They Loved the Designs from Their Travels So Much, They Recreated Them
Whether creating a book, a painting, a textile, a movie, or an outfit, artists all draw a little inspiration from somewhere, right? As the saying goes, there’s nothing new under the sun. If it’s true for any creative endeavor, then it’s definitely true in the design and decor world. DIYers and professional designers alike draw inspiration from vignettes they’ve seen in stores, cool booths they’ve sat in at restaurants, color palettes they’ve come across in gardens, and more.
Maybe when thinking about your own space, there’s something that called out to you that made you say, “Hey, I should do that!” With summer nearly here, it’s a great time to showcase some real homes that were inspired by travel — by favorite hotels, restaurants, and boutiques homeowners have visited and loved enough to bring back to their own private spaces. Read on to see how these five homeowners took inspiration from places they’ve visited, along with the real-life results. Below, you’ll find the travel destination on the left and the real-home translation on the right.
Blue and White and Shag All Over
Painter Rebekah Skovron’s bold bedroom is an homage to a couple of cool places in New York City. Her amazing wall of art that frames her bed and punctuates the room with personality was born after she walked by an eyeglasses store in Soho called Selima Optique. “It was that ‘aha’ moment when I knew what I needed to do with my room,” she told AT. As for the boutique itself, the wall was a result of pandemic boredom. Pedro Silva, a friend of Selima Optique’s owner Selima Salaun, started to paint portraits of shoppers, passersby, and other interesting subjects he saw around the city to fill the time. Salaun loved them so much that she turned those portraits into “wallpaper,” and Rebekah did the very same in her own bedroom with craft paper and bright royal blue paint.
The unique yellow shag bed frame was inspired by Ray’s Bar, also located in NYC, with retro shag carpeting in unexpected spaces — including the ceiling — and bright yellow bathrooms. (Swipe in the gallery to see Ray’s Bar’s interior.) Skovron decided to cover her bed frame, another unexpected spot for the texture, in shag by hot-gluing faux fur to an Amazon frame. Read more about how the DIY-filled bedroom came to life here.
An Iconic Home Office
Is there an American hotel as iconic as The Beverly Hills Hotel? It’s been frequented by the likes of Marilyn Monroe, Elizabeth Taylor, and John Lennon, and its timeless, punchy design — featuring those instantly recognizable cabana stripes and palm-leaf wallpaper paired with shades of pink — is the very definition of beachy-meets-ritzy.
Photographer Kate Eckert pulled directly from the well-known hotel’s design to craft her adorable office. While a night at the hotel can run you thousands of dollars, Eckert captured the spirit on a dime. For instance, she painted on those stripes (using Valspar’s Gypsy Teal), which meant she didn’t have to pay for expensive wall-to-wall coverings, and she also incorporated tropical leaves throughout the space via a small swatch of the wallpaper and potted plants. See more photos of the smart striped office here.
A Blue Bedroom Suite Turned Sweet Blue Bedroom
Sophia Bailey’s take on The Ramble Hotel really is uncanny, from the blue wall with wainscoting to the velvet channel-tufted headboard to the thoughtful little gallery arrangement. The Ramble is a chic hotel found in Denver’s industrial-meets-artistic RiNo neighborhood with dark navy guest suites, and the space that Bailey pulled together has a similar look on purpose.
Bailey and her husband, Alex, enjoyed staying there and took the economical route in their own home by DIYing a guest bedroom that came out to $1,500. They even cut the wood for the wainscoting themselves, creating a similar grid-like pattern that’s seen behind the headboards at The Ramble. Their artwork hanging above is homemade, too. See more photos of Bailey’s space to see how the Denver hotel lives on in California.
Teal Tile Trials
Found in Riverside, California, The Salted Pig is a gastropub with some serious comfort food and a seriously stylish space to boot. Bursts of pink and sea green permeate the eatery, making for Instagram-perfect scenery. (Phone eats first, am I right?!)
It’s no wonder that Kyra Pettigrew borrowed from the design to redo her condo kitchen. Pettigrew directly emulated the restaurant’s tile with her vertically stacked teal backsplash, and she also hung similar pendant lighting in her space. She saved money on this $1,000 renovation by installing the slightly varied, handhewn-looking Equipe tiles herself. “This was the first time I ever tiled or did a backsplash, but I watched several YouTube videos, bought the required supplies, and managed to figure it out,” she told AT. Here’s to hoping her meals and memories in the space are restaurant-worthy, too. To see the full $1,000 kitchen reno, click here.
A Luxe Apartment Inspired by a Luxe Hotel
For her Brooklyn apartment, designer Jessica Cumberbatch Anderson didn’t stray far from her backyard. She drew inspiration in part from The Whitby Hotel in New York City (as well as some other hotels across the globe) and came out with a 960-square-foot space that echoes the accommodation with her own unique spin on it.
There’s a definite throughline in the wall apartment’s colors, the thoughtful seating arrangements, the elegant floral pattern, and bold drapery as well as the luxe-looking lamps and mirrors. You can especially see the overlap in the Whitby’s seating area and Cumberbatch’s Anderson dining setup shown here. Take the full tour of Cumberbatch Anderson’s apartment here.