Bed shows the quality of the furniture in the Classic bedrooms - how many casegoods will look this good after as many years?

Following the staircase up leads to the bedroom floor – and the staircase may be preferred to the glass walled lift, in which two is company and three very definitely a crowd. There is a second larger lift, used primarily as a service lift, and rather more utilitarian then the black doored glass variant kept primarily for guests, which has a definite Parisian quality vastly different to the average US elevator – rather like a 2CV in comparison with a Hummer….

It has a certain style however, and the style combines the wit and elegance seen in the public areas. The modernity of the solution then contrasts with the bedroom furniture which appears to be the refurbished original 1920’s casegoods. Louis XV in style, the timber work is quite beautiful and one can understand the impulse that led to its being kept. However the price is paid in terms of the space in the rooms, and the rooms with modern casegoods work much better.

Contemporary bedroom is stylish plus the fitted robes solve a number of problems in one go (rollover for robe interior) Use of mirrors is a feature of the bathrooms

Design in an earlier era obviously had different parameters than those that would be used now, and working within the existing room dimensions and exisitng furniture limits the additions that today’s room demands. A desk has been fitted where presumably there would have been a dressing table, and a minibars and TV stand have been added neatly, made to match the existing furniture. However fitting in an office type chair has proved impossible and the workspace is limited.

Similar problems have been conquered with more élan in the bathrooms. Here space has been used skilfully and the use of mirror throughout (all the walls apart from the bath wall have been mirrored) creates an infinity of space as well as an amazing number of unusual views of oneself. No compromise has been made on functionality and the design is effective if slightly overwhelming. With larger space to work with in the suites, and more windows, the bathrooms there work even better.

The use of the original free standing wardrobes in the bedrooms uses space more than the fitted units where new casegoods have been used, and it is a difficult balancing act for a designer as to throw out the 1920’s furniture could be seen as an act of vandalism. However this aesthetic conservation has had a price. Whilst the bedrooms are by no means cramped, in some cases there has been no room for a second bedside unit (usually missing in the zip link bedrooms where the beds are extra wide when made to a double).