“Find me a chic hotel in Paris.”  That was my directive from a good client who was jetting off on a mission to see two pieces of art I knew would be perfect for her home.  Paris is any art lovers mecca with museums and galleries filled with majestic works of the past and yet this is a city at the heart of contemporary art as well.  And is there really a more magical place than Paris in the spring?  Everyone has their favorite hotels in the city, but I suggested my new favorite little bijoux: Le Royal Monceau, a Raffles hotel tucked away just around the corner from the Arc de Triomphe off the Champs-Elysees.  The hotel is also perfect for encouraging hotel inspired rooms at home.

Completely renovated by Philippe Starck in 2010, Le Royal Monceau caters to a discerning crowd who knows their Monet from their Manet.  This is a hotel with its own art bookstore and gallery, Art District, which has an exceptional exhibition schedule showing great international talent.  The hotel also has an art concierge who will fill you in on all the latest art exhibits, concerts and events taking place in the capital – you can follow the concierge’s musings at Art for Breakfast to see what’s making news in the Paris art scene.  But let us get back to the fun interiors!

One great decor idea to take back home for your own hotel inspired rooms, is the use of mirrors of all shapes an sizes that are found throughout the hotel and the marvelous effects they can have on transforming an ordinary space into something quite extraordinary.  For example, the grand hotel stairway is like a funhouse on steroids: just how many chandeliers are there in that space?  By paneling the walls in floor to ceiling mirrors, Starck has dramatically opened the space and created a visual stunner where not only the chandeliers are reflected but also the bold graphic carpeting creates stunning, ever changing patterns on the mirrored walls.  You could have a similar effect in your own home by mirroring the walls of a long hallway and hanging it with chandeliers – the mirrors will play off one another creating a hallway that extends to infinity.

A second thing to take away for your own hotel inspired rooms is that incorporating chandeliers is a good thing and that they are not automatically fussy or antiquated. They can be very cool and hip.

A third and last element to take away form The Royal Monceau for your own hotel inspired rooms is that oversized components are a very stylish.  Look at the huge oversize tufted headboard in the suite below or the oversized pendant in the comfy nook in the dining room above.  Oversized elements help ground a space and help add drama to small rooms. Clients are always initially concerned when I propose an oversized element for their interiors but once installed, not once have I had to make a change.  They always LOVE it.

So how did it go with my client’s visit?  She loved the Clarin’s spa and the hotel’s two Michelin starred restaurants and her husband was taken with the Club Vinales cigar lounge and loved that the hotel is planning to show the World Cup football matches live in their comfortable screening room – I just hope the idea of hotel inspired rooms for my client will not include a crazy and new 84 inch TV!!!

richard rabel
principal
richard rabel: interiors + art
interior design and art advising
new york city

image credits: © Philippe Garcia/LaSocieteAnonyme and The Royal Monceau, Paris.