The visual language of a well-styled room

When I style a hotel room, I start with what should stay quiet. Walls and floors are kept calm and neutral, so they never compete with what people actually look at. The mood comes from the furniture, the fabrics and the decor, and the way those pieces are chosen to work together.

Decide on a few strong choices

Every room type gets its own character from a small set of decisions: a shape, a material and a palette. A tropical suite might use curved sofas and soft sea tones, with the view doing a lot of the work. A vintage loft might use patterned walls and darker woods. In both, I limit myself to two or three main colours and repeat them in small amounts, in a cushion, a lampshade, a frame.

Mind the rhythm and the light

Aesthetics is mostly about rhythm. I look at the room from the doorway and check that large and small shapes alternate, that heights step down rather than line up, and that there is empty space around the best piece. Then I look at the light. Warm light on a textured fabric changes a colour more than the paint does, so I test materials in the room at different times of day.

A room that looks good is usually a room that was edited. I remove more than I add, and what remains has room to be seen.