Hotels
The warehouse gave us the bones: brick, heavy timber and fourteen-foot ceilings. We limewashed the brick to cream, kept every column, and furnished the lobby like a private library that happens to serve drinks - oxblood club chairs, brass library lamps, a small marble desk instead of a counter.
The owner asked for a lobby people would cross the street for. The answer was the corner bar: three stools, one bartender, and shelving lit like a bookcase. It now does more covers than the courtyard.
Upstairs, the guest rooms repeat four materials and no more - plaster, walnut, linen, brass - so housekeeping can rebuild the look forty times without a decorator on call.
