Hotels, with their many rooms and public spaces, are an endless source of inspiration to me, so, when I was in Amsterdam last week, I expected that I'd find something in my hotel that I could file away for future use. The Lloyd Hotel had me scrambling to take notes. My room, in particular, had an ingenious solution to a common space challenge: creating privacy without creating more rooms.
My first impression of my room was that, while it was a cool design, it wasn't very guest friendly. Yes, it was open and airy and inviting (I especially loved that, in contrast to the usual hotel room, the floors were left completely bare) but, when it came time to "heed nature's call," there wasn't any privacy. With the bathroom fixtures lined up against one wall, this room made sure that there'd be no secrets between friends.
Turns out that the oversized yellow closet that faced the "bathroom" was more than just a generous space to store my clothes and a cool way to bring in a spot of color to an otherwise neutal space. The closet doors served double-duty as room dividers. There were other rooms in the hotel that were varations on this same concept. Photo 8 shows a nautically inspired version without a separate shower stall (the floor includes a drain): in this case, the swinging divider's door-sized hole means that this divider can be left open (though I'd add a door if I was appropriating this idea for home use).
It's an unusual idea to pull out of your bag of tricks when renovoating. Try it in a garage to create a guest room when adding an extra room can be costly and space-chomping. Or use it to create a space for a small child to sleep in in a parent's bedroom; carve two bedrooms out of a large room shared by siblings; designate an office space for someone who works out of the house; give a living room an alternate life as a den and a craft room for a couple that need their own downtime spaces, or amicably divide a large room into two rooms for roommates who sometimes need their privacy.
MORE INSPIRATION FROM THE LLOYD HOTEL ON APARTMENT THERAPY:
• Life at The Lloyd Hotel
• Inspiration: Attic Bedrooms from the Lloyd Hotel
(Images 1-7: Abigail Stone; Image 8: Allard van der Hoek for The Lloyd Hotel)
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Eeps! I couldn't handle such thin walls or separators for the bathroom..I need my poo-privacy!
wow (not in a good way lol)
Um. What if one person needs to leave the hotel room while the other is using the bath"room"? And what about smells? And what's wrong with having a bathroom in an actual room?
My guess is that they were simply trying to save square footage, an actual bathroom would take up more space than this. Taking that into account, the idea is pretty ingenious. It would work better for non-bathroom applications though.
I do love the colors in that room.
Not sure how I feel about the open-air bathroom.
Okay, I do. Don't like it.
I could see how this would work for someone who lived alone. Personally, I closed my door way more often than not even when living by myself, haha.
what if someone accidentally entered your room while you were using it? we've all had staff enter without knocking or another guest key into our room by mistake. this is no way to be caught out.
and what about inevitable bouts of traveller's stomache?
this is not fair to anyone.
I have to agree. Maybe if it were at the back of the space. But right in front? Welcome to my funky hotel room...
I stayed in a "hip" hotel in Texas with a bathroom sort of like the one in the last picture. The walls didn't go all the way up to the ceiling! It was ridiculous. No privacy at all. The photos on the website didn't show the stall like bathroom or I never would have stayed there.
No thanks
Better not lose that "do not disturb" sign...
I stayed here in Amsterdam in 2009, what is super interesting about this hotel (and probably dictates its room design...) is that it used to be a prison! During WWII it was first used as a prison operated by Nazi occupiers, then ironically after WWII those same Nazi's were the prisoners. After that, it was used as an asylum and a bunch of other odd things. The 1 star rooms on the top floor definitely retain some of that cell-like charm. Overall though, it's a pretty neat place to stay, if you get a room with a different bathroom situation maybe.
When I was in China many of my rooms had walls that pivot. Different, but I really liked it. Some were wood some where frosted glass, it was beautiful.
What makes me most uncomfortable about the room is the flooring -- that looks like real maple from where I sit, not some sort of faux or engineered flooring. Real maple and water will look awful after a few years -- if that is indeed solid wood.
We stayed in a very elegant 5-star hotel in Belgium, a converted monastery, and it had a bathroom with no door. It took some getting used to, but it worked. We were in the attic, and with the beams and such it was difficult to carve out a bathroom.
It's rooms like this that make me realize that Japan and the US really do have the upper hand in the world of indoor plumbing. There's always something awkward going on in European bathrooms. I don't even want to show my husband this because it will likely trigger a panic attack.
I love it. I never close the door anyway, so this works for me...
We love staying at the Lloyd Hotel when we're in Amsterdam! Love their "Cultural Embassy" concept and the open dining area with the reading loft waaay up the stairs, too.
@ BKHOMEBODY
I totally disagree with you, the one thing I cannot understand is why in American public bathrooms theres ALWAYS little gaps between cubicles and cubicle doors. Always. I always feel like people can see in.
@bkhomebody
Please do tell about the awkward things going on in European bathrooms. I've been there a bunch of times and never noticed anything particularly weird (actually, out of all the airports I have been to, the bathrooms in Frankfurt/Germany at the nicest).
I'm with @DESIGNGRATISLONDON - those gaps between the cubicles and the doors are just as weird, so I wouldn't say that the US has superior bathroom design skills. And what's with the automatic faucets that always just provide a trickle of water with the big sign above it telling you about the importance of washing your hands to combat the flu?
I'm guessing @bkhomebody was referring to bathrooms in homes and hotels where it is an older building and the plumbing had to be retrofitted into the existing space; not in public spaces. I do prefer the European public bathroom with an actual door to the cubicles in the States. I'm constantly trying to hang my bag or coat in such a way as to block the gap.