensuite and to reduce the quantity of furniture in the space. 

I planned to enclose that space to make it seem more purposeful and create an arch that lead the eye from the bedroom space to the dressing room space towards the window. 

My second plan was to create an open wardrobe as a closed wardrobe was not necessary, but to have some more storage within the dressing table.  I was going to suspend the corner of this to the ceiling and make use of the blocked off dorway that adjoined my room with Barbara's next door. 

I also hate televisions in bedrooms - I don't believe they help achieve a restful sleep, but as we were told we had to include them in the scheme, I opted to wall mount the one supplied, and have a screen in the room that could help hide it, but also close off the dressing area of the room so that when one is getting dressed they will have some privacy from the rest of the room. 

I sourced an upholstered screen that needed recovering and a beautiful old gramophone table to use as the coffee and tea station. Here is a photo of these pieces hanging out in my dining room waiting to go down to sussex. 

Working on a maximalist scheme that is decadent and opulent, which is striking and with elements of contemporary chinz on a budget is really hard! I would ideally have loved to source fabrics, lighting and patterns from brands such as House of Hackney, Rothschild and Bickers, Degournay, Mind-the-Gap etc... Which is what my initial mood board was about. Here are some more of the inspiration spaces and brands which inspired elements of my design.​

This is my mood board that I presented to my cohort of designers.

Due to the brief specifying contemporary chintz, and us not having a client to discuss it with, I felt obliged to include some chinz element. So I went for an organic dark patterned wallpaper on the upper part of the room and a textured painted anaglypta wallpaper on the bottom half. I also chose to use a chinoiserie wallpaper on the headboard (as we couldn't afford the same type of fabric).

Installation

Day1
I had a very slow start on day 1. I had to buy and bring with me the materials I thought the joiner would need to use and on day 1 he wasn't sure how to build the arch from what I had bought. I would never usually do this. In real design projects I would have a feasibility meeting with the joiner on site prior to any work is agreed, discuss the vision and entrust the building team to supply and install to my specification. I am not a joiner, so cannot possibly know the full details of the joiners requirements. We also are not allowed to leave the site to re-source during filming (another little anomaly of filming). They did have a runner that could go out and buy things that we needed, despite my budget being already over stretched, I did ask for something on day 1, and only got it 20mins prior to the end of our time - not very helpful.

At the end of day 1, we had painted the ceiling, wallpapered the lower half of the rooms, built part of the headboard and had the chandelier hung. 

End of day 1

Day 2
A huge amount of work was required to be completed as you can see from the above photo. I was busy sewing the curtains (most of the other designers had pre-sewn all of these pre-arrival). Our trades were frequently interrupted for filming reasons too which really slows down momentum of the pace. By the end of day two, we had the lower half of the room wallpapered and painted, new carpet fitted, headboard wallpapered. As you can see the rest of the boxing off still had not yet been completed.  Luckily I had finished the curtains, all soft furnishings and reupholstered the bed bases. 

On the episode they tell you that the install finises on day 2, but there is also two hours the next day that allows you to finish the space - which you can imagine was a manic rush for me and my trades. Not only that, but we also had less trades that we had to share amongst the other designers which caused a lot of friction.

The reveal

The last few hours of installation were mad. Here is what it looked like. 

I'd love to hear what you think... Also tell me what other blog posts to do you want to see? Do you want to see my designs for the space if there wasn't a tight budget or timeline? Do you want to see next weeks briefs?