After my post the other day about mixing design styles, I looked for some photos to back up what I was talking about. I was discussing a trip to Chicago from a few years ago when it hit me that the style I was trying to describe is at least partially exemplified in one seriously tasty Chicago building: the Wit Hotel.
I had the very good fortune to stay in the Wit on a business trip in April 2010. As soon as I walked through the doors, I felt like I’d returned to the mothership.
The Wit manages to blend ultramodern colors and lines with Belle Epoque touches like ornate chandeliers, flocked damask prints and wingback velvet chairs in an elegant aesthetic that still manages to be fun. It’s beautiful, livable, and unlike any space of its kind.
The Spa at the Wit is a super-relaxing space, with deep walnut walls, ecru window treatments, and bright pops of fuchsia and purple.
Even the boardroom is beautiful, with the carpet echoing the striped grain of the table, damask curtains framing the clean-lined windows, and bright blue glassware adorning the table.
The club on the roof (creatively called “Roof”) is home to a myriad of textures: polished concrete tables with smooth white plastic chairs, rough-hewn wooden coffee tables with soft linen loveseats, glass everywhere.
The guest rooms are dreamy–neutral carpets and walls, white linens, creamy curtains and upholstery, walnut furniture, with vibrant bursts of teal and pink everywhere. It helps that the rooms are positively flooded with light.
In some rooms, the bright pink-fuchsia is switched out for tangerine orange, an equally eye-catching color. Fresh flowers are everywhere, especially orchids. My bathroom had a spectacular branch of magenta dendrobiums in a skinny bud vase near the sink.
Even the bathrooms are swoon-worthy (especially this one in the Panorama Suite, overlooking the Loop). The sinks are wide and shallow, the glass tiles are sophisticated, and color is brought in only in tiny doses (like the fresh flowers scattered everywhere).
What do you think? Could you live in a place like the Wit? Personally, I’d pack my bags tomorrow if I had a space like that. Or, I could just work on making our existing space look that way, I guess…
