Top Designers Share How to Re-Create Boutique Hotel Style at Home (2024)

Kit Kemp is the founder and creator of Firmdale Hotels, which specializes in uniquely refined interiors with modern British flair. The brand is home to swanky New York and London digs, like Crosby Street Hotel in Manhattan's SoHo.

"I would not have in the hotel anything I would not want in my own home—that may include a dog or two," Kemp says. "If I can’t have the real thing why not a model? I love to play with scale and add a bit of whimsy to the spaces."

What are your best tips for helping people emulate boutique hotel style at home?

"Scale it up wherever possible. No mirror can be too large or no painting on the wall too bold."

What are some specific pieces or design features to add to your collection to achieve boutique hotel style?

"Think function, but after that, scale and balance within a scheme is important. Always think of table and floor lamps to act as sculpture in a room. Mixing wood finishes is not a crime."

How can you make your space more glamorous with boutique hotel design practices with a home that feels anything but?

"The devil is in the details—a contrast piping on your favorite chair, fabrics that feel good enough to sit on in the nude, cashmere throws and colorful cushions that will brighten up your day, a colorful rug to ground a scheme."

The Elkus Manfredi team has a seriously impressive client roster that they've designed for over the years (The Peninsula Chicago is a notable one), but their latest project is much smaller than the Ivy Leagues and global companies for which they are used to designing. Lowrey's team designed the brand-new, 32-room White Elephant Palm Beach, opening next month, which is full of dazzling details at every turn.

"We wanted White Elephant to feel like someone's gracious home, not a hotel, but a place where you were being taken care of in the spirit of the person who lives there. A lot of our inspiration actually came from Veranda magazine, and it's all full circle because residential design inspired this commercial property."

What does boutique hotel style mean to you?

"To me, it means a place that has its own point of view and tells its own individual story unique to its context, ownership, history, or all these things. Just like in residential [design], it's about telling your story, welcoming guests, and displaying your own personal history and point of view that defines your own style of hospitality."

What are your best tips for helping people emulate boutique hotel style at home?

"My other definition of boutique hotel style is making a memorable place that leaves people talking about it a year later, where they vividly remember the details, feeling, and uniqueness. It's all about personalizing, displaying, and curating like you mean it! Take your story and display it.

"Lighting is huge, so light it like you mean it. Take the time to pick a space and commit to displaying your photos, collections, art, and activities and create beautiful vignettes that celebrate those things."

Kara Mann has been tapped for some pretty fabulous project over the years, including, recently, ushering in a new era of New York's iconic Hotel Chelsea, where she spent hours combing through the art and works of the famous tenants who'd lived there for her designs. The designer also just launched a new collaboration with CB2 to help you achieve her ultra-glamorous, refined style at home.

What does boutique hotel design mean to you?

"I actually feel like residential design influenced boutique hotel design a lot. Companies like Airbnb really changed the travel industry. Travelers moved away from booking hotels and started looking for places that made them feel at home in a new city. Boutique hotels bridge that gap in that they offer the services and amenities of a large scale hotel yet with the heart and warmth of a home."

What are your best tips to help people emulate boutique hotel style at home?

"I like design contrasts, whether that’s in the color palette and materials I’m working with or even the energy that different pieces can evoke. I think that’s what you see in boutique hotel design, it’s the push and pull of different elements to create a curated look. Finding synergy between vintage and contemporary designs is a trademark of boutique hotels...and so is a stellar mini bar. To re-create this at home, I would pair the Ruffle Sprayed Concrete Credenza from my new collection with CB2 with a set of beautiful, vintage crystal glassware.

How can you make your space more glamorous with boutique hotel design practices for a home that feels anything but?

Invest in quality bedding and an incredible mattress. The bedding adds glamour to the room, and sleeping on a cloud will have you feeling glamorous the next morning!

Emma Goodwin and her husband, Matthew, became first-time hoteliers as they painstakingly restored the run-down Surfrider Motel on an enviable stretch of Malibu beachfront into The Surfrider Malibu. Matthew, an architect, and Emma, an interior designer, created not only an Instagram-worthy hotel but a living embodiment of Southern California's lifestyle, food, and culture. They became multi-hyphenates as landscape designers, recipe testers, and music curators to create the hotel.

What does boutique hotel style mean to you?

"A boutique hotel allows for really beautiful scale. I often look at places who call themselves boutique hotels but are more lifestyle hotels. Boutique hotels are large enough to make an impact, create a real sense of energy, and tell a real story but small enough to do so with quality materials and details with a secret language that tells the story along the way.

"On the other side of that, it's more than just finishings and furniture. It’s about so much more: the weather, what music is playing, what food is being served, the scent throughout. All of those little touch points define what design is in a boutique hotel space. What the message is from the confirmation email to how you're greeted to the service of the food."

What are your best tips for helping people emulate boutique hotel style at home?

"To capture all the senses, you have to work backward and think, 'What does The Surfrider smell like and what are the linens?' It's all about curating—from making all the beds match and translating that through the bathrooms down to the robes.

"Books are amazing. If you could have the same room, just with one having books all about Roman art and the other about surfing in the '60s, they are two completely different room. What you feel when you walk in is so different because that's where your mind is taken. Coffee table books that are curated about what you ultimately want to feel like is huge.

"Rugs are another thing that can act as art and define a room. Same with ceramic pieces, be they sculptural or for everyday use. The simple act of changing your plates and mugs to handmade and textured pieces is so simple but has a huge impact on helping you start and end your day in a totally different way."

How can you make your space more glamorous with boutique hotel design practices in a home that feels anything but?

"Linens. If you have a bed with a beautiful, layered, textured space and it carries through the bathroom, you don't have to change the flooring, furniture, or paint and can sill achieve this feeling. Another big thing is storage. If you walk in to a hotel room, you won't see anything out of place or lying around. Everything has a place, and working backward on furniture elements to make sure everything does have a place and offers big impact ensures every item has a key moment."

The Curious Yellow team recently finished bringing their designs for The Rockaway Hotel to life in the eponymous beach community. The duo was inspired by the unique and diverse Rockaway community, '60s beach culture, Scandinavian and Indonesian surf culture, and Norman Jaffe's love for nature.

What does boutique hotel design mean to you?

"To us, a boutique hotel is meant to feel like home yet transport you to an eclectic, warm, and inviting space with various nooks and crannies to enjoy. This was everything we thought about when we designed Rockaway. A sense of comfort and nostalgia with a new sense of inspiration." - Chloe Pollack-Robbins

What are your best tips for helping people emulate boutique hotel style at home?

"Purchase vintage fabrics to reupholster chairs and make pillows. Sisel rugs are very inexpensive but beachy and natural. Rattan furniture is very popular right now, making it easy to find something that emulates that '60s feel. We also love to buy secondhand art books and surf books at the Strand." — Anna Cappelen

Kelly Wearstler has designed some of the most jaw-dropping boutique hotels, like Four Seasons Anguilla and Viceroy Miami. Here, the West Hollywood-based designer embodies Austin's talent, organic beauty, and eccentricity at the new Austin Proper Hotel.

"To truly create an authentic experience within a space, it is important to look beyond the interiors to what is surrounding them," Wearstler says. "Good design considers all the contextual fabric, the soul of a place. Without this grounding, you could be anywhere and risk creating a formulaic space. I like to draw inspiration from the local surroundings and environment when designing hotel spaces. I always look at architecture, location, and history as a starting point for telling the design story, taking cues from the culture and history of a place.”

What are your best tips for helping people emulate boutique hotel style at home?

“I’ve always believed in staying authentic to the space and location, so I recommend looking at the architectural structure for inspiration. My aesthetic is also about mixology—the juxtaposition of contemporary and classic, masculine and feminine, raw and refined—to give a space a contemporary yet comfortable feel. In both residential interiors and hotel spaces, I like to incorporate vintage and soulful historic reference points to create this spirit.”

What are some specific pieces or design features to add to your collection to achieve boutique hotel style?

“With all of my hospitality projects, I always incorporate local artisans and artwork and even indigenous materials to capture a city’s soul and infuse it into a property. A hotel lobby filled with as many locals as travelers is a testament to authenticity, so I want to be able to create a link to the local residents within the overall style.”