We travel a lot for work, and one of our favorite elements of travel is checking out hotel room design. The best hotel rooms provide a tranquil oasis that helps ease the pain of air travel today; our room at the Hilton Athens was so comfortable we took pictures to help us analyze how to translate that feeling to our everyday rooms...
Discounting the balcony with the view of the Acropolis (which would obviously help make any room look better), we decided the best elements of this room are the clean neutral palette, the warm wood tones, and light airy feeling of the furniture. We love the look of the upholstered headboard on the paneled wood wall, and the crisp white bedding makes the bed look so inviting. The delicate metal legs of the bed, nightstand, desk and chaise help to visually lift the furniture, giving the room the light airy look we so admire.
Though the chaise was a surprisingly comfortable spot to lounge and read, we do think a piece with some color would have been a nice touch in this space. The wall of glass behind the chaise provided necessary privacy while allowing a surprising amount of natural light to reach the bathroom. Replace the curtain on the bathroom wall, add a nice carpet anchored under the chaise and a bookshelf or two, and you could have a great design for a studio apartment.
© 2009 Apartment Therapy
Wow- great looking hotel room. I wouldn't mind a bedroom that had a similar feeling. I probably would not have noticed (and definitely would not have remembered) the metal legs on everything as a feature; maybe taking pictures of my hotel rooms for review isn't such a bad idea!
view mcq's profile
Do you know where I can find DIY details on how to build that horizontal wood paneled wall/headboard? I'd prefer not to nail plank by plank to the wall- especially when the look in the picture is so seamless. Also, does that look like real or plywood?
Any help would be appreciated.
view canutse's profile
That wall behind the bed really makes me want to try my evil plan to use laminate flooring on a wall..
view neutopian's profile
I don't travel for my job, but it would be nice to see photos of beautifully designed hotels rooms to offer inspiration for those of us who are less mobile in our jobs.
view Kenneth's profile
Oh, come one Colleen! You have to post some pics of the bathroom, too! If I recall correctly, the baths in that hotel were pretty spiffy, with about a Parthenon's worth of marble in a relatively compact space. Made me think of AT, in fact. They had both a (marble-lined) tub and a shower stall with two shower heads and a translucent window to the room (visible above the sofa/chaise in the pic above).
view pilgrim's profile
@neutopian
I've always had the same ambition with using laminate flooring. I think it would be a great DIY project.
view cobberman's profile