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A modern staged kitchen

Add Value to Your Holiday Property with a Refurb

Get Your Design Right From the Start

Open Plan Kitchen Family Rooms

As the UK holiday market is so hot since covid it means the competition for bookings has increased. If you want to gain a good ROI then you need to have great photos to attract high quality bookings.

Kitchens are a great place to invest your money. Think about perhaps knocking together rooms to create an open plan family style kitchen diner as these are desirable. Having an island with bar stools makes the room a more social space and ideal for entertaining with a dining area next to it. Also if you have room the addition of a sofa adds another great dimension to the family kitchen room.

Families that holiday may want to have a separate lounge and TV sometimes if kids want to watch their programmes and you want to watch Netflix!

Holiday Property Bathrooms

Look to make an en-suite bathroom for a master bedroom that is an asset. The addition of a second bedroom and en-suite is also a real boon. Space at a premium? Consider a Jack and Jill style bathroom. This is one that serves both as family bathroom and en-suite via two doors.

Holiday Property Outside Space

The garden is an area that is also used extensively in holiday lets. Think about having a large deck or patio area which is low maintenance and offers an “outside room”. Furnish the area with good quality table, chairs and parasol. A BBQ is desirable and if you have ample space consider an outdoor kitchen space. Self-catering is an option If you are staying in a holiday let.. The more stylish the offering to eat at the holiday home the more appealing it may be. Especially to epicurians.

Flooring

Choose hard flooring for the ground floor if you are allowing pets. You can always add rugs to create extra cosiness and for warmth underfoot. Timber style tiles such as the ones in the picture above are an excellent choice and can be used with underfloor heating. If using carpet choose a loop pile carpet which is hard wearing and more modern looking than cut piles. Cut piles tend to attract more dirt like a velvet does. Keep flooring in neutral tones.

Electrical

It’s best to re-wire older properties. Get the wiring checked by a qualified electrician. You can get a safety certificate which lasts 10 years. Old wiring can pose a fire risk as older properties were not designed for the loads we use today. Take advice from an electrician on whether you need to upgrade your motherboard.

Plumbing

As with electrics you’ll need to assess whether the heating system you have is adequate for your guests and the number of bathrooms you want to install. The last thing you want is a boiler that can’t keep up with the demand for hot water for your guests. Think about replacing any old fashioned radiators for heated towel rail styles in bathrooms. Make sure you get your Gas safe engineer out to get your boiler serviced and have a safety certificate ready before you enlist an agent. Having all your paperwork ready to go will ensure you get your first guests in all the more quickly.

Curtains or Blinds

When it comes to window treatments you must consider safety. Child safety is paramount in a holiday let. If you have new curtains or blinds your need to ensure they meet contract safety standards and are installed properly. If in doubt we can help by specifying and installing your window treatments are part of your project.

Stage Your Holiday Property To Get Fab Photos

When you finish refurbishing and furnishing your holiday let, don’t forget your guests are attracted by photos. Enlisting the help of a property stager means your property will have the competitive edge with style. It’s those finishing touches of styling and artwork that can really make a big difference. If you have an eye for design and have time on your hands then this is for you!

If not and your property is in Devon then contact us for a free quote.

We love to help owners get their properties booked up fast.

Email info@spinriverdesign.com for a FREE quote today.

Boutique Hotel Design

Luxury Boutique Style Bedroom in Contemporary Country Style
Luxury Boutique Style Bedroom in Contemporary Country Style

The term “Boutique Hotel” was termed in the 1980’s and referred to independent hotels with aspirational design and excellent service.  It was largely a reaction to the chain hotels and the lack of sense of place that was felt these hotels offered, ie you could enter a X hotel somewhere in the world and not really know whereabouts you were until you were without setting foot outside! Of course these days the chain hotels have largely upped their game and style, individuality and sense of place have become a discerning factor for many travellers who hanker after “authenticity” as part of their cultural experience when holiday making.

Designing Your Hotel

So what can you do if you are a small hotel or guest house to increase your desirability and increase those all important bookings. The boutique hotel trend offers those even with the smallest of spaces, small numbers of rooms a chance to excel with a bit of design know how. The first things to consider in my opinion are your existing brand, location and your building.  To create a sense of authenticity your interior should fit with all these aspects. Of course if your brand is something you feel is out of date or incongruent with your location and building then this could be changed along with your refurbishment. For example if you have bought a Cornish coastal hotel and it had a family name in the hotel title which associated with the  old owners, it would no longer be relevant and it would be ideal to change it to something which lets people recognize it as a coastal hotel in Newquay such as “Towan Beach Hotel”. When we hear something as simple as this our mind begins to create a sense of place.  Tap into that and develop it, its your story and your hotel is unique, that is what people will buy into.

 

So let’s say we are trying to create a boutique hotel with a contemporary coastal theme on a budget. A good place to start is by simply changing the window treatments (this is your curtains or blinds).  You can keep walls largely neutral and add accents of colours using cushions and runners on the beds.  You may want to have a feature wall behind the bedhead. Try and avoid putting beds below windows but on the wall which your focus is naturally drawn to when you enter the room. If you have a particularly wonderful window and view it would be nice to be able to place the bed so that you can see this window opposite it for example. Try and work your design around the best points of your room’s architecture. If you have fantastic ceilings then keep other elements simple and perhaps pick out the ceiling in two shades of white for example. A simple way to create a feature wall is to use a paint colour on one wall which picks up on your main fabrics in the room. Blues work particularly well with yellow or orange for a contemporary look.  If you want a more traditional look think of the blue and white florals which are reminiscent of pottery, these can look really fresh and work well with either white painted furniture for a slightly shabby chic effect or dark timber furniture for a very classic traditional look. Keep flooring simple, a plain neutral carpet in a mid tone or timber flooring is good particularly if you have original floorboards that can be sanded back and waxed. Patterned carpets are to be avoided as these are dated. If timber flooring is not in such good condition consider making good and painting it in an off white or neutral colour such as a Farrow and Ball Mouses Back or String. Good quality plain white bedding can be used – I much prefer to see plain bedding that is lifted by a small patterned runner in a more delicate fabric with some cushions in complementary fabrics.  Try to give each room a different scheme and its own accent fabric. Pe0ple love individuality and you can give rooms much more personality in this way.  There should be common elements to the rooms so maybe you pick different fabrics from the same range for example a large floral master room, a small ditsy floral single room, a stripe for the twin or family room.

Artwork and Scale

Pay attention to the scale of your room, if you have very high ceilings and a large room then small pieces of artwork placed either side of a small window will not look right. You would be better to cluster a few smaller pieces to give it more impact and “match” the scale of your large window and room.  Alternatively find larger pieces of art. If you only have two or three similar sized small pieces of similar size then set them in matching frames and group them vertically for example. I’m putting an online course together for hotel owners that perhaps couldn’t justify working with a designer 1:1.

Have Your Say

If you would like to benefit from cost effective online interior design service,  influence the shape of things to come  by answering 5 questions here and leave your email at the end so I can give you a heads up when it goes live!

https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/6ZQP8VL

Or if you prefer leave me a question or  comment below and I’ll respond!

All the Best Rachel B x

Luxury Hospitality Interior Designer BA Hons, APMP

Spinriver Design ltd