THE JOURNAL
OPPOSITE, TOP TO BOTTOM: The Music Room at Edward Bulmer’s Herefordshire home, a calling card for his natural paint range; new Design Centre East showroom Wendy Morrison’s exuberant rugs cannot help but inspire happiness LEFT: The Irene Forte Spa at Sicily’s Villa Igiea, a collaboration between Rocco Forte Hotels’ design director Olga Polizzi and Paolo Moschino Ltd (whose ‘Palmyra’ fabric makes up the curtains in this treatment room) BELOW: The Botanical Bothy at Thyme in the Cotswolds, where holistic treatments call for new design thinking by the hotel’s founder Caryn Hibbert
to become more holistic, incorporating concepts of wellness. For me, this is all about creating an escape that celebrates mindfulness, and is pure and balanced.” Inspired by traditional gardens and temples of Kyoto, Fu says he wanted “to create an experience that is rooted in the spirituality of the east within the context of the iconic hotel’s art deco history. This led me to integrate warm colours and natural elements, including wood, water and limestone.” Lots of indirect lighting brings a feeling of gentle warmth, allowing the interior “to be bathed in a halo of light,” as Fu puts it. Claridge’s spa has been carved out of previously
unexcavated underground space – a challenging project – but away from urban sites, the biggest trend in spas is how they connect with nature to bring health benefits. “That link to the outside is so key,” says Beverley Bayes, director of specialist spa designer Sparcstudio. “You might have rich, cossetting warm spaces, but that’s balanced out by light-filled spaces with biophilic finishes that bring nature into the interiors via their materials.” At Sopwell House in Hertfordshire, Sparcstudio’s
Cottonmill Spa features a panoramic sauna with views out on to the grounds, and landscaped outdoor relaxation areas, with water features and a chill-out zone with large sofas and a firepit. Bayes was invited back to design some of the main hotel’s guest rooms, transferring her knowledge of how to create mood- boosting interiors to the bedroom, with easy-on-the-eye curves and gently glowing lighting, back-lit behind the headboards. Treatments are changing, too, to reflect the shift
to a more holistic approach. Cotswolds hotel Thyme recently unveiled its Botanical Bothy, where guided breathwork and pressure-point techniques are employed to relax and revive. Thyme’s founder Caryn Hibbert is behind the design, which required new thinking about what such a space might demand from its interiors. “It needed to be warm, inviting and comfortable and at the same time clean, elegant and simple, so it created a totally relaxing environment with no unnecessary
distraction,” she says. Curvy resin render – heated beneath the seating areas – “gives an almost den-like feel” and there is a strong connection to nature, with a burbling fossil-stone water trough inside, and outside, twin outdoor baths, a fountain, and gardens designed by Bunny Guinness. Scent is important too, with a special water-meadow fragrance by in-house lifestyle brand Bertioli the focus of the deep-breathing treatment. With wellness tourism set to rise to a £1,350bn
industry by 2027, hoteliers want to invest in the best for their spas. Rocco Forte Hotels has rebranded and redesigned several spas under the name of the family’s beauty and wellness maven, Irene Forte. She observes that “wellness has a whole new meaning after the pandemic. Over the last year I have found myself paying more attention to the look and the feel
of my surroundings. How the light, space and patterns make me feel.” The group now has a dedicated wellness strategy, with five pillars: Nourish, Fitness, Mind, Community and Sustainability, “addressing the complete enrichment and unity of physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual health,” says Forte. The design of each spa is calming, but tailored to each location: Villa Igiea in Palermo, Sicily, features handmade Sicilian ceramics throughout, with a blown-up image of lemon trees on the ceiling of the reception, and retail shelving designed to look like lemon tree trunks. It serves up the feelgood factor through pattern, colour and quirky design, rather than Japanese Zen, proving once again that joy- inducing interiors come in many guises – it’s up to you to find your own happiness zone.
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© Katrina Lawson Johnston
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