Although she is known for elegant residential projects that skilfully combine wit and warmth, Beata Heuman had always fancied designing a hotel, so when Touriste Group founder Adrien Gloaguen approached her, it was a dream come true.
Gloaguen likes to give designers total freedom to create the interiors of his famously affordable, super stylish hotels. Beata’s friend Luke Edward Hall had already worked his magic on the Hotel Les Deux Gares so she jumped at the chance to take on her own hospitality project.
‘Adrien and his wife are very good at letting creatives feel free and therefore the whole process becomes a lot more fun and inspiring’ she says. ‘He’s consciously decided to let people go with whatever they want to do and not interfere, but he’s still very encouraging.’
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The result - Hotel de la Boetie - is a haven on a quiet side street just off the Champs Élysées. Every space is packed with charm and character, as well as being supremely comfortable. In a way, the building’s lack of original features and anonymous location freed her to do something fresh, not typically ‘Parisian’. ‘A sense of place probably played in less than any project I’ve done’ she says.
‘Instinctively it felt that it should be more of an escape. Architecturally it’s quite simple, the ceilings aren’t super tall so in the boxiness of the spaces and the lack of natural light, it was good to think about what we could do that hasn’t been seen so much before.’
‘We’ve used block colours, simple lines, carefully chosen textures. There’s not too many fiddly ornate bits of decoration. There is a certain humbleness to it, but at the same time it’s stylised and graphic. It’s really quiet, very calming and peaceful’ she explains.
The most striking thing Beata observed working on this project was that a hotel stay is an experience for a few nights, while a home is about the person living there and has to work for a long time, all year round.
‘In a hotel it’s more about escapism, you can follow through with a concept in a slightly stronger way. I loved that’ she says, adding, ‘I am drawn to theatrical expressions and that’s not always the right thing for residential, so it was really fun to exaggerate the idea a little bit more.’
That theatricality is beautifully expressed in a silver-wrapped sitting room off the main lobby, as well as a striking picture that acts as a ‘window’ in the breakfast room. Specially commissioned for the hotel, it’s one of Beata’s favourite details. ‘It is by a British artist called Kirsty Lackie – she did an amazing job, it’s meant to be a really fun wild breakfast, a window into this other world where people are really enjoying themselves.’
Intriguing artwork appears throughout the public spaces. In the main lobby, in between two striking tulip-like light fixtures, hangs Giulio Ghirardi's ‘Cathedral Curtains, Sicily, 2021’, available through Wondering People. It all feels refreshing and unexpected.
Scaling up from designing a residential home to a 40-bedroom hotel could have been daunting, but Adrien gave Beata some advice early on that made things easier. ‘My approach would have been to design each room individually (that’s how I would do a residential project) but Adrien said “I wouldn’t do that if I were you!”’ she laughs.
Instead, she devised three subtly linked colour schemes for the bedrooms: dark blues on the bottom two floors, browns on the middle floors and sky blue as you go up the hotel.
One thing was a non-negotiable for Beata right from the start: those luscious pink Frette sheets. ‘It’s a bit of an indulgence, slightly shameful!’ she admits. ‘They had to be made bespoke and I’m so happy that we got the perfect shade . If the sheets weren’t pink it would be very different. It’s very flattering as a colour and they look really good when they’re crumpled and messy.’
Beata says she would love to do more hotels. ‘It is a different way of working but I’m beginning to understand it all. It was a great one to start with, mainly because the clients were really supportive and enthusiastic. I love residential but I’m happiest when we have four or five different projects that are wildly different from one another so hopefully this will lead to more!’
Beata confesses that Paris remains a bit of a mystery to her; ‘I often find myself walking around but not really understanding where I am.’ Perhaps that’s why her contribution to the city’s hotel scene feels so fresh and exciting. ‘I’m intrigued by it, perhaps I'll crack it one day!’ Of course now she has the perfect excuse to return, to sleep in the pink sheets in her own hotel. hoteldelaboetie.com
