The Seven Essential Elements of Hotel Plaas

Interior designer Catherine Williamson of Beginning in the Middle worked with Graber to put the final touches on her Hotel Plaas project. Catherine’s elegant and approachable style defines the inviting spaces of this century-old Victorian home. Here are seven elements that work together to create the hotel’s unforgettable rooms.

One of the most striking uses of fabric in the hotel is in the small bedroom where the head of the bed is set in front of a small window. The wall-to-wall Graber Custom Drapery behind the headboard creates a symmetry that turns this cozy room into a precisely designed space that delights the viewer. The shadows within the folds of the heavier drapery fabric contrast with the softness of the light through the sheer drapery panels to give this room a feeling of serenity.

Throughout Hotel Plaas, you’ll find beige—in rugs, drapery, and sculptural objects. It’s a subtle and calming color that can add lighter elements to a design scheme without taking attention from the rest of the color story. In some rooms, beige serves as a grounding element, acting as a natural contrast to the hotel’s signature burgundy. In other spaces, beige creates a contrast with the white elements—solar shades, table tops, wall trim—for a subtle effect that heightens the drama.

Sheepskin is very soft to the touch—and just the sight of the wool registers soft in your mind. The organic oval shapes of the hotel’s sheepskin rugs further support their role as a soft element in the overall design plan.

Throughout the rooms of Hotel Plaas, you’ll find lamps, vases, and other objects that add geometrical flourishes to the rooms. Their hardness acts as a counter to soft elements like the rounded, upholstered furniture and the sheepskin rugs. These interesting objects also add pops of color: soft blues, subtle greens, iridescent grey, and glossy black.

Wood grain has a classic look that elevates any room’s décor. The most obvious example of exposed wood grain in Hotel Plaas is in the sitting room with the red sofa at the center of the room. The huge expanse of wood here has a very organic feel, and the contrasting, modern sculpted furniture balances this.

From the limewashed walls to the wood grain to the sheepskin rugs, Catherine loves working with natural textures to create a sense of opulence and warmth. There’s a familiarity and coziness in the natural materials that makes you feel at home.

Throughout Hotel Plaas, Catherine combines historic and natural elements with modern touches. Curved vases in a contemporary style. Sculptural furniture. Modern lamps. Light-enhancing Graber Solar Shades. On-trend tilework. It’s the combination of these modern touches and the classic elements of the Victorian home that give Hotel Plaas its energy.

While many interior design plans are all about the details, the rooms at Hotel Plaas are based on a more powerful concept: harmony.

The balance between modern elements and the natural textures, as well as the attention to contrasting shapes, create intriguing and inviting spaces. And that’s the ultimate accomplishment in interior design: creating rooms where people want to live, work, and play.

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