At home or at the hotel

Interiors to dream

For 30 years, the president of the design firm Camdi has been at the forefront of the evolution of design in hotels. Pierre Brousseau and his team include among their recent achievements the William Gray, located in Old Montreal, the Estérel in the Laurentians, as well as the Renaissance hotel, the new kid in the Marriott chain, located in downtown Montreal.

“When I started, we had the Marriott specification books, with the furniture standard,” he says. Boutique hotels have changed the game, with small private hotels, with a maximum of 120 rooms. »

It is enough to enter the Renaissance hotel to see that the designer has indeed abandoned the guides that once dictated standardization. With its graffiti on the walls, its imposing steel structures delimiting the rest areas and accents of color scattered throughout the space, one feels a world away from a dreary hotel reproduced ad nauseam by a chain.

We are here in a so-called “lifestyle” hotel. “The experience is different. You feel at home, but you have to have things at the hotel that you don’t have at home,” says Pierre Brousseau.

It is in this spirit that Marie-Jeanne Rivard designed and fitted out the Boxotel, which opened at the very end of last year on rue Ontario Est, in Montreal, near the Quartier des Spectacles.

“It was important to me to have more rooms with king size beds in the hotel. When I didn’t have a king bed in my house, I liked to go to a hotel with a queen bed, just for the experience. That’s what we want, to seek out luxury, the ideal apartment that we would like to have. »

The general contractor, who we saw on the small screen in the renovation show Flip de fille , was inspired by her experiences in the residential sector to design her hotel. With their fully equipped kitchens, heated concrete floors, balconies and huge windows, the rooms are more like condominiums than conventional hotel rooms.

Focus on sustainability

The personalization of a room where hundreds of people with different tastes will stay has its limits. The materials chosen at the Boxotel have been chosen for their timelessness: wood, glass, concrete, metal. “It’s the small objects that come to change the decor, bring color. These are fairly light details and it’s not engaging,” says Marie-Jeanne Rivard, citing the example of the colored kettles chosen for the kitchens in the bedrooms.

In this regard, individuals undoubtedly have lessons to learn from the practices of hoteliers. At the Le Germain group, we also make sure that the decor survives the passing of the years. “The durability of the atmosphere and decor must be ensured, we cannot change the look of the rooms every year according to trends. There is a design side that must remain timeless,” says Julie Tremblay, spokesperson for Groupe Germain, which owns Le Germain and ALT hotels.

Much like homeowners embarking on major renovations, hoteliers don’t want to “start over in eight years,” says the president of Camdi. “We want the basic interior architecture to be timeless. »

The quality of the materials is also of undeniable importance. “I have always worked with local workers, cabinet makers, chair makers. We encourage the economy”, explains Pierre Brousseau, who says he is “always a little disappointed with what happens from overseas”.

One thing is certain, the boundary between hotel decoration and home decoration tends to become thinner. “The hotel industry is at the forefront and must be ahead of trends, believes Alexandre Tessier, Marketing Director of the Renaissance Hotel. When you go to a hotel, it has to be more interesting and beautiful than at home and it has to inspire you. »

At the Boxotel, the little details make the difference in the decor, like here a turquoise kettle that stands out in the decor.

Get inspired by hotels

We scoured a few hotels in the metropolis looking for inspiration to transpose at home.

wall sconce

On the glass wall of this Boxotel shower, an appliqué has been affixed. “That way, we can change it when we’re tired,” says Marie-Jeanne Rivard. You can find this type of self-adhesive vinyl in hardware stores. The most skilled will personalize it themselves, but it is also possible to buy one with integrated patterns.