Fresh ideas at new L.A.-area hotels
Hotel design, like decor, cycles through trends ranging from the escapist to the warm, cozy and distinctly residential. The Custom Hotel near Los Angeles International Airport takes a playful approach, including elevators that open to high-impact imagery and the lobbys woolly sheep. They have been kidnapped and found all over the hotel, a desk clerk says. But they always find their way home in the morning.
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Wood paneling has come roaring back, albeit it in updated forms. At the Custom Hotel, a dual purpose bar breakfast in the morning, cocktails at night is lined with 6-inch-wide planks of African walnut. Their varying thicknesses and lengths give the facade a patchwork effect. The contemporary Nais wire chairs designed by Alfredo Häberli have embroidered floral cushions for a touch of granny chic.
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The Customs photo-engraved concrete coffee table with the image of architect Welton Becket was created by Texas-based Intaglio Composites.
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Another graphic touch at the Custom Hotel: a Kravet dog pattern for draperies that developer Avi Brosh had printed on softer fabric and sewn into coverlets by SK Textile in L.A.
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The concept behind the KS Cow cabinet by Animastore is one that anyone could emulate by creating a large-scale image at a copy shop and cutting it to fit flat drawer fronts. The Custom Hotel bought its original for about $1,000 at Espacio Home in London. The piece sits in a conference room whose floor is covered in a vinyl grass print from Architectural Systems Inc.
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Part of the Custom Hotel lobby very well could be a modern living room, with an artists flat filing cabinet serving as a coffee table. Where a fireplace might go, designers opted for a window an eye-level view for those lounging on the sectionals.
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British architecture and design firm David Collins Studio reinvented the hotel as a sophisticated, glamorous, comfortable space, appropriate for leisure and business travelers as well as visitors staging personal and professional events in the ballroom, private dining rooms and multiple garden terraces.
It upset me to read about homes in the hills that were contemporary in the 1930s, 40s and 50s being demolished to make way for mega-mansions, Collins says. I wanted to pay homage to some of the styles that have gone before and make them relevant to today. Here, marble tiles practically glitter in the lobby. (Axel Koester / For The Times)
For this 19th century-style English settee, designer David Collins chose metallic gold hides from Edelman Leather in the Pacific Design Center. I do think it takes a sizable room to get away with gold leather, he says. (Axel Koester / For The Times)
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Another detail from London West Hollywood: moldings trimmed in crocodile-embossed leather. (Axel Koester / For The Times)
At the end of the day, as everyone in Los Angeles knows, youre only as good as your lighting, designer David Collins says. Here, a chandelier coated in plaster and gesso on the outside has been leafed in gold on the inside. The result is a warm glow that falls to the marble floor. (Axel Koester / For The Times)
Guest rooms at the London West Hollywood are a case study for loft and apartment dwellers. To maximize views and improve traffic flow, designer David Collins created a built-in marble workstation along one wall with a bench that tucks away. Behind the living area and its sectional seating lies the bed; the headboard, about 5 feet high and 9 feet wide, creates a hallway between the front door and the bathroom. The beds wooden unit has attached night tables, plus a vanity table and storage area on the back side. (Axel Koester / For The Times)
The mini-bar mirror at the London West Hollywood was overlaid with linen mesh and plate glass. The effect: a subdued reflection. (Axel Koester / For The Times)
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The Palihouses bistro tables consist of marble tops from restaurant and bar supplier Beaufurn and metal bases ordered from Central Restaurant Products. Vintage wooden chairs are from the Venice store Obsolete. Framed deer and tree drawings have been hung in a staggered salon fashion, a boho-chic reminder that everything need not be orderly to look interesting.
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Avi Brosh, the developer and driving design force behind the new Palihouse Holloway hotel in West Hollywood, walks through the lobby, a blend of Manhattan bar and Parisian bistro.
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Palihouse strives for a mix of vintage pieces and unusual creations, rather than the commercial contract furnishings typically found in hotels. Here, a marble slab and pieces of 4-by-4 form a simple coffee table. We like the use of raw, simple design elements mixed with fancy, refined ones, designer Avi Brosh says.
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A vintage clock lends the new Palihouse some instant age. Custom cement tiles, available from Creative Environments Inc. at the Pacific Design Center, were made in Mexico. I like the imperfect quality of these tiles, which gives the space an old existing feeling as opposed to a new polished feel, designer Avi Brosh says.
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One small lobby wall at Palihouse is decorated with magazine clippings and other found objects pinned to bulletin board cork, available by the roll and applied with contact cement. A scenic artist for films hand-stamped the cork with a metallic brocade pattern.
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Designer Avi Brosh lounges by the Palihouse lobbys centerpiece, a two-sided hearth where candles sit on wooden crates. The look: Its residential European living rooms meet East Coast prep school student unions, he says, but filtered through a Los Angeles lens.
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