How to bring hotel luxury into your home

“I usually stay in a suite in Claridges,” announced one of our clients recently, “and I want my property to be even better than that.” And he’s far from alone. The boom in five/six-star branded residence schemes globally is testament to the appetite of ultra-high-net-worth buyers for a hotel-style experience in the comfort of their own home. But there is another type of hotel-style living that is even more exclusive than this – and infinitely more personal. 

Many of our clients have their own staff who already know their every need – so the service aspect is taken care of. For them, the ultimate in luxury is to own an exquisitely-designed property that comes with all those touches that they love about staying in the world’s best hotels, but which is available only to them. There’s no sharing required and no other property exactly like it. 

The experience should be so personalised that staying in a hotel – no matter how luxurious – should feel like a downgrade. And the bedroom is the obvious place to start. 

An over-sized bed is a must, along with a super-sized headboard that takes up much of the wall behind it, perhaps with winged sides for a cocooning feel, extra-padded and upholstered in a beautiful, tactile fabric. A bench at the end of the bed is a much-requested feature now too. You may not need to place your suitcase there, but it’s the perfect spot to put on one’s shoes. These are all features we include in most of our projects, including an apartment we designed for a client in Kensington Gardens which needed a luxurious revamp since this scheme was built nearly a decade ago. The full-height headboard, complimented by an antique mirror and silk wallpaper, provided a dramatic sense of grandeur and also of an inviting sanctuary.

To add to the sense of hotel-like quality, the bedding will be made from the finest Egyptian cotton and other natural materials, and most likely monogrammed. And now that we are all tracking the quality of our sleep, clients like to go large on the mattress. At £250,000, a Queensize Vividus from Hästens – fans include the Swedish royal family and the rapper Drake, who has one in his $100m home – is one of the most expensive available, partly because it takes up to 200 hours for a team of artisans to craft by hand, but it also comes down to rarity value, with only a few hundred made each year. With its associations of quintessential Englishness and luxury – though costing a fraction, at around £15,000-£20,000, Savoir’s Savoy No. 2 may appeal to other clients with fond memories of the London hotel. 

It’s often the small hotel-style touches that have the greatest impact at home – the perfect pillows and duvets to suit the client’s tastes, wall-mounted reading lights beside the bed and a refreshingly clutter-free space – as that can often be what separates our experience of a hotel to our daily surroundings at home. 

The bathrooms in luxury residences also lend themselves to being designed as hotel-like sanctuaries – such as this marbled vision below that we designed for a penthouse in Hyde Park Gate in central London – and the wellness revolution is seeing people want to incorporate the best and latest innovations in their homes, including multi-sensory showers, cold plunge pools and bespoke sauna pods. You can even buy a steam room now that converts into a full-depth foam bath at the touch of a button. 

In the reception room, perfect symmetry inspires an instinctively relaxing feel that clients are used to in the most sumptuous hotel suites – something that can be seen in all of our projects, including this residence for a private client in Mayfair’s super-prime Grosvenor Square. 

We often like to use a large, bespoke rug as a centrepiece feature that both brings together the other pieces of furniture and is a work of art in its own right. A reading nook with sultry lighting, richly-lined bookshelves and an inviting wingback chair can inspire hotel-like relaxation, and a bespoke cocktail bar or drinks cart is a guaranteed eye-catcher and conversation starter that spells fun, friends and fine taste. In the kitchen, a curved restaurant-style leather banquette is a great way to turn a corner into a sociable hub for chatting and dining. 

As in the world’s best hotels, it’s a way of combining classic design with all the accoutrements needed for modern luxury living. Bringing hotel-style living into your home is a way to inject some playfulness into the design, and the highest level of personalisation. 

As for that client, he agrees that his new London home makes even staying in Claridges feel like second best these days.