A Hotel Designer Reveals 2026 Interior Trends & What Makes A Stay Special
the art of hotel design
By Rebecca King | 26th February 2026In 2026, interiors are finally shaking off the long reign of boring beige, cream bouclé, and curved limewash. After a decade of safe, neutral, and overly polished minimalism, design is finding its personality again. Designers are trading Pinterest-perfect interiors for spaces shaped by experience rather than artificial perfection – environments that don’t just photograph beautifully, but resonate emotionally the moment you walk in.
Design this year is unapologetically personality-forward. It’s a rejection of perfection in favour of tactility and intention: time-worn timbers, hand-glazed ceramics with subtle imperfections, mismatched patinated metals, and finishes that invite touch. These are the details that make a space feel alive, not manufactured.
More and more, we’re seeing a renewed appreciation for objects with provenance – pieces that feel discovered rather than simply bought: an armchair that wears its age beautifully, your grandmother’s rug, a quirky space-age lamp, a Paolo Buffa console you’ve been dreaming about for years. In this world, every element works together to tell a personal story. These are the details that create true emotional resonance and memory, because they carry something beyond style: history, craftsmanship, and soul.
Rebecca King
How this design philosophy is shaping hotel design
That shift toward personality and emotional resonance isn’t happening only in homes – it’s redefining hospitality too. The art of hotel design today mirrors the same movement away from polish toward authenticity.
I’ve always been drawn to hotels, not simply as a place to stay, but somewhere to fully immerse myself in – equal parts refuge and adventure. A third space between home and destination. A place to let my guard down and slip into a different mode of existence.
Hotel design should be so much more than aesthetics. It’s about building a world that feels slightly unreal in the best way: immersive, escapist, and full of magic. Creating an experience that stimulates the senses and unfolds through spaces, textures, scents, and sounds. The best hotels can transport you, inviting you into a new way of living, even if only for a weekend.
Baccarat Residences, Diriyah
My experience designing hotels with soul
For more than a decade, I’ve been fortunate to work on hotels around the world, from New York City and London to Dubai, Miami, Riyadh, and Rome. I spent many wonderful years with Soho House, where an effortlessly cool style helped set the tone for a new era of hospitality design. The spaces were never about being perfect or precious, but about creating an atmosphere that felt fun, comfortable, and yet totally aspirational.
Later, as Vice President of Design for Starwood Hotels, I had the opportunity to help bring 1 Hotels to Australia – a brand grounded in nature with sustainability at its core. Those projects let me express what I have always believed: that the most memorable hotels don’t just look beautiful; they’re built from rich, soulful materials that carry stories of their own.
What I look for when I travel
After 15 years living and working abroad, I recently returned to my home city of Brisbane. Coming back has been an epiphany, and I’ve found myself seeing my hometown through new eyes. Brisbane has its own quiet warmth, a subtropical ease, and an understated confidence and sophistication. Returning has made me even more passionate about designing hotels that feel rooted in their surroundings rather than superimposed on top of them. It feels like an exciting moment for Brisbane to embrace a more boutique, personal kind of hospitality, and it is something I am deeply inspired to help shape.
This philosophy sits at the heart of Antica Projects. We create hospitality spaces with soul, texture, and a strong connection to place. I am always drawn to honest materials, local stories, and the sense of design elements being collected over time rather than styled all at once. The details matter – the timber under your hand, the scent in the lobby, the way the lighting shifts from day to evening. Hotels are immersive worlds, and the best ones are designed to encourage an emotional response.
1 Hotel West Hollywood
Perhaps because I have spent so much of my life designing hotels for others, I have become quite particular about what I look for when I travel. I am rarely drawn to commercial, cookie-cutter hotels — the kind that could be anywhere, and therefore feel like nowhere. What I love most are the places that feel slightly off the beaten path, the ones with personality that create a sense of joy when you discover them. Spaces that reflect local culture through materials, architecture, and thoughtful details. Design that feels collected and layered, never overly staged.
But above all, I look for true hospitality. That warmth you cannot manufacture. The feeling of being genuinely welcomed, like a fantastical home-away-from-home. Ultimately, the hotels that stay with us are not always the flashiest or most talked about. They are the ones with heart — the ones that leave a mark, not just visually, but emotionally.
That, to me, is the art of hotel design. And it is what I continue to seek, wherever I go.
Pieces and projects that define this interior design shift
1. Vintage pieces with personality and a past life, discovered rather than mass-produced:
An example of this is these vintage mirrors we sourced for The Ned London. We used unique vintage pieces for all 252 guestrooms.
The Ned London
2. Reclaimed and recycled materials with history. Aged timber, repurposed fragments, and patinated metals that carry a past life:
These Telegraph Stools from Five Mile Radius are made from decommissioned power poles around Australia.
Five Mile Radius Telegraph Stools $320
3. Personal art and eclectic collections layered slowly over time – imperfect, intimate, deeply individual:
An example is the gallery walls we curated in Soho House, Austin.
Soho House Austin
4. A mix of bold, tactile textiles that bring pattern, dimension, and interest:
This wallpaper from Franquemont London is the prime example. They are a young company, and their whole line is exciting to me.
Franquemont Floral Zigzag Slate Blue Wallpaper $351
