Home editor reveals: Where does creativity for small spaces come from?
2024-08-18
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Home Frontier is a twice-weekly deep dive into emerging and returning trends, decor, and the tiniest design details we've noticed. Last week, Lydia, Domino's home editor, thought about a different kind of staycation: the kind that brings the hotel to you.
I moved into my boyfriend's studio apartment a few weeks ago, but the arrangement was always meant to be temporary. The grinding sound of the espresso machine in the kitchen currently serves as my alarm clock—need I say that? We recently began looking for a one-bedroom, and while we found a lot of places that had our most pressing needs (a bedroom door!), our days of living in a small space aren't over yet. Looking for new ideas for making the most of our slightly larger future space, I turned to a source that has never failed me: hotel rooms.
On board: Room service
Whenever I ask a designer what inspired their latest project, there’s a 50% chance they’ll mention a hotel. The old-world charm of Innis influenced a cabin near Rhinecliff, New York. Mexico City’s Ignacia Guesthouse lends a touch of richness to a home in Takoma Park, Maryland. Why? Because hotel rooms are where professionals turn their wildest dreams into reality. And for urbanites like me, their clever kitchenettes, chic closet solutions, and ultra-functional furniture are treasures in small spaces.
Here are 10 of the luxuries I'll be taking to my next destination:
- Hang a pendant light in an unexpected corner, and suddenly that space has a tangible purpose (probably a reading nook).
- In space-conscious hotel rooms, I often see sofas placed in two ways: at the foot of the bed or, as in this long, narrow suite at the Bluebird Dennisport Hotel on Cape Cod, next to the nightstand.
- Partitions are a way to separate a room into two functions without having to redecorate. Like the one at the Fifth Avenue Hotel, I would choose a screen that you can partially see through.
- A single-wall kitchen might not sound like a good idea, but one look at the red stone countertops and gray-blue walls on this Julie Hotel Suite changed my mind.
- In the double room of MUJI's hotel in Ginza, the designers squeezed two one-arm sofas next to a corner column to create the illusion of a modular sofa.
- Don’t forget rentals! Robert McKinley uses rattan-wrapped bottles atop kitchen cabinets to make them appear taller in his newest bungalow in Montauk, New York. This collection of bottles from Etsy is similar.
- If I didn’t use a medicine cabinet, I’d take a page from the Yovi Hotel and create bathroom storage with a bold picture wall shelf from Shelfology.
- My New York apartment was full of odd corners, and La Relève in Marseille taught me that every corner was an opportunity to make a closet if I had interesting fabrics and tension rods.
- One of my ideas for a home renovation far in the future: an under-stairs area that includes drawer-style storage and a desk. Thanks, Marconi Inn.
- Bed frames that double as nightstands are a hotel must-have as they give you enough space for a glass of water and a book without taking up floor space.