Loose Furniture Tips for Large and Spacious Hotels

When working with a large or spacious hotel interior, it’s handy to know some loose furniture tips that will help you to make the most of your space. After all, decorating a large space can be as challenging as dealing with a space that is small.

What is Loose Furniture?

Loose furniture refers to furniture that can naturally integrate into any room or environment, this versatility is what makes it work so well in a hotel lobby or bedroom.

How to Design a Hotel Lobby

It’s important to have the right furniture in the right places – but whatever you do, don’t clutter. There is a fine line between a space that feels sparse and one that is overcrowded. Just because you have a large space available doesn’t mean it has to be full. Be mindful of the old adage “less is more”.

Misconceptions About Furnishing Hotel Bedrooms

If you are refurbishing bedrooms, many think it is more cost effective to use the same collection of loose furniture along with a few extra pieces within their suites. Don’t be fooled as this could be a disadvantage to the visitor’s experience. It could appear that you ran out of money when you got to the suites or just that the loose furniture for the smaller rooms used looks lost in the larger space. Overcome this by upscaling the chosen loose furniture within the suites, giving a more luxurious experience.

How to Plan your Hotel Reception Layout

The single largest area of a hotel is the reception. As the first area that your guest will see, it is imperative that the tone of the hotel is set within this first impression. That’s why choosing the right furnishing and hotel reception layout goes a long way to creating a lasting impact. Many corporate hotel receptions are grand in decor, with highly polished floors, glass panels and high ceilings. With regular traffic coming and going, the rule of thumb is to keep areas of high traffic free of obstacles.

Sometimes the seating areas around the reception can look intimidated by the space. Avoid the hassle and possible cost of choosing different furniture that is more proportioned to the space and simply upscale the furniture already chosen. Use the floor and airspace available and elongate the features on the furniture, such as introducing higher backrests, wider bases and doubling table surfaces. This will also avoid any difference in appearance and style, which could dilute the theme throughout the hotel but be conscious of the ergonomics when upscaling.

Create a Hotel Lobby Layout that Works for your Guests

More and more we are seeing guests, in particular business travellers, opting to spend less time in their rooms and more time in the hotel public spaces such as the lobby and bar, which often seamlessly flow into one another. Try to create multi-use spaces using space segmentation. This can easily be achieved using loose furniture.

Choosing loose furniture that encloses an area, perhaps high-backed sofas with a coffee table for a casual meeting place or an intimate space. Opt for soft cushioned furnishing that emphasise relaxation your social and relaxation zones will become easily defined.

Your hotel lobby layout needs to create a space for guests who are keen to escape the loneliness of their room but don’t want to feel intimidated by a large open bar or lobby space. A simple yet effective way is by using screens with ornate fretwork to create smaller intimate areas for single travellers to sit and relax, but not feel totally disjointed from the larger social areas. This draws visitors to spend more time in the lobby and bar areas. There are more potential opportunities not only for guests to buy a drink form the bar but also to purchase some food.

And let’s not forget business guests that can’t put that laptop down but would still enjoy a drink from the bar while answering emails. A slightly higher table with a tub chair or two will lend itself to a more practical use. Pair this with an area that they can plug in their phone and laptop and you have a work space. Don’t limit work areas to the outskirts of a room due to practicalities of electrics within the building. Avoid detracting from the décor and think about use the ceilings, columns, screens or the loose furniture itself to feed electrics to your guests.

Areas can be further segmented using feature walls where a more definitive divide is required. Many hoteliers are opting for greenery to serve this purpose, blurring the lines between indoors and outdoors to create a lovely, fresh feel. With space on your side don’t be afraid to go big! Big mirrors, wall art and loose furniture can all make a huge impact. A nice touch can be to feature a local artist’s artwork to emphasise the local roots of the hotel. But with your creative space augmentation, make sure that the overall décor complements and flows.

How to Design a Hotel Room

When decorating a large hotel bedroom, much like the lobby, it helps to arrange loose furniture to create individual spaces that work together as a whole. For example, create a lounge area with a comfortable sofa bed and coffee table, this can also double up as another sleeping area. Make sure you know your guests and choose the right size sofa bed to cater for them. A teenager sleeping on a sofa bed only big enough for a child would not encourage a repeat stay.

A beautiful desk area and chair can double up as a design feature and a practical work space in the room. A full-length mirror close to the wardrobe suggests a dressing area, and if restricted on space in a small room, simply use one chair which can multi-task as a desk chair or lounge chair to relax in and watch a spot of TV. In hotel bedroom design, avoid placing all loose furniture against the walls. Don’t be afraid to have a few statement pieces of luxury furniture to add a touch of grandeur – why not consider in investing in beautiful columns or mouldings to help enhance and furnish your large space? Plus, keep all furnishings close together to make your large space feel warm and inviting.

The possibilities with a spacious hotel are endless. For inspiration or to discuss your furnishing projects, call a member of our team on 01543 419981.