4 Flooring Products That Add Visual Intrigue Underfoot

From a high-contrast wool rug to a collection of wall-to-wall carpets inspired by 1930’s functionalism, these flooring products by renowned designers add bursts of color and flair to any room.

Drape Any Room With These Standout Flooring Options

Rowena by Emily Henderson for Rugs USA

The first-ever product collection by the interior designer, stylist, and influencer is intended to be “simple but special,” as evinced by her high-contrast wool rug, grooved with grid lines, that is as versatile as a pair of blue jeans. 

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She LB1 by Laura Bilde and Linnea Ek Blaehr for Ege Carpets

Part of a collection of wall-to-wall carpets of new wool spun in the manufacturer’s own mill, this dotty delight inspired by the palettes of 1930’s functionalism includes a colorway of irregular burgundy blobs stepped and repeated on a pale-blue ground.

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Roam | Painted Desert by Ashley Olson of Shaw Contract

The carpet company’s design director for the workplace and hospitality studio joined forces with the in-house StudioOne team, who typically do custom pieces, on a Southwest-tinged range of 15 patterns in myriad constructions. 

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Cassata by Deirdre Dyson of Deirdre Dyson

Soft graduating washes akin to a watercolor painting flow across the GoodWeave-certified floor covering rendered by the artist and trained soprano of Tibetan wool and silk in hues native to its namesake, a sweet Sicilian sponge cake. 

Explore Ozwald Boateng’s Foray Into Furnishings With Poltrona Frau

Born in London to Ghanaian parents, tailor and menswear designer Ozwald Boateng has had a storied career. He’s designed costumes for Hollywood, led Givenchy Homme, and brought the joyousness of African clothing to the runway. This fall, he made his first official foray into furnishings, launching a new collection with Poltrona Frau. His swirling signature print, Tribal, a reinterpretation of traditional African cloth, now dresses the maker’s classic Vanity Fair armchair and Chester armchair and sofas. The former gets a digital print on bold velvet upholstery. For Chester, the manufacturer developed a hot embossing technique to manually apply the Tribal pattern to Nubuck leather, which creates a textural, three-dimensional effect. Add matching cushions, rugs, and wallpaper to round out the exuberant look.

UniFor’s Ethereal Furniture Range Transforms Living Spaces

Interior Design Hall of Famer Debra Lehman Smith and her Washington and New York–based firm, LSM, are renowned for exacting, elemental, and art gallery–esque corporate environs for the Fortune 500 set. The firm’s lifeblood, she explains, is deep, decades-long relationships with likeminded clients, from Bloomberg to Gulfstream, as well as artists and manufacturing partners. Among her frequent teammates is Molteni Group’s UniFor, with whom she’s worked for 20-odd years on furniture designs that, courtesy of “the company’s engineering expertise and craftsmanship,” rise to the status of “all-inclusive environments,” Lehman Smith notes. Building on that relationship, LSM will debut at Salone del Mobile Milano in April an ongoing series, Andromeda, its name a nod to a land art monument in Sicily by shepherd-turned-sculptor Lorenzo Reina (also the location in which the pieces were photographed). Designed with firm director Mark Alan Andre, the range encompasses a looks-good-from-all-angles curved or linear seating unit, a conference table, side table with round or oval top, and a “bare-minimal” credenza. The palette is succinct but ultra-refined—leather upholstery; bevel-edged tabletops in Italian travertine, terra-cotta, and concrete-like ceramic—with the commonality being polished-aluminum bases that reflect their surroundings, providing an ethereal, floating feel and a chameleon-like quality: both transformed by and transforming their environment. unifor.it/en

Get Tactile With This Sturdy and Natural Textile Line

Venetian fabric house Rubelli Group shook things up this fall with the appointment of Formfantasma’s Simone Farresin and Andrea Trimarchi as its new creative directors. The Milan- and Rotterdam-based design studio was tasked with bringing a contemporary outlook to the 135-year-old company. First up: the experimental atelier Kieffer. Its tactile new collection, Untitled, focuses on raw materials and weaving techniques that highlight imperfections. The natural fibers include hemp and paper—a departure for Rubelli, which is known for shimmering silks and rich fabrics. Among the standouts are Feral, a fluffy blend of mohair, cotton, and acrylic that comes solid or striped; sturdy linen Nachi; wool-cotton Masavi; and Cria, a commercial-grade 100 percent alpaca pile. Jute-acrylic Dune, wool-cotton Ryder, Chanel-esque cotton-blend Tweed Couleurs, and cotton-linens Reloaded and Linéaire are similarly nuanced, and, like all Kieffer textiles, are made near Lake Como. kieffertextiles.com 

7 Distinct Bathroom Accents That Meld Function and Form

Usher character into the bathroom through color, shape, and finish with this roundup of bath products.

Ethereal Mosaics and Sleek Fixtures Abound

Opal Mosaic Tiles by Porcelanosa

Opal Blue glossy glass-mosaic wall tiles by Porcelanosa. porcelanosa.com

Chrome Lavatory Faucet by Graff

Davide Oppizzi’s Ametis polished-chrome wall-mount lavatory faucet by Graff. graff-designs.com

Compass Faucet Knob by Sherle Wagner International

Marissa Geoffroy’s Compass faucet knob with lapis lazuli insert by Sherle Wagner International. sherlewagner.com

Starburst Stainless-Steel Sink By Mila International

Starburst flush-mount stainless-steel sink in Graphite by Mila International. mila-international.com

Contour Vanity Mirror by Robert

Contour stainless-steel vanity mirror in aged-brass finish by Robern. robern.com

O-XY Faucet Mixers by Fantini

Marco Williams Fagioli’s O-XY faucet mixers with textured handles by Fantini. fantini.it

Caged Wet Wall Sconces + Towel Rail by Buster + Punch

Caged Wet matte-black stainless-steel and glass wall sconce with brass back panel and cast-brass Towel Rail, both by Buster + Punch. busterandpunch.com

Innovation Thrives in This Postpandemic Workplace

Clive Wilkinson towers at the pinnacle of workplace stars. Landmark offices for the likes of TBWA\Chiat\Day, Macquarie Group, and Microsoft cap the Interior Design Hall of Famer’s voluminous portfolio. A master of the genre, he also counts residential and institutional among his other specialties. But hospitality? Not so much. That may change with a recent project that brings a hospitality influence to bear on the workplace: interiors for Intuit’s new headquarters. 

Located on the financial-software company’s Mountain View, California, campus, the project was many years in the making. It began in 2011, when Clive Wilkinson Architects and WRNS Studio were commissioned to collaborate on a pair of new-builds located on a high-profile corner of the property, visible from the adjacent freeway. The first building was completed in 2016. The second, a glassy four-story, 178,600-square-foot structure with a conjoined single-level cafeteria/town-hall pavilion, was slated to break ground in 2020. “We designed it to be low and loftlike, light and airy,” WRNS partner Brian Milman, who oversaw site planning for the 44-acre campus, says of the LEED Platinum–certified building. “It was conceived as a habitat tied to the ground.” 

Designing a LEED Platinum-Certified Building for Intuit

Midway through permitting the project, COVID happened. Although construction commenced and progressed without pause, the client, forecasting a need for return-to-office enticements, pushed the design team to deep-dive into potential postpandemic scenarios. “Intuit flagged us to pivot and rethink the workplace of the future,” Wilkinson summarizes. Despite uncertainty clouding RTO and how paradigms and policies would evolve, he and associate principal Caroline Morris reasoned that many precepts endemic to hospitality would grow increasingly relevant for the workplace—ideas like experiential spaces, a sense of discovery, zones for gathering and community, indeterminate areas open to whatever occupants want, and places, frankly, for people to be happy. They set about tweaking the initial plans to offer more communal environments and opted for daring choices in color and furnishings. “The big ask was to be bold and playful,” Morris recalls. 

That certainly describes the vibe upon entry. At the ground-level reception, staff and visitors encounter a 20-foot-long desk backgrounded by a powder-coated steel logo wall in Intuit’s signature cobalt. Beyond, a sunshiny-yellow lounge enclosure with a pitched roof, nicknamed the little house, beckons in service of meetings and confabs. Running alongside it, a flight of oak-clad stairs, edged with planters for biophilia, leads to the main conference center (the largest on campus) as well as the scheme’s major design move: a three-story, 40-foot-high atrium. The bright volume is lit from above by clerestories set within a series of angled precast-concrete beams, each 60 feet long and weighing 40 tons. Jutting into the atrium are pods—some angular, some rectilinear, some brightly colored. Long part of Wilkinson’s playbook, these cantilevered, glass-fronted aeries are in fact meeting rooms with a view. 

Prioritizing Flexibility in a Workplace Designed for Hybrid Teams

The sprawling plaza at the atrium’s base channels hospitality via comfy lounge seating in citrus hues by Alfredo Häberli, Ichiro Iwasaki, and Hella Jongerius. There’s also an oak communal table surrounded by an eclectic mix of David Geckeler and Jean Prouvé chairs and a barista station, of course. A perforated-steel statement stair—identical to one in the first building—winds up along the atrium’s south side, connecting the three floors. “Progression through the space is spiral and episodic in order to experience delightful moments,” Milman notes. Various amenities sprinkled throughout the large floor plates further encourage movement and mingling. 

Workspaces are what changed the most from prepandemic plans. Intuit’s hybrid two-days-in policy sparked a need for flexibility and options. Out went benching and dedicated desks; instead, the 1,000 employees are grouped into neighborhoods with unassigned workstations adjoined by stylish lounge areas for collaboration. Other features added during mid-pandemic replanning were two quiet zones per floor and a secondary conference hub, on floor three. The latter is fronted by a multiuse prefunction zone that’s certainly more hotel lobby than corporate holding pen. 

Recent parlance is big on equity and choice. “Introverts can opt for seating away from others,” Wilkinson notes, “and people can take a break with games or in designated reflection rooms.” Or they can escape to one of a trio of libraries, stacked on the top three floors, where a hushed atmosphere prevails. 

It all adds up to an evolution of the activity-based work Wilkinson’s firm has long espoused. “No one knew what the end result would be; it was an optimistic and ambitious endeavor on our client’s side,” he says—yet the new HQ is “the type of environment we’ve been promoting for years, offering multiple settings that give employees some say in how they work.” Morris chimes in: “Work is complex, but people are complex.” Confirmation that the teams got it right? Another pivot is pending to bring the interiors of the first building up to the newcomer’s standards. 

Walk Through the Intuit HQ in Mountain View, California

CLIVE WILKINSON ARCHITECTS: SASHA SHUMYATSKY; BEN KALENIK; PERKIN MAK; SARA NELSON; JUAN FEBRES-CORDERO; BEN HOWELL; JUAN GUARDADO. 

WRNS STUDIO: BRYAN SHILES; SAM NUNES; PAULINE SOUZA; MOSES VAUGHAN; RODNEY LEACH; BRIAN MULDER; ASHISH KULKARNI; ERIN BUTLER; GEORGE RUIZ; MEGHAN LUSCOMBE; ROSS FERRARI; DARYL TOY; SIVAN HECHT; NATHAN HYMAN. 

STUDIO FIVE DESIGN: LANDSCAPE ARCHITECT. 

CREATIVE PLANT DESIGN: INTERIOR LANDSCAPING. 

EGG OFFICE: CUSTOM GRAPHICS/BRANDING. 

REG: LIGHTING CONSULTANT. 

ARTLIFTING: ART CONSULTANT. 

HOLMES STRUCTURES: STRUCTURAL ENGINEER. 

INTERFACE ENGINEERING: MEP. 

BKF: CIVIL ENGINEER. 

NORTHWESTERN DESIGN: MILLWORK. 

RUDOLPH AND SLETTEN: GENERAL CONTRACTOR. 

FROM FRONT CAESARSTONE: COUNTERTOPS (ATRIUM, RECEPTION). 

ANDREU WORLD: SECTIONALS (ATRIUM), ROUND SIDE TABLES (ATRIUM, RECEPTION), COMMUNAL TABLE (HUB). 

ARPER: OTTOMANS (ATRIUM). 

VITRA: LOUNGE CHAIRS, STANDARD CHAIRS (ATRIUM). 

MUUTO: STOOLS, NERD CHAIRS (ATRIUM), SECTIONAL, HIGH-BACK CHAIRS (LIBRARY), BLUE CHAIR (HUB). 

PENTALQUARTZ: DESK SOLID SURFACING (RECEPTION). 

VICCARBE: OTTOMANS (RECEPTION, LIBRARY). 

STYLEX: SECTIONALS (RECEPTION, OFFICE AREA). 

GEIGER: LOUNGE CHAIRS (LITTLE HOUSE). 

THE RUG COMPANY: RUG. 

NORMANN COPENHAGEN: COFFEE TABLES (LITTLE HOUSE, HUB). 

ASPLUND: COFFEE TABLE (LIBRARY). 

JB3D: MURAL FABRICATION (CAFETERIA). 

FORTH+BACK: GRAPHIC. 

CERTAINTEED: CEILING BAFFLES. 

FSORB: CEILING PANELS. 

WCI: TABLES. 

HOWE: CHAIRS. 

HAY: WOOD CHAIRS (HUB). 

MILLIKEN: CARPET. 

DAVIS: SOFA. 

THROUGHOUT ARMSTRONG WORLD INDUSTRIES; NORTON INDUSTRIES: CEILING GRILLES. 

ARCHITECTURAL GLASS & ALUMINUM: CURTAIN WALL, ALUMINUM FINS. 

VIRACON: ARCHITECTURAL GLASS. 

WALTERS & WOLF: PRECAST-CONCRETE WALLS. 

CEMEX: CAST-IN-PLACE CONCRETE. 

SHINNOKI: PANELING. 

NORTHERN WIDE PLANK: WOOD FLOORING. 

MAHARAM: ACOUSTIC PANELS, RUGS. 

BENTLEY MILLS: CARPET TILE. 

DUNN-EDWARDS CORPORATION: PAINT. 

PLANTERS UNLIMITED: PLANTERS. 

JLL; KBM HOGUE: FURNITURE SUPPLIERS. 

6 Restaurants and Bars That Inspire Appetites and Awe

Across the Americas, from Canada to Argentina, a fresh crop of restaurants and bars is serving up truly innovative F&B design.

Feast on Design at These Stunning Restaurants, From Canada To Argentina

Monman Coffee House by Arkylab

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The choice of materials and construc­tion methods was crucial in minimizing the ecological footprint of this ground­-up build—a 5,275­-square­-foot, two ­level café in Aguascalientes, Mexico—while delivering big aesthetic dividends. A wall of compacted earth excavated on­site encloses the lot, forming an enclave comprising a coffee bar, kitchen, seating area, and perimeter garden; a wood­-clad steel frame covers the mezzanine above, creating another plant­-filled seating area with a semi­-enclosed terrace—the perfect spot to savor the café del día.

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Yingtao by Glen & Company

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It’s all in this intimate, 45 ­seat Chinese restaurant’s moniker, which not only means cherry in Mandarin but is also the name of the proprietor’s grandmother, whose mosaic portrait graces one wall. The fruit lends its red hue—a highly auspicious color in Chinese culture—to accents throughout the 1,800-square­-foot space in New York, which is mostly finished in glossy black that, paradoxically, feels light and bright, with gold elements adding further animation. Cherry trees also appear etched onto mirrors, but patrons can enjoy real flora in the charming rear garden. 

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Cocody by Nina Magon Studio/Winn Wittman Architecture

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The French ­inspired cuisine in the 6,600­-square­-foot, 72­-table restaurant in Houston gets a French ­inspired setting—one evoking the Hôtel Plaza Athénée in Paris, specifically, down to an outdoor dining patio—that features a gold­ and ­pink palette overlaid with polished­ metal elements, including mirrored champagne brass–accented arches and a golden horseshoe-­shape bar. Other curved surfaces, finished in Venetian plaster and backlit marble, abound, while more than 5,000 concealed light sources create a glamorous ambience. In the lounge, custom wallpaper offers a cheekily eroticized depiction of another Parisian grande dame: the Mona Lisa. 

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Wayland Brewing Company by Abstract Architecture/West End Interiors

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Led by Wayland owner Caryn Dujanovich, the teams created a buzzy new beer ­lovers destination by renovating two structures, including an historic 1806 house, and adding a new building—20,000 square feet in total—that encompass a brewery, tap room and restaurant, an event hall, shop, beer garden, and bocce court. The F&B facilities occupy a vast greenhouse­ inspired space in Orchard Park, New York, with a decidedly Nordic aesthetic that boasts a ton of natural light, raw cedar–clad ceilings, custom white­ oak furniture, and a long bar clad in exuberant, jade­ green tile, just like the restroom walls. 

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Moretti Gin Bar by Grizzo Studio

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The first watering hole for a micro-­distillery gin brand in Buenos Aires, Argentina, the 320­square­ foot sliver of a corner bar serves the liquor on tap. The burnished ­copper stills essential to the distillation process provided design cues, the metal’s hue appearing on the bar front and in the pigmented­ resin countertop embedded with scrap copper shavings. Polished­ steel elements behind the bar suggest the lab-like conditions gin is made under, while slabs of rough white concrete, also flecked with copper shav­ings, offer textural variety, like a well-balanced cocktail.

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Lee Restaurant by Best Gable Design/Futurestudio

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To celebrate its 20th anniversary, the acclaimed Toronto eatery relocated to a 6,000 ­square ­foot site in the historic Waterworks building. The design firms, which included chef­ owner Susur Lee’s wife Brenda Bent’s studio, turned a bare concrete box into a warm 300­seat dining room by installing walnut paneling and millwork, wrapping large structural columns in sisal carpeting, commissioning a sculptural host station from artist Echo Electra, and hanging an array of velvet­ patchwork banners, including an enormous one that spans the room to separate space for private events. 

Inside a Historic Palace Turned Boutique Hotel in Italy

At times, the research process for Giuliano Andrea dell’Uva’s latest hotel project in Orvieto, Italy, might have felt more like an archaeological expedition. Local hotelier Raffaele Tysserand commissioned the Naples-based founder of his namesake firm to renovate and transform a 15th-century palace in the small Umbrian town into a history-inspired boutique hotel. To get a feel for the place and its past, architect and client took to the surrounding streets. 

“We ventured almost stealthily into old noble buildings, discovering within them elegant gardens,” recalls dell’Uva. “When I saw the hotel building for the first time I was fascinated. It was a challenge that suited my nature.” The location is quite incredible as well: adjacent to the bluff-top city’s 14th-century Duomo di Orvieto, its architecture supporting an intricate facade of narrow, horizontal bands in alternating white travertine and black basalt. These defining stripes served as the inspirational basis for dell’Uva’s playful yet sensitive concept for the newly inaugurated hospitality property, the nine-key Palazzo Petrvs. 

Designers Look to the Past to Create a Timeless Hotel

The former private home, once owned by and named for the wealthy notary Petrvs Facienus, had long been abandoned. However, when dell’Uva began to peel back its prior 19th-century renovations, the three-story, 16,000-square-foot interiors revealed original frescos and Renaissance-era painted wood ceilings. Tysserand requested a place that would “offer guests the feeling of a contemporary grand tour experience”—luxurious, comfortable, well-appointed spaces that “didn’t alter the original context,” dell’Uva notes, so he returned its rooms to their original proportions and called in a team of artisans to restore the historic detailing. Where frescoes were not discovered, the architect plastered the walls in a natural clay finish and laid terra-cotta floors, both allusions to the city’s Etruscan heritage and continued artisan culture. The natural color of these materials provides a soft, warm palette off which the custom and vintage Italian and Nordic furnishings can riff. 

Thus, a studied exercise in contrast drives the environment. At the center of the large lobby, the original, massive stone fireplace is a visual cue for dell’Uva’s blocky, double-sided sofa, upholstered in a forest green fabric and color-matched by a pair of fringed Hans-Agne Jakobsson table lamps from 1950 that perch atop its frame. Dynamically contemporary brass-and-glass sconces flank the hearth. In one corner is a purpose-built dining table with a black-and-white striped base and Hans Wegner seating; in another is a Marco Zanuso armchair and a Carlo Scarpa console, both vintage. 

How Palazzo Petrvs’s Interiors Reference a Local Landmark

Most of the guest rooms also have a striped detail, if not a focal point, that ties the interiors back to the cathedral—so close by that it is visible through some of the hotel windows. In one room, there’s an en-suite bathtub constructed of bands of terra-cotta painted black and white. It sits under a decoratively painted coffered ceiling that dates from 1500. In another, a custom bed features a headboard and skirt made with striped linen. In yet another, as well as in the standout stair that leads to the large suite located in the property’s ancient tower, the entire floor sports the pattern, laid in locally handmade terra-cotta tiles. “The architecture of the duomo goes beyond the stylistic elements imposed by Italian Gothic, with dichromatic horizontal lines that—rather than soaring—convey a sense of balance and unexpected contemporaneity,” dell’Uva explains. “I wanted to bring the same to the project.” 

The only non-striped space is Coro, the hotel restaurant, which is built inside the historic shell of a former church that adjoins the main building. “From my perspective, an old, deconsecrated church needs simple, solemn, and sophisticated furnishings,” continues dell’Uva, who chose to restore the structure with a deep appreciation for its architecture. He left its stacked stone walls largely bare, aside from a selection of works by Milanese artist Michele Guido. Spindly wrought-iron candelabras hang over the recycled-wood tables, upholstered benches, and more Wegner chairs.

Modern Amenities Include Spalike Bathrooms and a Courtyard

“The biggest challenge was ensuring that the changes did not affect the magic of the place,” dell’Uva elaborates. But there were some practical needs to be met. For guest comfort, each room is designed with a generous contemporary bathroom. Meanwhile, adding new waxed-iron partitions with openings for windows and doorways allowed the preservation of original stone portals and charming wooden doors without having to use them. 

Where Palazzo Petrvs does dive headfirst into totally new territory is the courtyard, though the source material is still ancient. Here, dell’Uva took inspiration from the gardens he’d toured in the other local palaces as well as traditional riads, creating a space that is centered around a working fountain. He designed benches, striped again in black-and-natural terra-cotta, with built-in planters and wrought-iron café tables and chairs with earth-red cushions. Vessels and pots overflow with local favorites, like acanthus, a typical Renaissance-era greenery. Something old and something new, it seems, is Italy’s version of an oasis. 

Walk Through the Nine-Key Palazzo Petrvs Hotel

GIULIANO ANDREA DELL’UVA ARCHITETTI: PASQUALE CAPASSO; FIORENZA MAURO.

MARTA FEGIZ: LANDSCAPE DESIGN.

ANDREA PETRANGELI: STRUCTURAL ENGINEER.

MATTEO BRIONI: PLASTERWORK.

FROM FRONT DEDAR: SOFA FABRIC (LOBBY). 

CARL HANSEN & SØN: DINING CHAIRS (LOBBY, RESTAURANT). 

NEMO LIGHTING: DESK LAMP (RECEPTION). 

THROUGH SIMON INTERNATIONAL: CONSOLE TABLE (LOBBY). 

MARINO MORETTI STUDIO: BOWL. 

FOLKFORM THROUGH ÖRSJÖ: LAMPS (SUITE). 

DORNBRACHT: TUB FITTINGS, SINK FITTINGS (BATHROOMS). 

REZINA: WHITE FLOOR (BATHROOM). 

THROUGHOUT SOCIETY LIMONTA: BED LINENS. 

This Retro-Modern Tennessee Hotel Stays True to Its Name

Transforming a former Days Inn into a vibrant, retro-modern oasis, Dryden Studio and hotel developer Aatmos looked back to the mid-century heyday of motor lodges, particularly those in Palm Springs, California. “We really wanted to raise the bar for lodging and hospitality in East Tennessee,” Aatmos CEO Mahavir Patel explains. “The region has a lot of inventory, but it’s all pretty mainstream.” To make a strong visual statement in the town—home to Dollywood and other flashy country music venues—the collaborators whitewashed the exterior of the 60,000-square-foot property. “We’re surrounded by all of these crazy buildings with flashing lights and colors, so painting the Wayback white allows it to stand out and be quiet at the same time,” Dryden lead designer Maria Meyer explains. 

Seeking to attract a more adult clientele to the area, the team paired serene, escape-y guest rooms with more amped-up public spaces. “We imagined the lobby area to be the den at a quirky aunt’s house—an intentional mix of plaids and tweeds and animal prints, high polish and bohemian accents,” Meyer continues. The pattern-on-pattern lobby transitions directly into a bar, outfitted with a long banquette and modular seating. The outdoor pool area is a highly social space with a converted Airstream bar, myriad lounging options, plus cozy cabanas. The property—Pigeon Forge’s first boutique hotel, part of Marriott’s Tribute Portfolio—is right near the Great Smoky Mountains National Park and draws outdoorsy types and experience seekers alike. “People can go for a hike during the day,” Meyer notes, “and come back at night for some adult fun, including cocktails and good food.” And for decidedly grown-up, if young-at-heart, design. 

Explore The Wayback, a Hotel With Design Flair in Tennessee 

A Centuries-Old Structure is Transformed into a Bustling Hotel in Canada

Considering this property’s state when it was sold a decade ago, some would have thought the 1881 building unsalvageable. The structure was dilapidated and waterlogged, with caved-in ceilings and staircases covered in green moss. But its new owner, a family of local real-estate developers, wasn’t ready to give up, and Giannone Petricone Architects was up for the challenge of restoring it to its former glory. 

The new Royal embraces its roots as a Victorian railway hotel by “isolating, abstracting, and reinserting quintessential tropes to create a new narrative,” says Pina Petricone, the Toronto firm’s cofounder and principal with Ralph Giannone. Just look above the dining room’s custom white oak harvest table, where the original ceiling rosette was replaced with an installation of acoustic-board fins and translucent ceramic pendant fixtures. 

How The Royal Hotel Melds Past and Present

The effect conjures the underside of a mushroom dripping with morning dew, nodding to the area’s agricultural spirit. Another reminder of the site’s history: A building once used as a stable for guests’ horses was transformed into the Annex, which houses an additional five suites. 

One thematic constant is textiles; more specifically, Victorian-era tartans. “These references were inspired by the various wallcoverings and carpeting still present during our first walk-through,” Giannone adds. They were reinterpreted as custom carpets and other fabrics, but a more novel application is the designers’ experiments with “petrified textiles,” like the custom tartan stone mosaics in guest bathrooms and the parlor’s CNC-sculpted fireplace surround that evokes starched white linen. The designers even playfully referenced the hotel’s formerly downtrodden state with millwork that “exposes” wall studs, tiles offset to mimic an out-of-place rug, and rippled ceiling effects that look almost like puddles. These elements make the Royal Hotel something simultaneously frozen in time and utterly contemporary.