Hospitality Design - March/April 2013 - 140

5
3. The new Pony Room
bar gives guests an
intimate place to watch
the sunset.

3
4

6. Warm colors and
unique details grace one
of the Hacienda’s three
bedrooms.

4. Oversized wrought
iron chandliers run
the length of Veladora
restaurant, which is
punctuated by a colorful
Damien Hirst art piece.

7. The Hacienda’s
kitchen, one of designer
Hilda Espino’s favorite
spaces.

5. A casita’s luxurious
bathroom, where
talavera tiles line the
soaking tub surround
and steam shower.

of the design department of Diarq Design
and Architecture, infused a residential feel
in the spacious rooms (they average 1,000
square feet). Done in either a subtle red or
blue color scheme, they’re dressed in Old
Spanish-inspired dark wood furniture with
carved details, lamps made from handpainted
ceramic vases, wrought iron chandeliers,
lamps, and mirrors, handwoven rugs, and
graphic Talavera tiles—all made in Mexico—
which pop against light wood floors, highbeam ceilings, and neutral walls. “I took
inspiration from Mexican haciendas—a cozy
atmosphere that’s not over designed,” she
says. “We used a mixture of rich, detailed
fabrics and furniture.” The standout: the
three-bedroom, 5,000-square-foot hacienda,

140

March/April 2013 hospitalitydesign.com

featuring its own backyard and pool.
For Veladora restaurant, Oakland,
California-based designer Charles Doell
also wanted to honor the resort’s Spanish
Colonial Revival charm, “but bring a little
bit of a modern feel,” at the same time.
“It’s the forties Hollywood version of Old
Spanish pieces,” says Doell, founder of
Mister Important Design. Take the wrought
iron chandeliers that run the length of the
room, which he not only “amped up” with
bigger and more curved arms, but also
made the lights look like candles. Or the
banquettes designed to resemble sofas, lined
with pillows in various fabrics. Anchoring
the long space is a million dollar Damien
Hirst piece—purchased by owner Jeff

8. Designer Charles
Doell turned a former
back office into a sexy
wine cellar/private
dining room, complete
with a vaulted brick
ceiling.

Jacobs—made of hundreds of butterflies,
which “brings some color into the muted
palette,” says Doell. The challenge, he says,
was making sure the three-meal restaurant
looked as good at breakfast and lunch as it
did at dinner.
Where the others were redos of
established spaces, designer Todd-Avery
Lenahan started with a “white walled
business center” for the Pony Room. “The
only directive was to create a bar, simply
stated,” says Lenahan, founder of TAL
Studio in Las Vegas, who also designed the
new reception area, meeting space, site
furnishings, and worked with the landscape
architect. “The bar is simple, warm, relaxed,
inclusive, regional, and contextual in every
regard. I design a great many modern and
elaborate bars and clubs, and this venue was
the ‘anti-club’ bar.”
To make a statement, he tore out an
enormous wall that faced west but only
had a small window. “There was no place
from inside the entire resort to watch the
sunset over the western hills,” he says. “It
was a big move, but it connected the room
to the site for the first time in the resort’s
history.” Elsewhere, he blended a “humble,
yet heavily textured” mix of wood, leather,
and iron “all designed to evoke a rugged
masculinity with maturity—comfort was
key,” he says. hd
diarq.com; mis te r i m po r t a n t . co m ;
t al -st u dio. com; ranc hoval en c i a .co m
http://www.diarq.com http://www.misterimportant.com http://www.tal-studio.com http://www.ranchovalencia.com http://www.hospitalitydesign.com
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