“Design is not for all people, but for every man” – it’s the main trend of this year. Kelly Wearstler, one of the most popular decorators in the world and founder of Kelly Wearstler Interior Design, developed interiors for the new Proper Hotel in San Francisco, where she fully realized her talent to mix styles at the brink of kitsch. Each of the 131 hotel rooms has its distinctive design.
The American Proper Hotels chain appeared recently, but attracted attention at once: luxury apartments in Hollywood, a boutique hotel in San Francisco, Proper Hotels in Los Angeles and Santa Monica are next in line. Interestingly, all the interiors were created by the top American designer – Kelly Wearstler. The long-awaited Proper Hotel San Francisco is the first hotel in the chain. The unique style of Kelly Wearstler revives the theatrical chic of Hollywood Regency: a mix of prints, colors and textures has shown up here. Victorian floral ornaments and black-and-white geometry of the Vienna Secession, French Cubism and European Art Deco are mixed up in the interiors.
Historic motifs were suggested by the architecture of the building: a seven-story building at the intersection of three streets was erected in the 1900s by the architect Albert Pissis, and then reconstructed and equipped as a hotel in 1926. After studying the extant documents, the new owners restored original marble floors, Corinthian pilasters in the lobby, ceiling moldings and even lift shafts of the 1920s.
Kelly Wearstler embodied the main principles of her maximalist style: wall surface filled with thick ornamental design (for each of the rooms she developed a wallpaper design based on old samples); works of art, modern furniture, vintage carpets and lamps fill the interior with incredible drive. The Ettore Sottsass sofa of the 1980s can be seen next to Chinese Art Deco carpet, alabaster luminaires by Pierre Sharot – along with items by Carlo Scarpa, American abstraction of the 1950s – with works of contemporary authors from San Francisco.
The lobby of the hotel is designed like a living room, consisting of several interior mise-en-scenes. The Villon restaurant is located here, on the ground floor. Named after the Cubist painter Jacques Villon, the newly opened restaurant won the Eater Awards in 2017. Tone in the dining hall is set by huge mirrors of asymmetrical broken forms, and the adjoining room, designed for chamber dinners for up to 14 people, features a large wall tapestry embodying the avant-garde era.
Opening of other hotels is due in the end of 2018 and beginning of 2019.
Photo credit: www.kellywearstler.com © Manolo Yllera, Noah Webb