Hotel-style finishing at home

What does hotel-style finishing mean?

Hotel-style is an approach, not a level: a home that looks calm, ordered and clean at all times, because everything you do not need to see is hidden, and everything you touch is solid and comfortable.

It is usually built at a level close to ultra super lux, but it does not have to mean the most expensive materials. A good hotel uses a few hard-wearing materials, repeats them consistently, and spends its attention on the details: concealed plumbing, lighting, sound insulation and storage.

That is why hotel-style decisions start early, with the first fix and the ceilings, not with the choice of colours.

Where the hotel feeling comes from

Five things create it, and all of them are planned before the finishes go on:

• Hidden services: concealed cisterns and mixers, AC inside the ceiling, curtains in gypsum pockets, and doors and wardrobes flush with the wall.
• Durable premium surfaces: large porcelain or stone, quartz or natural stone tops, washable paints and solid doors.
• Layered light: calm general light, reading and mirror light, low night light, and control from the bed.
• Quiet: well-sealed doors, double glazing, insulated partitions and quiet AC.
• A few repeated materials: one or two colours for floors and walls, one timber and one metal finish for fittings through the whole home.

The hotel-style bathroom

The bathroom is the heart of a hotel-style finish, and does more than any other room to make a home feel like a hotel:

• A wall-hung WC with a concealed cistern, with the floor running unbroken underneath so it is easy to clean.
• Concealed shower mixers with an overhead and a hand shower, and a thermostatic mixer where possible.
• An open shower with frameless tempered glass, a linear drain and a floor laid to calculated falls. A level-entry shower needs enough depth in the floor build-up.
• A niche in the shower wall, planned with the tile layout, instead of hanging shelves.
• A wall-hung vanity with drawers and a stone or quartz top, and a mirror with side or back lighting.
• Full waterproofing, an extract fan ducted outside, and easy-clean grout in the shower, such as epoxy.

The hotel-style bedroom

A hotel bedroom is designed for one thing: sleeping well in an ordered room.

• A headboard wall in timber, fabric or stone, with reading lights, sockets and charging points built in on both sides of the bed.
• Full blackout: shutters or blackout curtains in pockets within the ceiling, so light does not creep in around the edges.
• Switches by the bed that control the whole room, and low night lighting to the bathroom.
• A wardrobe or dressing room made to measure up to the ceiling, with internal lighting, instead of scattered pieces of furniture.
• Concealed AC with outlets that do not blow straight onto the bed, and a unit sized correctly so it runs quietly.

Light in layers

1. Calm general light

   Concealed light in ceilings and walls that fills the room with indirect light, instead of one strong point in the middle.

2. Task light

   Reading lights by the bed, mirror light in the bathroom, light under the kitchen units: light exactly where you need it.

3. Accent light

   A directed light on a painting, a stone panel or a feature wall gives the room depth in the evening.

4. Control and one colour temperature

   Warm white of around 2700 to 3000 kelvin in living and sleeping areas, the same in every fitting, with dimming and simple scenes: morning, evening and night.

Quiet: sound insulation inside the home

Quiet is what people most miss at home and most notice in hotels. It is built from details:

• Solid internal doors with perimeter seals and a drop seal, instead of light hollow doors.
• Double-glazed windows in well-sealed frames, especially in rooms facing a street.
• Gypsum board partitions between rooms filled with mineral wool, with the gaps around sockets sealed.
• AC sized correctly with ducts at sensible air speeds, and the indoor unit kept away from the head of the bed.
• Drain pipes near bedrooms wrapped for sound, and floors and soft furnishings that absorb echo.

If you will let the flat hotel-style

A flat let to short-stay guests needs a durability specification before a luxury one: many guests, frequent cleaning, and quick repairs between bookings.

Choose scratch-resistant porcelain over natural timber floors, washable paints, quartz or stone tops in the kitchen and bathroom, and fittings in standard sizes that are easy to find. Keep spare tiles and paint from the same batch for later repairs, and set aside a lockable cupboard for the owner.

On the North Coast, add resistance to salt and damp: fittings and mixers suited to the sea, and corrosion-resistant metals.

Itmam and hotel-style finishing

Hotel-style finishing is a set of details, so we write it out in detail: we visit and measure the unit, then give you a written, itemised quotation before work starts, with every mixer, hinge and light fitting in its place and specification.

Vanities, wardrobes, headboard walls, doors and stone tops are made in our own workshops, and stone is templated, cut and installed by the same team, so hidden things end up flush with the wall as drawn.

On a finishing contract you pay each supplier directly and the tax invoice is in your name; our fee for supervision and execution is agreed in writing before we begin. We work in Alexandria, on the North Coast and in New Cairo, and elsewhere in Egypt when the job suits us.