Spruce up your space with these expert interior design tricks to start off the year with a fresh look.
With a new year comes a fresh start, the turn of a new leaf. Create the refreshing ambience you’ve always wanted with these Valencia Group–inspired touches. Atmosphere is one of the most important components of Valencia Group’s hotels, so much so that the design and decor of every room is chosen after imagining the interactions and conversations guests will have in those spaces. It’s what gives each hotel a homelike and relaxed environment with a style that looks and feels like the destinations in which they sit.
Valencia Group recently launched Valencia At Home, a new collection that allows guests to bring their vacation back home with them by purchasing some of the custom-made products used in the hotels. But what if that’s not enough for you? What if the stunning Italian marbles of Hotel Sorella CITYCENTRE and the sliding barn doors of Cavalry Court make you want to infuse a little Valencia Group into the look of your house?
Below, we go deeper than the obvious surroundings in your hotel guest room to mine five expert tips out of Valencia Group’s design you can use to give the other key spaces of your home’s interior a makeover.
Photo courtesy of kojo-designs.com
Interior Design Tip #1: Kitchen Pantry Sliding Barn Doors
Exposed and reclaimed wood can be found all over Cavalry Court, giving the retro military-inspired boutique hotel in College Station a natural and warm environment. In addition to using wood with rich grains for its walls, ceilings, floors, and tables, the Texas hotel also puts the design style to playful use in its guest rooms through the use of sliding wooden barn doors for its bathroom entrances.
Copying the style in your kitchen is a great way to provide a dose of rustic charm to a room that can be a sterile setting in many homes. It can also help you save floor space; pop that hinged door off your pantry, and replace it with a sliding oak or pine panel for a fun and functional point of interest.
Check out more photos of Cavalry Court for interior design inspiration.
Interior Design Tip #2: Living Wall in the Living Room
Lone Star Court in Austin was literally built around the idea of an open and inviting public space where guests could mingle outdoors, as the design of the hotel plays off the classic 1950s motor lodges and their courtyard pools and greenspaces. Vines and other vegetation on exterior walls give the boutique “glamping” hotel a lush, natural atmosphere.
“Living” or “green” walls are a perfect decorating technique to lift for your home to give the interior a touch of the outside. Not only is a vegetation-covered wall in your living room a great alternative for traditional wall hangings, but they also help purify the air in the room and allow you to grow flowers, produce, and herbs without taking up precious floor space.
Check out more photos of Lone Star Court for design inspiration.
Interior Design Tip #3: Bold Italian Marble in the Bathroom
The lobby at Hotel Sorella CITYCENTRE, complete with dark ironwork and crisp white walls, is a lesson in chic contrast. But what really steals the show is the Houston hotel’s front desk, whose black-and-brown Italian marble top and mirrored black tile base were inspired by a Swarovski music box. “It’s the hotel design feature guests ask about the most,” says Brandi Montgomery, Valencia Group’s vice president of branding and design.
One of the interior spaces in your home that could benefit the most from a contemporary CITYCENTRE makeover is your bathroom, especially if it’s small. A black marble statement wall in an otherwise white space will give even small rooms a sleek, inviting look.
Check out more photos of Hotel Sorella CITYCENTRE for interior design inspiration.
Interior Design Tip #4: Pops of Bright Color in Hallways
Hotel Valencia Riverwalk’s new renovations, completed in March 2017, give the hotel a warmer motif that ties in more directly with the old-world aesthetic of San Antonio’s famed River Walk, which lies just beyond the hotel’s doors. “Previously, the hotel blended some Asian influences with classic San Antonio style, but what we wanted to do was take the hotel back to Valencia’s roots,” Montgomery says.
The hotel’s Mediterranean palazzo vibe was refreshed through an updated color palette and a mix of textures, using earthy brown leathers, plaster, and burnt orange fabrics and accents. The use of orange was inspired by the namesake of the hotel – a Spanish city known for its oranges.
It may sound simple, but one of the best ways to replicate this look in your home is through a deft use of paint. Choose a dark wall color accented by bright color pops (orange or otherwise) in furniture or decor, and you’ll build intrigue as guests enter your home or walk its halls.
Photo courtesy of Architectural Digest
Interior Design Tip #5: Taking Advantage of Natural Light with a Glass Portico
Natural lighting is one of the easiest and freshest-looking ways to liven up any room, and it’s a technique used to showstopping advantage in Hotel Valencia Santana Row. From the lobby to the outdoor patio and the spaces in between, abundant glass walls with black cast iron frames create a bright and airy environment inside this San Jose hotel.
You can harness that look in your own home even if you don’t have a seasonal porch. Replace the door and wall leading into your dining room (or another enclosed room that gets plenty of sunlight). It’ll open up the space and create an atmosphere that lends itself to long dinner parties with good friends, just like the Spanish meals that inspired Hotel Valencia Santana Row’s glass portico.
